THOUGHTFUL CLASSROOM PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SUITES
A Professional Learning Suite
Increasing the Power of Classroom Questioning
Tools and strategies for ensuring that your classroom questioning fuels deeper learning
Featuring Dr. Harvey Silver, today’s leading expert on instructional tools and strategies
Are you and your staff reaping the true benefits of high-level questioning?
Many years of research have shown that classroom questioning has the power to increase student motivation, improve recall, and deepen comprehension. But research also shows that this great power often goes untapped. Here’s how renowned education researcher John Hattie (2012) characterizes a pattern that plagues many classrooms: “The majority of questions are about ‘the facts, just give me the facts’, and the students all know that the teacher knows the answer.” (83).
How do we change this dynamic, so that all teachers and all students reap the benefits of high-powered classroom questioning? It’s easier than you might think, and there are ready-to-use tools and techniques that will make an immediate difference in any classroom.
This professional learning suite is designed to help you and your team turn every classroom into a “questioning space” where high-level questions fuel thinking, learning, and discovery. More specifically, the tools and strategies in this suite will help you make three important moves that promote quality questioning:
- Pose high-level questions to stimulate student thinking.
- Focus on thinking and meaning making, not right-wrong answers.
- Use essential questions to build inquiry-driven lessons and units.
What Tools & Strategies Will I Find In This Suite?
Posing Better Questions to Stimulate Deeper Thinking
- Questioning in Style: A questioning technique that uses four different styles of questions to deepen and assess students’ thinking about critical content—and keep students actively engaged during instruction
- Forced Choice: A simple technique for designing questions and prompts that challenge students to take and defend positions on content-related “controversies”
- Divergent Thinking: A questioning tool that invites the kind of original and creative thinking that’s exciting for students, leads to deeper understanding, and builds non-routine problem-solving skills
- Advanced Playbook on Flip the Script: Tips and Tools for Engaging Students in Asking Questions
Getting More Out of the Classroom Questioning Process
- Before, During, After (BDA): A technique that outlines what teachers need to do to promote deep learning—before the question is asked, during the response phase, and after ideas have been shared
- Q-SPACE: A set of simple and powerful moves that highly effective questioners use to turn the classroom into a true “questioning space” (Q-SPACE)
- Speak-Up Stems: A tool that encourages students to speak up during classroom conversations and helps them develop their voice by giving them concrete options for presenting ideas
- Interaction in an Instant: A set of pairing and grouping techniques that can be used on the fly to engage students in talking to and learning from their classmates
- Because: A tool that improves the power of classroom questioning by teaching students to support their responses with reasons and evidence
Using Essential Questions to Build Inquiry-Based Lessons and Units
- Essential Questions: Rich open-ended questions that invite students to explore important content and processes deeply
- Advanced Playbook on Making Essential Questions Come to Life in the Classroom
PLUS:
Practical resources to help teachers and PLCs plan, reflect, and analyze student work.
Click above for an advance organizer of the tools and strategies in this suite.
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