Blog #4

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

After watching the video Questioning Styles and Strategies, I learned there are many useful techniques to ask students questions to promote effective learning. Some techniques include: provisional writing and cueing, think and compare, random calling, surveying, wait time, and probing. Provisional writing is when the teacher asks the students a question and have them write the answers down. After the students are writing their answer down they think and compare with a peer. I personally like this technique because every student is thinking about the answer and writing it down. This way not one student is answering the question and the rest of the students are day dreaming. Another technique is random calling. The teacher randomly calls on a student to answer the question. This helps the teacher know if the students are understanding the lesson, but there is a downside to this technique. When a teacher randomly calls on a student, the rest of the students stop thinking about the answer because their name was not called. If the teacher surveys then every student has to answer. Wait time is probably the most important questioning technique because it gives all the students time to think about the question and come up with the answer. Once the student answers the question asked then the teacher can use the technique probing. Probing is when the teacher asks more details from the student. This makes the student think more in depth.

Another video I watched was Questioning Strategies. This video talked about the frequency of asking the students questions over a period of time. The amount of questions you ask keeps the students thinking and engaged. This video also talked about equitable distribution. In the video it showed a popsicle stick strategy. You write your students name on a popsicle stick (one name per stick) and just pick a random stick. The name you draw is the student that answers the question. I think it is a great idea, but not to use as a questioning strategy. The students that already had their name drawn will not pay attention, because they know their not going to get called on. I agree that every student should have the chance to answer a question, but not this way. You can use the popsicle stick for picking students to run something to the office or to do something special. This way it is far and every body has a turn feeling special. This video also talked about wait time. It explained the most important thing you can do after asking a question is to wait three seconds then called on a student.

The most important thing a teacher can do when asking a question is to use a variety of techniques. Different topics use different questioning techniques. For example, if you are asking a multiple choice question, you would want to take a survey and then discuss each answer choice. This would give the student time to think about the answer and then you would be able to explain it in more detail. This will also teach them a learning strategy, process of elimination. No matter a teachers teaching style, the teacher has to know how their students will learn best and adapt their style of teaching.