Questioning

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.

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

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

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.

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

Let’s fix these nine, underdeveloped discussion questions!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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