Blog Assignment #6

What Do You Need to Know About Questions to be an Effective Teacher?

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”-Voltaire

Voltaire was certainly on to something there. In reading Ben Johnson's "The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom", Mr. Johnson appears to be "on to something" as well. Mr. Johnson gives us an overview of the mistakes teachers often make when asking questions. Then he describes Mary Budd Rowe's research on questioning strategies. Mr. Johnson explains that simply asking a question, then pausing for a short time, then calling on a student is an effective strategy that we can use in our classrooms. He states it's effective because it causes all students to engage in the process; the students do not know if they will be called upon. Therefore, each student is thinking of the answer during the pause provided. This seems to be a perfect solution to get all students involved in the critical thinking process. However, what are the questions that we should ask?

Dr. Maryellen Weimer gives us advice on how we can structure and prepare our questions in her article, "Three Ways to Ask Better Questions." She recommends three actions that can improve our questioning. The first is to prepare our questions by asking ourselves; "Is this the question that needs to be asked?", "When is the best time to ask the question?", and is the question clear enough? The second action is to play with the question; Dr. Weimer suggests that after asking the question, it should be left unanswered for some time. This allows the students to thoroughly think the questions through. The third action is to preserve good questions. You could hold a question for a different class, or revise and refocus a question based off the feedback you received from students.

The aforementioned articles contain great information to consider when asking questions in our own classrooms. How can we start asking good questions today; why wait to practice until we have our own classroom? I have found asking open-ended questions is a great practice to get anyone's wheels turning. Paula Denton models the use of open-ended questions in her article here, "Open-Ended Questions." Paula gives us a real life example of the benefits of using open-ended questions in the classroom, and we can use these same tips in everyday conversation. Learning about the strategies of asking questions has led me to understand that there is no right way or wrong way; rather, there is a perfect way for each teacher, and we each need to find what works in our classroom for any given student.