Classroom StrategiesThat Work

Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers

Helping Students

Activate Prior Knowledge

Question Rotation

What Are You Thinking About Questioning

TWhat do I think about

questioning?

WWhat do I need to know to

support or challenge my

thinking ?

LWhat have I learned?

Lower Order Questioning

• To recall verbatim material previously read or taught

• Cannot use lower cognitive questions as evidence of content mastery, because it does not prove content mastery

Higher Order Questioning• Ask the student to mentally manipulate bits of

information previously learned to create an answer or to support an answer with logically reasoned evidence.

• Higher-order questions in an open-ended and nurturing educational environment creates more synapses.

• Questioning generates lateral thinking.

Current Brain Research

Key Findings• Learning increases when

teachers focus their questions on content that is most important, not what they think will be most interesting to students.

• Higher-level questions that ask students to analyze information result in more learning than simply asking students to recall information.

Question Prompts for Engaging Students in Higher Order Thinking

Bloom MarzanoKnowledgeList, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where (how and why are not included here)ComprehensionSummarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

ComparisonHow are things alike and different

ApplicationApply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

ClassificationInto what groups could you organizeDefining characteristics of each group

AnalysisAnalyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer

InductionBased on observation, what can you conclude

SynthesisCombine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite

DeductionBased on generalizations, what prediction can you make?If something has happened, what do you know must have occurred

EvaluationEvaluate, assess, describe, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize

Error AnalysisWhat are the errors in reasoningHow is this information misleading

Constructing SupportWhat is an argument to support this claimAbstractionWhat is the general pattern underlying this information ?Analyzing PerspectivesWhat is an alternative perspective

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Digital Map

Question Rotation Retake

Increasing Wait Time

Difficult to increase

•Uncomfortable •Explain •Experiment

Wait Time Most instructors allow their students less than one

second of wait-time. When wait-time is increased to three to five seconds:

• Number of student responses increases • Incidence of non-response decreases. • More evidence in support of responses• More speculative thoughts• More complex answers• Confidence increases • Student-to-student interactions increase • Conversational sequences/interchanges increase

Wait Time Activity

What To Do When Students Don’t Respond• Repeat • Rephrase • Simplify • Ask another student to rephrase • Break down into its component parts• Make more specific• Clarify the difficulty• After each of the above alternatives, it is

recommended that you allow another 5-10 seconds wait-time.

Analyzing Questions

• Compare an oak tree to a dogwood tree• Predict what would have happen if drought

conditions in the Piedmont section of NC into the early Fall of last year.

• Choose which “season” is the best.

Question Analysis Activity

1-Examine the questions.2-Determine what follow-up questions should

be asked.3-Identify what instruction must take place in

order for students to be able to answer those questions or what pre-requisite skills must be in place.

Cues

Helping Students

Activate Prior Knowledge

Advance OrganizersHelping Students

Activate Prior Knowledge

105

What Are You Thinking About Questioning Retake

TWhat do I think about

questioning?

WWhat do I need to know to

support or challenge my

thinking ?

LWhat have I learned?

KWLQKWhat do I know?

WWhat do I want to know?

LWhat did I learn?

QWhat questions do I still have?

What Am I Thinking Now?TWhat do I think?

WWhat do I need to know to support or challenge my thinking?

LWhat did I learn?

QWhat questions do I still have?

WWhere can Ifind the answer?

Expository Advance Organizer

Straightforward descriptions of new content emphasizing important content

prepares students for what they will learn

Expository Advance Organizer

Expository Advance Organizer

Creating a Classroom Climate to Support Questioning

When students are not used to having an instructor give them sufficient wait-time, they may not immediately take advantage of the opportunity to think, respond, or ask questions.

Creating a Classroom Climate to Support Questioning

• Students, much like their instructors, may at first be uncomfortable with the added seconds of silence. It may be a good idea to tell students that you are experimenting with giving them more time to think and respond to your questions.

• Letting students know the purpose of any changes you plan to make in the classroom or in your teaching behavior helps orient students to the change.

The Science and Art of Teaching….

Number off 1-2Ten minutes to read and write summary

Move to the Music Person 1 Shares Summary for

2 MinutesPerson 2 Shares Summary for 2 Minutes

Steps to Implementation• Research• Read• Practice• Analyze• Evaluate• Reflect on student impact

SynonymsQuestions/Cues and Advance Organizers

Questions/Cues

• Prompts• Hints• Clues• Previews• Scans• Glimpses

Advance Organizers

• Preview• Anticipatory set• Outline• Peek• Hint• Overview

Jot it Down

Classroom StrategiesThat Work