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Questioning & Posing Problems Overview
Questioning & Posing Problems Overview
Students that are able to format questions centered in content are better equipped to fill in any existing knowledge gaps, build relevant connections, and develop a genuine curiosity about our learning objectives. In my classroom students are familiarized the the importance of inquiry in the learning process to develop their scientific mindset through varying individual and group structured activities. Questioning and posing problems walks students through a higher order of thinking within science as they are challenged to not only recognize the need for questioning but to continue questioning solutions as they move through multiple viewpoints. Additionally, allowing students to work through their own questions and problems redefines my role in the classroom and allows me to properly guide their learning and center the classroom around students instead of myself. As they design their own line of questioning or problems to develop questions around, students are also more engaged in content and invested in the solution because they are working to answer their own questions rather than simply being handed information from me. Each of the following activities are ways that students in my classroom build, answer, and take a deeper look at questioning within the classroom to build on their understanding and drive inquiry within science. With theses lessons I am able to determine areas that may need to be revisited for clarification through examining students line of questioning and pinpointing any gaps in their process to discovering the solutions to the questions or problems presented. This is not merely asking a question and allowing students to look it up on the internet, this thoughtfully planned process develops 21st century learners that are motivated to work through challenges because they are confident in their investigative skills and their content knowledge.
Teaching Questioning & Posing Problems
Teaching Questioning & Posing Problems
In this lesson I wanted to show my kids how they could develop questions that would be helpful in working through our learning. Questions play a critical role in developing confident learners that are not afraid to challenge content and their own misconceptions both inside and outside of the classroom. In this lesson my students work through something they consider to be an injustice within our school and develop a plan to create change. They were initially hesitant about using questioning to solve problems, however as we moved through the lesson they understood the value of developing their own questions to move through problems.
This lesson plan shows how I have explicitly taught my students the value of questioning and posing problems to make them more inquisitive learners and to work through challenging situations. Using this line of thinking provides my students with a more active role in their learning process and frees me to work more closely with students that may need one on one support. This lesson was taught early in the school year so that students had more time to continuously internalize the skills they learned. The lesson walked them through each of the steps in this Habit of Mind and showed how questions can provide detailed answers when implemented effectively.
See, Think, Wonder
See, Think, Wonder
See, Think, Wonder activities are a great way for me to develop inquisitive learners by building on their prior knowledge and building anticipation about the upcoming lesson. I incorporate these activities into our daily Do Now on a regular basis to practice with my students in developing their own questions around material that will be important to our class. In a See, Think, Wonder activity students must generate their own questions about what I have placed in front of them and use those questions to draw conclusions. This process is important in my content area because my students are making observations, interpreting their own observations, and becoming more inquisitive learners as they pose questions that they will later answer in the lesson. The skills learned during this activity will also challenge students to support their findings with verifiable evidence from our learning, prior knowledge, or researching that may take place later in the assignment. While this is a shorter activity, the skills gained through proper implementation will be a great resource for the remainder of the year and as my students move beyond 8th grade.
The above pictures highlight usage of See, Think, Wonder activities in the learning process. In these activities I am able to put students in groups or have them give their individual perspectives about what us upcoming in the lesson. The examples above were taken from a group activity in which students were given a frozen balloon during a lab and complete a See, Think, Wonder chart of what they though would happen to the ballon as they introduced various materials. As you move through the steps of the activity, you will see that each time the students complete a task they refer back to the See, Think, Wonder chart to build on previous ideas and ask new questions. The sections of the chart are labeled section 1-3 to separate the observations.
Project Based Learning
Project Based Learning
During projects students work collaboratively or independently to use their prior knowledge and flexible thinking to solve solve problems they have posed. As they work through the project they must pose questions and problems that guide them to build their final result. I use project frequently at the beginning and end of units because that allows students to see and reflect on the evolution of their thinking as they have acquired more detailed knowledge of the content. While I may provide students with the overall theme of the project, it is their journey through effective questioning that builds the project and challenges them to identify any misconceptions they may have had at the start of the project. For instance, when a student is designing a creature for a specific habitat they must ask themselves about other creatures that live in that habitat that thrive, what features would be harmful in the habitat, and how they can expand on an existing organism to design the ideal species. It is important that I am giving students checkpoints throughout the assignment to examine their line of thinking and ensure they have addressed any posed problems. By posing their own problems they are guiding their own projects and seeing their answers from a new angle.
In the examples above I have shown how students design creatures that will thrive in specified environments. They were allowed to choose the specific habitat for their species and give it adaptations based on their environment that would help it tp thrive. To effectively complete this task they must design questions that help them to determine the best adaptations for a specific environment along with posing potential problems that may occur if they choose the wrong adaptations. Additionally,
Lab Activities
Lab Activities
Projects are the driving force behind making tasks in my classroom differentiated and rigorous for all students because they are designed to support students through solving real world problems. Projects facilitate posing an initial question, drafting a method to solve that question, testing the theory, and finally referring back to the originally posed question to answer it using the data they have gathered through their experiment. Projects are centered in the problems they are designed to solve which is why they play a significant role in building inquiry skills with my students. The project I have featured took place during our hydrology unit, which is one of the standards students can really see the connections to their own lives. After watching a video featuring Jay Z called Water for Life, students were prompted to discus the water inequity in access to potable water around the globe. Next, students worked in small groups to answer the projects underlying question; How can we design a budget to create a potable water source? As they worked toward a solution, students questioned and posed potential problems they would face in their assessment of the water treatment process and providing equitable access to potable water.
D6D897A3-7789-4184-85AF-4C4EBBC4A1AD-merged.pdfProject play a critical role in allowing students to build and test their own hypothesis in science content. The above images show a project where students designed their own water treatment apparatus. In this activity they needed to create a budget, buy the supplies from me based on their budget, test their design, and compete to have the cleanest water. Included above are pictures of the designs, the rubric provided to students, pictures of students during the process, examples of cleaned water, and completed worksheets.
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