Questions????

After you have explored the Questioning Toolkit , Part 2, and Part 3 websites, what types of questions do you generally use when you teach students?
What kinds of questions would lead students to think critically and at higher levels?

Before reading through the questioning toolkit the first thing that came to my mind was how so many my age were trained to be teachers. Going through college we were drilled time after time with the idea of Blooms taxonomy. This is something we were not only asked to use, but we were also encouraged to write in our lesson plans. Recently at our school we have begun writing GLIs (Grade Level Indicators) to go with our school standards. In this process we have used the idea of Blooms to make sure that we are covering a wide variety of knowledge base. We should desire for our students to go just behind memorization. They should be encouraged to think and use the brains that they have been given. As an elementary teacher I try to incorporate a wide variety of questions into my classroom, especially in the area of testing. Instead of giving my students a list of multiple choice questions, I ask my students to explain their answer in their own words, to create, and to construct. As we use integrated units at our school, I feel that it is important to make learning as real life as possible. Instead of asking questions like "What are the three states of matter?" one could ask " What makes each state of matter unique?" or "Describe what the atoms and molecules look like in the three states of matter." Also with our GLI writing process we have been challenged to use essential questions before starting each of our lessons. Basically it boils down to the question, "Why are we about to do what we are doing?" The purpose behind what we are doing is very important. Essential questions serve as guidelines for what is being taught. Along with essential questions I am a huge fan of organizing information in the area of questioning. I think it is important for students to be able to organize information in a manner that can be easily accessed.


What kind of questions would complement the integration of technologies in your classroom?

The concepts of questioning that one uses in each subject area can also work with the integration of technology. A scale of questioning, such as Blooms, could also be used to aid higher level thinking. Again it comes down to the idea of making things true to life and practical for students. As students explore the world around them through technology they will begin to see how technology can be used to solve problems on their own.


Blooms Taxonomy Information (taken from: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods/curriculum-planning/2171.html)


1. Knowledge: remembering or recalling appropriate, previously learned information to draw out factual (usually right or wrong) answers. Use words and phrases such as: how many, when, where, list, define, tell, describe, identify, etc., to draw out factual answers, testing students' recall and recognition.
2. Comprehension: grasping or understanding the meaning of informational materials. Use words such as: describe, explain, estimate, predict, identify, differentiate, etc., to encourage students to translate, interpret, and extrapolate.
3. Application: applying previously learned information (or knowledge) to new and unfamiliar situations. Use words such as: demonstrate, apply, illustrate, show, solve, examine, classify, experiment, etc., to encourage students to apply knowledge to situations that are new and unfamiliar.
4. Analysis: breaking down information into parts, or examining (and trying to understand the organizational structure of) information. Use words and phrases such as: what are the differences, analyze, explain, compare, separate, classify, arrange, etc., to encourage students to break information down into parts.
5. Synthesis: applying prior knowledge and skills to combine elements into a pattern not clearly there before. Use words and phrases such as: combine, rearrange, substitute, create, design, invent, what if, etc., to encourage students to combine elements into a pattern that's new.
6. Evaluation: judging or deciding according to some set of criteria, without real right or wrong answers. Use words such as: assess, decide, measure, select, explain, conclude, compare, summarize, etc., to encourage students to make judgements according to a set of criteria.