Questioning
How can we ask questions that make students think rather than just remember?
Math is a particularly tricky subject for asking higher-level questions. Here are a couple of techniques I've used to prompt students to think, not merely calculate.
High-level questions on their own simply aren't enough. We must create sequences of questions!
Use these puzzling images to build a classroom culture that is comfortable with curiosity, ambiguity, and taking intellectual risks.
What would the pie chart look like for these three situations: the teacher asks the students, a student asks the teacher, or a student asks another student a question? I can tell you my pie chart would have been very lopsided.
Fixing an under-developed (but interesting) task that was originally part of a choice menu.
So students can identify a simile, metaphor, and hyperbole. What next?
How to improve questions at the "evaluate" level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
I update an old question about conflict and character change in the story Hatchet.
How much time do students get to think? How much time do students need to think? How can we bring those into alignment?
How I'd improve a low-level question about a story's genre.
How I'd upgrade a dull "which one is better" question.
How I'd update a low-level, overly engaging math question.
How I'd break down and rebuild a task about judging a volcano.
This task is all about the product, but completely ignores how students will think.