Blog Post #4

What Questions Do We Ask? How Do We Ask?

Asking Questions

As a future educator, I have been taught that asking questions to my students is key and important to their learning. I have discussed this in many of my classes this semester. Asking your students follow up questions can give you feedback on who is getting the information and who isn't. My favorite information on this topic is from, The Teaching Center website on Asking Questions to Improve Learning. It mentions great ways to ask the class questions and what kind of questions to ask!

• "When planning questions, keep in mind your course goals." Its good to ask questions on material that you want them to learn and memorize.
• "Avoid asking 'leading questions'." A leading questions has an exact answer and doesn't give the student any creativity to explore the question more.
• "Follow a 'yes or no' question with an additional question" Self-explanatory, but having the students continue talking on their answer is great to hear how they got their answer.
• "Aim for direct, clear, specific questions"
• "In class discussions, do not ask more than one questions once." My job as the teacher is to always have the kids' mind's working, that means always having different and stimulating questions ready.
• "When you plan each class session, include notes of when you will pause to ask and answer questions." THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. I learned in one of my classes that teachers usually only pause a few seconds to wait for an answer from the students. Writing when to pause is great advise because it will help remind me to let the students ponder on my questions.
• "Ask a mix of different types of questions"

These have been excellent tips for myself. I didn't realize that even the small parts of teaching, like asking questions, can have so much to it! Asking questions really are important for student's learning. I intend to always have questions that are making the students' mind's ponder and look deeper into what the answer might be instead of just yes or no responses.