Effective questioning and teacher talk Teaching and Learning

Effective questioning and teacher talk Teaching and Learning CPD

To be or not to be What is the question?

Student Voice Feedback: Students LIKE: 2010 Answering some lower order thinking questions as well as higher – open and closed Getting praise for knowledge – answering lower order questions as well as higher Thinking time 2014 Answering higher order thinking questions - open Having a focus in a question, not just ‘what do you think? ’ Thinking time Answering questions in discussion groups Getting feedback that probes and evaluates Playing question games Answering questions in discussion groups Asking questions themselves Playing question games Being stretched and challenged Asking questions themselves Being able to pass the buck Being stretched and challenged Being able to pass the buck

Students DISLIKE 2010 Not being praised or acknowledged for lower order thinking 2014 Being put on the spot without thinking time Not getting detailed verbal feedback to answers – even wrong ones Empty praise – would prefer to be told directly but tactfully how they are wrong Working in isolation Asking what they feel are obvious questions Not having the ‘right words’ to answer Asking what they feel are obvious questions

How much of this can you relate to in your own classroom? • What changes can you see over the four year period? • How would you solve, or have solved, some of the ‘dislikes’ outlined by students? • Is there anything that has disappeared between 2010 and 2014 that might need re-establishing?

Create an atmosphere where it’s OK to be wrong or confused • Try allowing students to ‘pass the buck’ - to nominate another student who may be able to answer. This as an established rule can be reassuring for less confident or able students. One of my classes referred to this strategy as ‘Humiliate my Neighbour’ (in an affectionate way!) Another class called it ‘playing their Joker’. • Students need to know that they can do this only once, so they think carefully whether to try an answer or not. They tend to hoard their free pass, so this means that even reluctant students will generally have a go

Teach our students questioning skills • I often set discussion tasks but with a quiet group of students these can sometimes fizzle into independent activity because they don’t know how to question each other • Equipping them with some of the skills we have will help them to get the best thinking out of each other • This hopefully leads to them questioning themselves in other contexts • Teach them command words; leading questions; our own favourite tools and techniques • They can each be given a separate prompt to use, or a checklist to employ during discussion • Even HOW and WHY cards can help

What is Elaborative Interrogation? “a higher-order questioning strategy in order to encourage students to connect new information in their own richly developed knowledge base” (Willoughby & Wood 1992) “elaborative interrogation is expected to improve learning by enabling the reader to anchor new and prior knowledge” (Martin & Presley, 1991) It supports certain measures of learning : • Recall • Coherence • Inference - especially inference!

• This all boils down to asking… ‘WHY? ’

Preparing for … WHY? Because “inference-making abilities largely depend on a rich knowledge structure” (Trabasso & Magliano, 1996), this question can be part of a ladder which starts on the most basic rung. HOW? WHERE? WHAT?

• Some questioning activities for teachers and students you might want to try…

20 questions– ‘I’m thinking of a poem/technique/theme’ • This oldie-but-goodie encourages students to create contexts for their knowledge, to make connections and contrasts, to use reasoning skills • eg Is the poem a dramatic monologue? Does it make use of pathetic fallacy? Would it be used in Section A of the exam paper? •

This is the answer – what is the question? • This works best when many questions could be designed. • Eg if ‘in order to illustrate Daisy Buchanan’s selfishness’ is the answer, students could offer questions which focus on several different aspects of narrative in The Great Gatsby.

Questions with many answers • This shows how well they can track or connect a theme or idea as well as demonstrating their knowledge and understanding. Thus it targets both skills and knowledge. • For some subjects it can illustrate that there is often no finite answer except subjective interpretation.

Alarm Post it • There are many, many variations on the use of Post Its in questioning! • I find it useful to pass round what students understand to be an ‘alarm’ colour pack, so that any one who feels lost or stuck on something can flag it up to you on your Post It board/wall/door (or wherever/however you use them!)

