Better Questions

Is there any tool more critical to teaching than the humble question? Yet, we receive so little training on how to ask questions well!

For Teachers

Part 1: Asking Questions That Make Students Think

How can we ask questions that make students think rather than just remember?

For Teachers

Part 2: Creating Sequences of Questions

Research has been surprisingly unclear about whether high-level questions are actually effective. Wait. What? The key is that high-level questions on their own aren't enough. We must create sequences of questions!

For Teachers

Part 3: Developing Questions that Prompt Thinking in Math

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.

For Teachers

Part 4: Improving Wait Time

How much time do students get to think? How much time do students need to think? How can we bring those into alignment?

For Teachers

Part 5: Who Asks The Questions? And Who Answers?

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.

For Teachers

Part 6: Improving Evaluative Questions

How to improve questions at the "evaluate" level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

For Teachers

Part 7: Running A “Notice, Wonder” Lesson

Use these puzzling images to build a classroom culture that is comfortable with curiosity, ambiguity, and taking intellectual risks.