Blog Post #4

This week's blog post assignment has really changed my perspective on how students are able to thoroughly grasp concepts in the classroom through effective questioning. I believe that asking the right questions and in the right way is crucial to the success of the students in the classroom. As future educators, we must evaluate what concepts we wish for our students' to master and ask questions that engage, analyze, and challenge every aspect of that concept. Not only do we strive for our students to master the material, we want our students to be involved physically and mentally in the learning process. We can accomplish this by presenting provoking questions in the classroom.

 I believe that one way we can have effective questioning in our classrooms is to prepare. Preparing questions and expected answers can give us as educators a perspective on the ultimate goal for that day's lesson. This allows us to mold our questions in a way that we can know what our students do and do not comprehend. Preparing our questions helps to eliminate confusion in our students and can provide clarity on the concepts covered (Three Ways to Better Ask Questions in the Classroom by Dr. Maryellen Weimer). We should also prepare closed-answer questions. These questions are usually easily answered by students with a "yes" or "no" answer. This gives our students a chance to warm up to the material just covered and also gives us as teachers a chance to see who has or hasn't made themselves familiar with the material. Once student's feel comfortable with answering closed-answer questions, the open-answered questions should begin. Students may feel unsure of their answers and might be hesitant at first. One strategy to stimulate the classroom is to ask your provoking question, give about 5-10 seconds of "thinking time", and call on a student randomly for their response (See The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom). Beginning your open-answered questions with phrases such as:

"Describe in detail..."
 "In what ways..."
"Make a list of..."
"What would happen if...." and "How would you explain...".

To get the students to dig deeper with their answer, ask them to explain why they chose their answer or to give an example of their answer. Making sure the students feel as if their answers are valuable is crucial to asking effective questions. Being sure to look at the students while they are answering and giving positive body language can help keep them relaxed. Another method to engage students in answering these questions would be to have them ask their classmates their opinion or compare answers to see how they were the same and how they were different. I believe this technique would encourage students to find numerous answers in multiple ways without discouraging students who could have given a wrong answer. Including students' opinions can also be valuable to their learning experience. Asking, "How do you feel about..." or, "What did you like about..." encourages a deeper understanding and a connection with the student to the material.  This includes allowing students to also ask questions and introducing those questions to the class. This is what creates classroom discussion!( Watch the video Questioning Styles and Strategies to see how this technique is used in the classroom.)

Asking these types of questions is vital to a healthy learning environment and to a child's progress. The goal for us as teachers is help student's explore the idea of metacognition. Metacognition, according to Mary-Anne Neal, author of Engaging Students Through Effective Questions, is "the ability to stand back and observe oneself." I'm choosing to use all of these techniques in my future classroom so that both me and my students can fully grasp the idea of metacognition, enabling us to grow, learn, and experience together.

Works Cited:
Engaging Students Through Effective Questions
Questioning Styles and Strategies
The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom
Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom