Thinking Through Quality Questioning Facilitated by Trisha Carroll

Thinking Through Quality Questioning Facilitated by Trisha Carroll, KEDC Instructional Consultant/Director Social Studies Network May 2, 2014 Slides and Content from: TTQQ – Jackie Walsh & Beth Sattes

Essential Question How can quality questioning enhance teacher and student thinking and learning? (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Learning Targets 1. To explore the connections between classroom questioning and student thinking and learning 2. To understand the characteristics of questions that activate student thinking and learning (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

What Do I Know and Want to Know About the Learning Targets? What? Why? Think-Puzzle-Explore How? Select one of the learning targets, identify what you think you know and any questions you have about it. (page 7, Activity Packet) To make meaning of the learning targets, connect to prior knowledge, and stimulate curiosity about the topic under study (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

What is our understanding of thinking?

What is Thinking? What do we mean when we say, “Students should be engaged in higher level thinking”? Think is the 12 th most used verb in the English language…but how well do we understand what it means? --Making Thinking Visible, p. 5 (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Thinking in the Knowledge Economy: Say Something Stand up and find a “thinking partner. ” Turn to p. 12 in your Activity Packet, and read the excerpt from Sawyer related to “Thinking in the Knowledge Economy. ” Turn to your partner, and say something about this excerpt. Listen as your partner says something about the passage. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Create a Culture for Thinking (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Characteristics of Classroom Culture for Thinking and Learning Turn to an elbow partner to discuss this question… What do you consider to be the characteristics of a classroom culture that nurtures student thinking and learning? (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Which of the following visuals is most similar to the classroom culture you envisioned? Select 1. Sea Shore Flower Garden (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013 Jungle Ocean Reef

Norms to Create a Culture for Thinking and Learning Classroom Norms v Purposes of Questioning v Wait Times v Participation Refer to page 15 – Here’s What, So What? Pair Conversation (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Answering As a Process: How does this connect to your understanding of “thinking? ” Attend to the Question Bring Question to Working Memory & Decode Search Longterm Memory for Relevant Knowledge (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013 Bring Relevant Knowledge to Working Memory & Form a Response Answer Question Out Loud

Provide Time to Process Wait Time 2 (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013 The length of time a teacher waits after a student stops talking in response to a question before giving feedback or calling on another student… (Minimum: 3 -5 seconds)

Responding Matters: Think-Pair-Share Responding to questions matters. “So when teachers allow students to choose whether to participate or not. . . they are actually making the achievement gap worse. ” —Dylan Wiliam, Embedded Formative Assessment, p. 81 (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Developing Student Response-ability ü Hold students accountable formulating responses to questions. ü Develop student capacity to ask questions. ü Provide opportunities for students to learn collaboratively. ü Teach skills of collaborative discussion. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Teach Skills of Collaborative Discussion Central to ELA Speaking and Listening Standards Focus of Kentucky Teacher Evaluation — 3 B: Questioning and Discussion Techniques (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

ELA Speaking & Listening Standards— Comprehension and Collaboration 1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

ELA Speaking & Listening Standards— Comprehension and Collaboration 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. 3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

KY Teacher Evaluation— 3 B Questioning & Discussion Techniques Accomplished Exemplary Questions designed to promote Teacher uses a variety of thinking and understanding questions to challenge students cognitively, advance high-level Teacher provides adequate thinking and discourse, and time for students to respond promote metacognition. Teacher engages most Students formulate many students in discussion, questions, initiate topics, and employing a range of strategies make unsolicited contributions. Students themselves ensure that all voices are heard in the discussion. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Recitation is the most common context for classroom questioning. Typically, the teacher asks a question, calls on one student to respond, gives an evaluation of the rightness or wrongness of the answer, and asks another question. This is also called I-R-E…Initiation, Response, Evaluation Turn to an elbow partner and discuss how this questioning strategy can be a strength and a weakness in your classroom. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Discussion According to research, discussion appears in classrooms less than 3 percent of the time. In discussion, the teacher typically poses one openended question. Students are challenged to think deeply, listen respectfully to one another, and develop new understandings. The teacher question provides focus. Student thinking and interactions determine the depth and dimensions. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Rubric for Assessment of Student Skills for Discussion With a partner, review the rubric. 1. Think together about how this rubric might support student participation in discussion. 2. Consider how this rubric relates to student and teacher behaviors suggested in the following: KY Teacher Evaluation— 3 B – Questioning and Discussion Techniques (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Frame Quality Questions Determine content focus. Consider instructional function. Stipulate expected cognitive level. Match to social context. Polish grammar and word choice. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

