Questioning

Making Thinking Visible Here is the website that corresponds with the article that you were given by Dr. Brofee at our staff meeting on September 14, 2009.

[|Visible Thinking]

Why Higher Level Questions for Research?**

PD Questioning Assignment 9/8/2008 Read the article on the link below about higher level questioning and then respond to the discussion question that is posed by editing this wiki page. [|Higher Level Thinking? As Easy as a Question]

**//Discussion Question: “What differences might you see in your students if you apply this type of questioning strategy?”.//**

It’s amazing how just rewording a question can make so much difference but it does. Our students are so used to providing yes/no or “right there” answers so it’s going to take some time to get them used to really thinking through their answers before being so quick to tell us what they think we want to hear. I’m working on using more wait time because I think that as a teacher it feels like they really got it or understand if they know the answers right away but that is not always the case. I think that with using more higher order questions we will not only get better answers but we will get more students to participate. We all have students who always have an answer and their hand goes up right away but with encouraging the students to take more time I think those students that usually sit back and let others take over the conversation will become more involved. CM

If I apply this type of questioning strategy, and even have the students start using the starter questions in small groups maybe they will start speaking the language of asking and answering higher level questions. In PD today someone said they observed a Coalition School of third graders answering and asking each other remarkable questions. So how did that third grade class get there? Maybe if we immerse our students in higher level questions, our students will also be having remarkable conversations. SS

I found it interesting that some questions starting with "How" really don't lead to in-depth discussions, such as the example about how was your vacation. That's why pre-planning the questions we ask is important. Hmmmm, how many of our parents think they're really accomplishing a lot by asking their children when they get home, "How was your day?" Conversation stops with, "Fine" or "OK". We've got to kick it up at least another notch!

Often, when I ask my students a higher order question, I am met with blank stares or an answer that is unrelated to the question. It seems as though many of my students are hesitant to answer the questions because they are not used to having to think about an answer or already seem conditioned to think that there is only one right answer and they are afraid to give the wrong answer. I hope that by modeling the answers to higher order questions and having class discussions that allow students to see many points of view about an answer to a question, my students will learn to think about their answers and will have the confidence to answer the higher order questions I ask. NA

I may be way off here since I'm not a classroom teacher and I haven't really paid that much attention to all the higher order question numbers that we looked at from last year but I think that students and children in general probably ask just as many higher order questions as we do. We are just used to trying to get kids to repeat information on a test and that is why I think it is so hard for us to ask these questions. Maybe if we acted more curious (like young children) about what our students really do think/know, then we would be asking these types of questions all the time and probably even by accident. MT

By nature young children are curious about the things around them. I believe if we nurture that curiousity and put them in situations where we want them to discover how things work and encourage them to talk with each other about how it works, why it works, can it be used for something else too, then this helps build students capacity to think things through. CO

I believe that if we as teachers begin modeling how to ask and answer higher order thinking questions our students will become more engaged! Higher order thinking questions are much more exciting and engaging to answer than simple yes or no questions. Students will be required to think! Oh no! Our students will also become more metacognitive and realize that responding to a question is a process, that you must first take the time to formulate an answer (that makes sense) before you raise your hand and say the first thing that comes to mind. LW

As I was reading the first few paragraphs of this article, I thought to myself that many times we ask the " no thought" questions because we a) don't really care what others think or b) we don't really have the time to listen to the drawn out thought process. We ask the "no thought" questions to make us feel as if we are accomplishing something and assuring ourselves the children really understand because they nodded their heads. Asking HO questions allows them to think "outside of the box" which will allow them to join in on more discussions instead of being "talked at." It goes back to Karen's quote "If you always do what you've always done, then you'll continue to get what you've always got." We need to challenge the students and by doing so, in changing our questions, I think I'll see better writing pieces and higher BCR scores because students will begin to understand how to explain themselves and defend their answers. Students are so used to being "talked at" and asked "no thought" questions that they don't know how to defend themselves. I think challenging them and allowing the wait time will help them to eventually become better conversationalist. AH

