3b:Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques

Questioning and discussion are the only instructional strategies specifically referred to in the Framework for Teaching, a decision that reflects their central importance to teachers’ practice. In the Framework, it is important that questioning and discussion be used as techniques to deepen student understanding rather than serve as recitation, or a verbal “quiz.” Good teachers use divergent as well as convergent questions, framed in such a way that they invite students to formulate hypotheses, make connections, or challenge previously held views. Students’ responses to questions are valued; effective teachers are especially adept at responding to and building on student responses and making use of their ideas. High-quality questions encourage students to make connections among concepts or events previously believed to be unrelated and to arrive at new understandings of complex material. Effective teachers also pose questions for which they do not know the answers. Even when a question has a limited number of correct responses, the question, being nonformulaic, is likely to promote student thinking.

Class discussions are animated, engaging all students in important issues and promoting the use of precise language to deepen and extend their understanding. These discussions may be based around questions formulated by the students themselves. Furthermore, when a teacher is building on student responses to questions (whether posed by the teacher or by other students), students are challenged to explain their thinking and to cite specific text or other evidence (for example, from a scientific experiment) to back up a position. This focus on argumentation forms the foundation of logical reasoning, a critical skill in all disciplines.

Not all questions must be at a high cognitive level in order for a teacher’s performance to be rated at a high level; that is, when exploring a topic, a teacher might begin with a series of questions of low cognitive challenge to provide a review, or to ensure that everyone in the class is “on board.” Furthermore, if questions are at a high level but only a few students participate in the discussion, the teacher’s performance on the component cannot be judged to be at a high level. In addition, during lessons involving students in small-group work, the quality of the students’ questions and discussion in their small groups may be considered as part of this component. In order for students to formulate high-level questions, they must have learned how to do so. Therefore, high-level questions from students, either in the full class or in small-group discussions, provide evidence that these skills have been taught.

Danielson, C. 2013

Artifact 3b-1

Question of the Day

This photograph is an example of the “Question of the Day” that we post on the board in summer school. When the students come in after the computer lab, they get their notebooks out and copy down the question of the day. Then, they write down their answer and their reason for their answer. After they finish writing, they discuss their answers with their classmates. Once they have finished their table discussion, we talk about their answers as a class. This question of the day accomplishes a few different tasks. First, it gives the students more writing practice (something that they all need). Second, it allows us to engage in active discussions as a class because the students are all eager to hear each other’s answers and debate their answers with each other. Lastly, having these discussions with our students allows us to develop additional rapport with them. The questions are changed every day and their content can vary. Sometimes we ask them about the story we are reading as a class or we may ask them how they are feeling. All of the questions require our students to think through their answers and defend their reasoning. While the questions may not always be academic, they give our students valuable practice with writing and speaking and allow us to have classroom discussions that engage the students.

Artifact 3b-2

Senior Practicum Lesson Plan Template- Winn-Dixie.pdf

Because of Winn-Dixie Question and Debate

This artifact is a lesson that I gave during my time at Tiebreaker Elementary School. We were reading Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo, as a class and I wanted to ask comprehension questions to the students to ensure that they were truly understanding the story as it was being read to them. To make the lesson more engaging, I borrowed my mentor teacher’s beach ball that has different comprehension questions and opinion questions on it. After we finished the reading and the questions that I asked throughout the reading, I passed the beach ball around the classroom and the students answered the question that their hand touched first. They were so excited and engaged by this activity. The students built their answers off of each other’s or took the time to state their differing opinion. Additionally, during this lesson, we went over the part of the book where one of the characters discusses why he went to jail. I went off of the lesson plan a bit and decided that we were going to have a debate about this. I gave the students a few minutes to decide if they thought the character, Otis, deserved to go to jail or not. Then, I asked them to raise their hands to determine who believed what. Next, we had a little debate about why each side agreed or disagreed with Otis’ imprisonment. I was a little concerned that engagement would be low, but the whole class participated and there was a lively debate. The students were excited by the questions and the discussion that we held. Additionally, because there really is no right or wrong answer to this question, the students got to form their own opinions based off of the evidence presented in the book and they really seemed to enjoy the whole experience (some of them were very passionate about their answer).

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