If there is one thing I love about teaching, it is the freedom to ask questions! I found this chapter very helpful because it really outlines the different types of questions and the appropriate way to use them! One "rule" the author gave was that we should avoid harassing or pointing out student failure- such as asking a student a question that we know they cannot answer (whether because they were not in class yesterday, or they were sleeping). Do not judge me, but I thought that was a way of helping students to be motivated to pay attention in class! However, this is just the opposite AND it even harms the student in a deeper way by lowering their self esteem.
These strategies for implementing questions are so valuable, I want to re-list them here:
1. Ask your well-worded question before calling on a student for a response.
2. Avoid bombarding students with too much teacher talk.
3. After asking a question, provide students with adequate time to think.
4. Practice gender equality.
5. Practice calling on all students.
6. Give the same minimum amount of wait time to all students.
7. Require students to raise their hands and be called on.
8. Actively involve as may students as possible in the questioning-answering discussion session.
9. Carefully gauge your responses to students' responses to your questions.
10. In gauging your responses to students' responses to your questions you must be cognizant of cultural characteristics and differences of your students.
11. Use praise sparingly.
I also want to make a border of the Intelligent Behaviors in my future classroom! I found those very encouraging because I think that many students (even I as a middle schooler) believe intelligence to be an IQ or a set in stone idea, but it is much more!
I'm glad that you found this chapter so helpful. I as well feel that being able to ask the right questions for the students in your class in an art. You don't want to ask questions that are too simple and are not going to challenge them, but you also do not want to ask too many questions that are so difficult no one is going to know the answer. I also agree that students who were not fully attentive in the lesson should not be called on when they do not raise their hands, one because it will likely embarrass them and cause them to not want to participate in the future, and two because it is class procedure to raise your hand before talking. I hope and believe that you should have no problems implementing effective questioning strategies into your classroom.
ReplyDelete