Asking authentic questions is a great way to promote discussion among students and within a classroom. I hope to promote discussion with you, Jen, by asking a few authentic, open-ended questions myself.
In the book Strategies that Work, author Stephanie Harvey explains that "schools often appear more interested in the answers than in the questions". Do you agree with this? Is this beneficial to the students and teacher? Why or why not?
When reading through this chapter, I came across this quoted statement by Harvey and thought about the posed questions for a while. I first thought about the importance of assessing students and having a hard copy proof of our results. Almost all of the assessments I have seen so far this year have been questions that require answers. Not once have I seen a students questioning be praised or even recorded through assessment. It seems that the only time students' questions are truly acknowledged and praised is during a lesson on questioning. I don't really think that having schools focus more on the answers than the questions benefits the students or the teacher. I believe that students are so curious and come up with questions to explain things all the time and we should use this questioning and curiosity to fuel our lessons to make them authentic and give them a purpose.
Hi Allie,
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe that schools are much more interested in the answers. We are taught to look for the answers and accuracy of works, rather than the deep thought and questioning students may have. With standardized testing and state expectations, teachers focus their concern on their students' products rather than the questions that are being constructed. I have a very similar experience with assessments. Each time my students are assessed with a test/quiz, or even homework, I am looking for the answers they are given. I also have not observed student's questioning praised or noted from assessment. Students are conditioned to believe that questions only take place when the floor is open or during lesson time. I agree that questions are valuable and as teachers we should encourage them. The question is how can I best incorporate questions into assessment. I am thinking possibly at the end of an assignment or test, creating a spot for students to add thoughts. This could include questions or comments about the material they are working with. This week, we made a survey for our students about their likes/dislikes. I do not think we ask students enough about how they feel and it is extremely beneficial for our teaching to know!
In this week's reading from Strategies that Work, I noted that questioning is much more in depth than I thought. Questioning is a process and not just spontaneous thoughts. Questioning involves the student stopping at certain points to ask questions, wondering, clarifying confusion, gaining information, answering questions, and considering lingering questions to expand thinking. When students are questioning, it is pertinent that we are identifying what the question is asking and what target the students are trying to reach. I really think that these ideas of questioning would be a great place for discussion. I would love to hear further about others' thoughts on questions in the classroom and how to classify questions by question types.