Teaching Tips to Try Newsletter

October 4, 2009

From Linda The Math Coach

Go Beyond the Theory. Apply the Research. Make it work!

MEET THESE EXPERTS!

Oct. 13
DR. ROBYN JACKSON Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Differentiation

TBA
“PRINCIPAL” BARUTI KEFELE
Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life

This Week’s Theme:

Seeing RED!
Rigor + Engagement + Differentiation Part III
Focus on Rigor and Engagement with Quality Questioning
Ask yourself:
1. How frequently do you ask questions?
2. Why do you ask questions?
3. What kind of questions do you ask?
4. Who answers your questions?
5. How do they answer your questions?
6. How do you respond to student answers?
7. Do your students ask questions?
If you have never considered these questions about questions, you are missing out on
the most important way to raise rigor and engagement, regardless of the content or
grade level you teach.
Quality questioning promotes student thinking at higher cognitive levels leading to
increased understanding of more complex content. Students who never ponder
deeper questions never develop deeper understanding. On the other hand, leading
students through a lesson with a rigorous questions that engage everyone, enables
students to access the keys to unlocking more difficult and complex content.
What Research Tells Us
Studies indicate that most teachers ask one to three questions per minute, and that ore
than 80% of those questions require low level thinking. Though lots of questions are
being asked, usually the same few volunteers are answering more than 90% of the time!
Research also reveals that despite the need for that famous three second wait-time, most
teachers rarely pause at all after asking questions. Even fewer pause after students
respond.

Furthermore, most teachers studied tend to respond ineffectively to incomplete or

inaccurate answers. They either go to another student or answer their own question. In
the rush to cover content, stay on topic, and get through all their own questions, few
teachers give students opportunities to formulate their own questions. What would
research on your own class reveal? What would like that research to reveal?
Let’s look at those beginning questions again:

Questions 1-3 Frequency, Purpose, and Type of questioning

These three questions are lumped together because they are all closely related. The
purpose of your questioning should determine the type and frequency of the questions
you ask. The overall purpose of questioning is to promote student thinking. If you want
to reinforce and/or assess knowledge you may be asking more frequent questions at lower
levels of recall and understanding. However, if you want students to carry on a
discussion that requires them to perform at higher and more engaging cognitive levels,
your questions frequency decreases and the question level increases.
Carefully planned scaffolding of questions from beginning to end of a lesson gives all
students an entry level to the deeper understanding of the content you want them to
master. Remember, rigor is for everyone!
Here is an example of how scaffolding questions looks. Let’s say your objective is for
students to be able to add and subtract integers. Here are sample questions you could ask
at various cognitive level as the lesson progresses. (This lesson works more efficiently
when students are working as partners or in cooperative groups of four.)
You give students the following set of problems.
3+5 3-5
-3 + 5 -3 - 5
3 + (-5) 3 – (-5)
-3 + (-5) -3 – (-5)
Recall Level Questions to ask:
How are these problems alike?
How are these problems different?
What does a minus sign in front of number mean?
What does 3 – (-5) mean?

Then tell students to write down the problems and find the answers using their
calculators. Post the problems with correct answers. Clear up confusion that may arise
from students entering the problems incorrectly on the calculator.
Now they are looking at:
3+5=8 3 – 5 = -2
-3 + 5 = 2 -3 – 5 = -8
3 + (-5) = -2 3 – (-5) = 8
-3 + (-5) = -8 -3 – (-5) = 2
Give students small cards cut from construction paper of two different colors. Tell them
to write The addition sentences on one color and the subtraction sentences on the other.
Then sort the sentence cards by answers.
Here are two ways students typically do this:
3 + 5 = 8 and 3 – (-5) = 8
-3 + (-5) = -8 and -3 – 5 = -8
-3 + 5 = 2 and -3 – (-5) = 2
3 + (-5) = -2 and 3 – 5 = -2
OR
3+5=8 3 – (-5) = 8 -3 + 5 = 2 -3 – (-5) = 2
3 – 5 = -2 3 + (-5) = -2 -3 – 5 = -8 -3 + (-5) = -8

Understanding Level Questions to Ask:

What would be the name of each group you made?
Explain how you grouped the sentences cards?
What patterns do you see with the answers?
What does it mean to “add the opposite?” Give an example from real life.
What does it mean to “subtract a negative?” Give an example from real life.
Give an example of when you would add two negatives in real life.

Application Level Questions to Ask:

With what group would you place these problems? 2 + 4, -2 + 4, 2 + (-4), and
-2 + (-4)
What are the answers to these problems?
Analyzing Questions to Ask:
When do you get a negative answer?
When do you get a positive answer?
How are adding and subtracting integers alike?
Explain how 6 + 5 and 6 – (-5) mean something different, but have the same answer.
Why did I select the 3 + 5 problems for you to examine?

Evaluation Questions to Ask:

Which problems do you think are the easiest to solve? Explain with reasoning.
How can looking at patterns of problems and answers help you understand how to work
with integers?

Creation Questions to Ask:

Use the patterns you discovered to develop shortcuts or rules for adding and subtracting
integers.
How would the rules change if you were adding more than two integers?
Write a word problem that requires you to use the rules you developed.

By moving through all levels of questions, you bring your students through all levels of
thinking and they begin to formulate their own questions. Sometimes they may even
surprise you by asking one of your planned higher level questions before you get to it
yourself!

Action Plan!
Look at one important lesson you will teach this week. What questions will you be
asking students to engage them and promote understanding? Think of your lesson from
start to finish. Create a scaffold of questions that will take students through all levels of
thinking around the content you want them to master. Teach the lesson and then reflect
upon the effectiveness of your scaffold. Did it increase the level of thought and
understanding? Did it engage more students? What part went well? How will you adjust
what didn’t work?
Next Week: We’ll look at questions 4-5. Hey, #7 is special all by itself!

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Meet
Dr. ROBYN JACKSON
Author Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great
Teaching
October 13 th 8:00 pm CST

What is the Master Teacher Mindset?

Can any teacher become a Master Teacher?
What are the seven things all master teachers do?
Where can YOU start?