Blog Post #4

For this blog post, Dr. Strange posed the question, "What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?". Amazingly, I have never thought about how to ask questions in a classroom from a teachers prospective. This may be due to the fact that I am just starting on my journey and am not a teacher yet, but it is time to start thinking about this and other things. I always assumed (from a students point of view) that teachers "flew by the seat of their pants" when it came to questions. It seemed they just asked whatever question popped into their heads at the moment. Sometimes they made me think and other times I just stared blankly wondering if I should have known the answer.

After reading the material that Dr. Strange gave us to research, I find myself rethinking my original assumption. And yet, I still find that many of my previous teachers just pulled out the random question generator. Although after reading the article Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom by Maryellen Weimer, PhD., I like her idea of actually recording your questions in your lesson creation or at least writing them down. She also describes techniques such as asking the question at the beginning of the lesson and leaving it unanswered till later on or at the end, when students have had time to think about it and learn a little more information. I can remember a few previous teachers who would give us a question sheet at the beginning of a video or powerpoint and we had to answer the questions throughout the process. I thought at the time it was a cheap way of making sure we paid attention, but now I see that it was a way of keeping me engaged and actually picking up a few tidbits (because we all know we like to zone out on certain teaching techniques as students).

I also found the video Open Ended Questions by Andi Stix interesting. She talks about the way teachers ask questions and what type of questions we ask. Particularly open ended and closed ended questions. I for one know, from my daughter who is in 2nd grade, that we learn about these types of questions in or around the 2nd grade. Andi is right when she says the way we phrase a question can affect the type of responses we get. She has a website/blog that she gives a strategy on how to rephrase questions for students to get them thinking. Reading Open-Ended Questions that she posted on April 29, 2012, you're given a step by step process.
She encourages using the question starters:
For what reasons…
In what ways…
Describe in detail…
Explain specifically…
Generate a list…
Brainstorm as many reasons for…

I personally know I will be using these in my classroom when I finally do become a teacher! I want to be the teacher that not only makes learning fun, but I want to encourage my students to think for themselves in and out of the classroom. If this is the first step in that process, I am going to make sure it is done right.