What Questions Are There? #weeklywriting

With large amounts of reading assignments in various classes, reflecting on what I read is vital for the understanding of the subject matter. By blogging each week about the various readings, I will be able to think, reflect, and the share with my peers! Hang in there with me as the reading assignments come, just know that I am making it short and concise for you instead of your reading them all! Enjoy!

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I pride myself on being a student who can get out of my comfort zone and ask questions to better my learning. However, when I was in high school, it was a different story for some of my peers who were afraid to get out of their comfort zone and afraid that they would be laughed at if the question was "weird". Moving my educational path to where I am today has changed the way I look as a teacher in how I want to help my students by asking the RIGHT questions to help build learning in and out of the classroom.

According to Cornell University, there are many different ways that we can ask students questions but, we have to make sure that we are wording them correctly to help them analyze and build on the topic that is at hand. Now, I am not saying that every question you ask as a teacher needs to be a deep question, they can be quick checks to see where your students are at, they can be probing questions to help students dig deeper into the topic at hand, or they can be open ended questions where students can use their own opinions to help answer the questions.

So what are some examples of powerful questions you may ask? Check out Rebecca Albers "Five Powerful Questions" that all teachers should ask.

1) What do you think?

This makes students form opinions and truly think about the topic.

 

2) Why do you think that?

Giving students the power to defend their reasoning makes them support the topic and defend what they want to see!

 

3) How do you know this?

Making students search for background information and use their personal experiences can truly help them build the connectedness of the lesson.

 

4) Can you tell me more?

Make them feel powerful and have them TEACH YOU!

 

5) What questions do you still have?

Always reassure students that if they have questions that they can be confident and sure that they can ask those in your classroom.

So where do we go from here?

As a student teacher in the Spring I want to build up my students level of thinking and empower them to ask the right questions to help build them up! I cannot wait to try these new techniques that  I learned in this reading next semester!

 

Till next time Ag Ed Fam Jam!