I really like the idea of using higher order thinking questions! It allows the students to share information that other wise they might not have shared. However, timing is important so they are not put on the spot. Students are so used to revisiting the text and finding right there answers. It is going to take time for them to master this challenge, but it sure can be done! DH

By using Higher Level Thinking questions, I would expect my students' thinking processes to become more in depth. I would be scaffolding the questions and skills for my students who still need assistance, but it would definitely make for more engaging lessons. Hopefully, the ability to answer these questions orally would also carry over to their ability in answering written questions. We always need to challenge our students in order to help them grow and using this strategy will assist with that. MH

Many times we hesitate to use higher level questions with students with disabilities. These students are capable of answering the questions if we allow appropriate wait time, model how to "ponder" the question and take it one step at a time. Sometimes all a student needs it for you to ask the question and then walk away. Give them time to think about their answer without the whole class watching them. Then come back later and have them answer.

I found it interesting that so many of the questions with "How" are not higher order questions. We need to make sure our students are elaborating when they answer and telling why. If a students only says a few words ask another probing question. When students understand how we expect questions to be answered they'll be able to do a better job. Most times students just say the first thing that pops in their mind. Give students enough wait time to formulate an answer. Encourage students to "be a thinker, not a guesser." AW
 * I think the way to get rid of the blank stare that we get is to let the students talk about the question in pairs or teams. This gives them the opportunity to piggyback and and a discussion occurs. We want the HOquestions to lead to discussions not just 1 response and move on to the next student or question. KCH

The differences you are going to see in your students is more engaged thinking. I have also seen more confusion from some students because they are used to previously always giving the teacher a universal correct response. When you ask them to give their opinion it is hard for some of the lower grades because this hasn't been asked of them before. I also tell my students "Share what your first response is." then from there we can form opinions. AJB

It was nice to have a reminder of all those Kagan questions that we learned before-it is easy to forget when so much information is constantly running through your brain! It was also eye opening to think of the "polite" questions we use-How was your day? How was your trip? as no brainer questions. Sometimes we feel as though we need to ask these questions to be socially polite, and they are not even effective! HO questions also give students a chance to share with each other stories and opinions, and it can be a nice energy release for those student who always have something to share. ST

Talk about attention deficit taking you in another direction! In reading your post something came to mind about the "How are you?" question that is socially polite to ask. Did you know that Native Indians don't ask, "How are you?" Never have; when meeting a "fellow Indian" instead of the small talk that "we" use, the Indian would simply say, "Get down," which would let the visiting Indian know he was to get down from his horse and join the group. Not a lot of pretense there, huh? I was afraid to ask the higher order questions at first because I know how hard it was to get a right there question out of them but I found with higher order questions there is no right or wrong so they can contribute meaningful responses,especially questions that deal with how they would respond or how would they have done or changed things. TT Using higher level questions engages students more in discussions. It gives them the opportunity to think at a higher level and respond to questions on a more abstract way. You can see them thinking and knowing that there is not a right or wrong answers makes them more likely to be involved in a discussion.TP I have seen and heard other teachers use the higher level thinking questions with their students. It is amazing the responses they get. I have tried using these questions with my kids but I find I have to do alot of scafolding in order to get the students where I want them. For my special ed kids, I realize it will take alot of work to get them to think about the question asked and then answer the question asked. When this finally comes together it will be awesome. sb At first, I was hesitant to use higher level thinking questions because I wanted my students to get the correct answers and not feel as if they were not successful. Then I convinced myself to try the questioning strategy. The problem I have is that sometimes it is hard to phrase a math question about computation in the higher level. The students seem to back away and do not seem as eager to try to answer. I have also found that if you let the students know that you are asking the higher level questions ("smart questions"), they will try to answer them, because they want to believe that they are smart and can do anything. Remember some of my students have been labeled dummies by their peers for years. DBT ||

Attention teachers - you might want to read this article before you begin any research projects this year. This article typifies what we have asked students to do in the past when they are doing research and shows how with essential questions we can focus student research and facilitate their thinking process. http://fno.org/feb07/topic.html
 * //Putting an End to Topical Research// **