1. Content Focus Aligned with learning goals? (Rigor) Promotes identified content standard(s) Related to identified student learning target Addresses student needs, interests, and experiences? (Relevance) Within students’ zone of proximal development Related to real-world experiences Connected to other concepts in subject under study or to other subjects? (Relationships) (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Consider the Type of Knowledge Embedded in Standard (Rigor) Knowledge Dimension of Revised Bloom Factual Knowledge Conceptual Knowledge Procedural Knowledge Metacognitive Knowledge (p. 22, TTQQ) (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Consider the Interconnectedness of Knowledge Across Students’ Experiences (Relevance & Relationships) Christenberry’s Questioning Circles, p. 24, TTQQ Content under study Personal interests, experience; real-life applications (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013 Content from other subject areas

Purposes for Questioning “I suggest that there are only two good reasons to ask questions in class: to cause thinking and to provide information to the teacher about what to do next. ” —Dylan Wiliam, Embedded Formative Assessment, p. 79 (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

What instructional function is the question intended to further? √ Essential Question (integrating unit or lesson of study) √ Hook Question (motivating/engaging) √ Diagnostic Question (activating prior knowledge/ conceptions) √ Check for Understanding (formative assessment) √ Probing/scaffolding (getting behind student thinking; assisting in concept development) (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013 √ Inference Question (drawing conclusions) √ Interpretation Question (inviting analysis) √ Transfer Question (using in novel settings) √ Predictive Question (strengthening cause & effect thinking) √ Reflective Question (supporting metacognitive thinking)

Cognitive Level “Learning is a consequence of thinking. ” David Perkins, Smart Schools . . . Remembering is a consequence of processing information—making personal meaning, making connections to what one already knows, transferring learning to a new setting, and so forth. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Cognitive Dimensions of Revised Bloom Taxonomy What? Why? Jigsaw How? Use Jigsaw Cooperative Learning as (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013 Deepen understanding of six levels of the Revised Bloom Taxonomy by learning about and teaching one; strengthen shared understanding of the kind of thinking required at each cognitive level outlined on activity sheet, p. 22

Instructional Function Check for Understanding (formative assessment): The purpose is to determine if students understand the passage and know how to identify an argument and find evidence in the text to support the argument. (Check for both reading comprehension and text analysis) (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Analyzing and Editing Questions What? Why? How? Rewriting Questions to Improve Quality To reinforce the characteristics of QQ’s and to think about strategies for improving the quality of an already formulated question Facilitator modeling and pair conversation using examples on pp. 27 -28 of Activity Packet. (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

How Does the Rewording Improve the Question? Original Question: What were the major problems facing the United States that led to the Civil War, and how would life be different today if the southern states had not seceded? Revisions: (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Strengthen Thinking-to. Learn Behaviors Expect thoughtful responses Afford time for thinking Scaffold thinking and responding Make thinking visible (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Learning Targets 1. To explore the connections between classroom questioning and student thinking and learning 2. To understand the characteristics of questions that activate student thinking and learning (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Essential Question How can quality questioning enhance teacher and student thinking and learning? (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013

Connect-Extend-Challenge: A Final Thinking Routine Reflect on your learning experience in this session. Complete the reflection for the session, and leave this in the center of your table as you depart. Thank you for your participation in today’s professional learning session. —Trisha Carroll (c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013