Questioning

I update an old question about conflict and character change in the story Hatchet.

Most classroom questions test memory. These questions test thinking. There’s a difference — and your students will feel it.

This task is all about the product, but completely ignores how students will think.

Use these puzzling images to build a classroom culture that is comfortable with curiosity, ambiguity, and taking intellectual risks.

How I’d update a low-level, overly engaging math question.

How much time do your students get to think after a question? Probably not enough. Here’s how to fix that.

How to improve questions at the “evaluate” level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Fixing an under-developed (but interesting) task that was originally part of a choice menu.

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.

So students can identify a simile, metaphor, and hyperbole. What next?

When we want students to memorize two terms, we actually shouldn’t aim for memorization!

High-level questions on their own simply aren’t enough. We must create sequences of questions!

Let’s fix these nine, underdeveloped discussion questions!

I’d show a quote and then ask, “What does this quote mean?” And that was it!

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.

Why was I asking five, unrelated, low-level questions in a row?

Naming the genre is step one. But what comes after that? Here’s how to push students past identification into real analysis.

How I’d upgrade a dull “which one is better” question.

How I’d break down and rebuild a task about judging a volcano.

Rather than just “paraphrasing” a poem, what if we did a cover version?