Blog Post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

In Ben Johnson's article, The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom, the most important rule I gathered is simply this: Ask specific questions! Make sure students understand what you want them to know before moving on to a new topic. Give them time to think about your question before calling a name. That way, they won't know if the question is coming to them or not. 

Asking open ended questions should be another main goal of teachers in the classroom. According to Dr. Joanne Chesley, teachers should leave the form of the answer up to the student; therefore, ask open ended questions rather than closed ended. Don't ask questions that can be answered with one word. Andi Stix also believes strongly in this form of questioning and has shared with us how to form and ask Open Ended Questions. 

In the informational video Questioning Styles and Strategies, the teacher uses several techniques to get students involved in the answering process. He uses the style "Think, pair, share", to get every student's brain thinking about what he has just said. "Think" is giving the students time to get ideas in their own heads, "pair" is students pairing up and "share" is having the pairs of students share their ideas with one another, then being ready to answer questions in front of the class. He also uses random calling and surveying (ask if everyone agrees), gives feedback that he values their information, and also asks if anyone has anything different to share. He then probes them deeper, and then asks them to express themselves. This video was the best learning for me because I got to see how students responded to what he was lecturing about. 

Overall, I learned how to re-form questions to make them open ended. I also learned that getting students' attention can be easy if you have the correct technique to do so.