Listening partner • Sometimes students would benefit from a ‘dress rehearsal’ before articulating a complex response to a question in front of the whole class. • Partners simply explain their ideas to each other as a practice run. The listener only intervenes if something doesn’t make sense. • Volunteers/conscripts can then be invited to repeat their explanation to the class, sometimes with the benefit of some rephrasing and editing.

How do you want it? • students can request/write a question that corresponds to the analysis ladder ie a WHAT, WHERE, HOW or WHY • This can be used to emphasise the fact that there is a hierarchy to the different levels of knowledge and skills, as well as allow students to choose comfort zone or stretch. • Comfort zone questions like closed/lower order ones are stressed as the beginning of a bigger point, not as a contribution of lesser value.

Label the question • This embeds the understanding of what types of question (and answer) occur in different contexts, use which skills or require certain areas of knowledge • Specify what types of question you want your students to ask or answer: • WHY/HOW questions • WHAT/WHEN/WHERE questions • Exam style questions • Embarrassed-to-be-obvious questions are often less self conscious when flagged this way • These can either go into a pot to be handed round for discussion, or teacher might answer them

Listening coaches • Whether students are given questions or write their own, they work in pairs. • Both are read out and one minute’s thinking time allowed • Questioners must listen, then gently push if necessary to get fuller answer, showing that they recognise where higher order thinking skills come in. • Could use WHY and HOW signs

Snowballing the Questions • Students have to prepare a lower order thinking question for the group/partner eg recall or comprehension, which the next person builds into a higher order question. • This builds their ability to independently reach the more complex levels of thinking. • We can do this for them too

Secret questions • this is another take on supporting the student who is afraid to ask what they think are obvious questions. • While the class is engaged in some other activity, the first student writes their question on the top of a sheet of paper. This is folded over so no-one can see and passed to the next person and so on. • These then come to teacher – to be read out randomly to preserve anonymity! Questions can be anything, from discussion points for the class to individual requests for clarification. • Or you could use a box to post questions in and take them out randomly… or students could take one each …

Discussion: What ‘props’ could you use in your lesson?

Effective Teacher Talk and Explaining Techniques • Look at the different ways we can give quality explanations • Rank your top 9 and say why • Have I missed any?

So why is PPPB useful? 1. This strategy encourages teachers to take risks and tease out the "learning" in class. 2. It also a useful focus for differentiation by varying our questioning techniques. 3. Allows for more ‘open questions’ in class

How does it work?

1. POSE a. Give the context of your PPPB approach to the class. b. It is important they know what is happening before it becomes common-place… c. Insist on hands down before the question is delivered. d. Provide a question or a series of questions, ensuring that you ask the students to remain reflective. e. Pose the question to the class; not an individual. f. Then Pause…

2. PAUSE. . . a. This is the difficult part. To stop talking… b. Ask the class to hold the thought. . . think. . . and think again. . . c. If students are captivated and engaged, try holding the silence for a little while longer (take a calculate risk) and. . . d. Then Pounce!

3. POUNCE! a. Insist that the answer to the question comes from student A and possibly student B, directly and as fast as possible! b. Of course plan in your mind who you are going to ask, before speaking to the class. c. Name student A to respond and don't move from the student… d. Possibly don't speak and nip any comments, grunts or noises in the bud! e. Wait for an answer. . . pause. . . decipher the support needed, especially if no response is evidently on its way. f. If student A does manage to answer, the fun part starts here. . .

4. BOUNCE! a. Ask another student B their opinion of student A's answer (immediately) after the Pounce response. a. This can be developed by asking student B and C their opinions to student A's response, irrespective if the answer is correct or not. a. An additional strategy is to Bounce the question onto a group A. . . and subsequently, a sub-group B if group A do not deliver a suitable way forward. a. This ensures the teacher is engaging a significant number of students with the question at hand, whilst using this strategy. It also ensures the entire class can be called upon at any given time by just returning to Pose or Pounce. a. Ensure that all your students understand ‘a’ concept. Test it before moving on. Try it tomorrow. Don't accept student E or student K shouting out the answer to maintain pace or behaviour. Don't allow student T to answer the question because (you know they won't let you down and) they will help you move on during an observation lesson!