ASKING QUESTIONS: WHAT QUESTIONS DO WE ASK? HOW DO WE ASK?

"Good questions make students think, they encourage participation and I think they improve the caliber of the answers students give and the questions they ask." This quote came from Maryellen Werimer in her blog Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom. The three main topics addressed in this blog were preparing questions, playing with questions, and preserving good questions. This blog said that preparing questions for your class is especially important because it keeps your questions on track and useful to your class. The playing with the question idea was basically saying that it is sometimes best to leave questions unanswered for a while in order to encourage students to think. Preserving good questions was about remembering what your students ask and encouraging them to continue asking questions. These methods seem like they would really keep students involved and thinking the whole time.

"When you prepare for class, office hours, and help sessions, compose specific questions that you will ask your students (or that you anticipate they will ask you). Doing so will help you increase student participation and encourage active learning." This quote came from Asking Questions to Improve Learning. This article had strategies for asking questions, instructions for how to respond to questions effectively, reasons to ask open questions, and how to refine questions. It had points for each of those questions that were interesting because it explained exactly why you should be doing those things. The main focus behind those objectives was to encourage more focus and thinking in the classroom.

To answer this week's driving question, "What Do We Need To Know About Asking Questions To Be An Effective Teacher?" I have looked into those articles above and come to the conclusion that in order to be an effective teacher, I need to be prepared with the questions I want to ask my class and that I need to always encourage my students to ask their own questions. By doing those two things, I should be able to keep my class thinking and engaged.