Session 2.2 - Questioning
The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Learning intentions and objectives.
In this session you will learn about:
Questioning, offering opportunities for classroom talk, and listening to learner responses are an essential part of interactive teaching. They help teachers to determine
- what learners understand,
- what they misunderstand,
- what they are actually learning.
Specific objectives for this session are:
- Differentiating between types of questions: closed questions versus open questions; and surface questions versus deep questions.
- Practise generating open and deep questions.
Success criteria.
To meet the learning intentions you will:
ICT components.
The ICT components you will focus on are
- Planning a lesson with Geogebra
- Using EtherPad to make shared notes
Classroom based activities (with your students, after this session):
- Do a lesson with Geogebra.
Resources needed.
You will need to have Etherpad or another collaborative writing application available. Change 'lesosn template' to 'activity template'.
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Review of follow-up activities from last session
If you are running a professional learning programme which follows these sessions in sequence, then you should do the review of follow-up activities relating to the (Category:OER4S CPD). The 'review of follow-up activities' for that session is available, and also shown below in the session text. However, if you are following selected sessions in a different order, then you should use the reflection appropriate to the previous session you did.
The review of the follow-up activities for this session (to be done at the start of the next session) is available here.
There is no review of follow-up activities from last session available. You can go to the previous session () and.
Reflecting on current practice
The idea behind this activity is to make the need for this session explicit.
You will need mini-blackboards and something for display (blackboard/flipchart).
Choose some topics that they are teaching this week (from the curriculum), and display the topics (on blackboard or flipchart). Some examples are:
- the importance of water(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.2 ),
- living together(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.13 ),
- transport(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.5 ),
- types of fertilizers (organic and inorganic) and their advantages or disadvantages(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.1 ), e.g.
- uses of different parts of a plant(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.8 ), and
- health(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.6 ).
Work in pairs (5 min): Coming up with some questions. Choose a topic from the board. Write five questions on mini-blackboards or paper that you normally ask/would ask the pupils in class?
Allow only about 3-5 minutes for this activity so that spontaneous questions are recorded.
After 3-5 minutes, explain the types of questions below and ask the other participants to suggest examples from their mini-blackboard that represent these types. Write these examples on the blackboard or flipchart or ask a volunteer participant to do so. Explain one type of question, ask the other participants for examples, record examples on the board and then mention second type.
Facilitator talk (5 min) on open and close questions. Briefly state what open and closed questions are.
Ensure that participants do not feel less motivated if their questions are more closed or surface type. To ensure this:
- Refrain from judging questions. Record questions factually without expressing any emotion.
- Mention that all types of questions have value and can be used for different purposes. Closed and surface questions are also important to some extent.
- Maintain positive body language by listening attentively.
Before the session, prepare the workshop room by marking OPEN on one side of the room and CLOSED on the other side. To keep it simple, draw a line on the floor with a chalk and write OPEN and CLOSED!
Game (5 min) on open and closed questions. Categorise your questions as closed and open questions. For each question, you move to the side of the room marked OPEN if their question is open or to the side marked CLOSED if their question is closed.
Make this activity interesting by asking participants to run to their side (OPEN or CLOSED) at the sound of clap and ask the participant who gets there first to clap for the second question, and so on.
Whole group discussion (10 min): Reflecting on current practice. Where are you standing? Is your current practice of generating questions more open or more closed?
Reading about open and closed questions
Reading (10 min) about open and closed questions.
Closed versus Open questions:
- Closed questions are factual and focus on a correct response. Some examples are: Name the different parts of a plant? What are the five nutrients that must be present in a balanced diet? How many sides does a triangle have? What is the formula for calculating perimeter of a square? How many planets are there in the solar system? Name two sources of renewable energy.
- Open questions have many answers. Some examples are: What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers of plants? Suggest ways to prevent spread of malaria in your community?
Surface versus Deep questions:
- Surface questions elicit one idea or some ideas. For example, What is the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers? What is the use if carbohydrates in a balanced diet? Which part of the sugar cane plant is used for eating? Which features of a cactus plant are useful for its survival in desert regions?
- Deep questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas. For example, What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?
‘What if’ and ‘Why’... questions can help you delve deeper into pupils’ thinking.
Collecting open questions with Etherpad
ICT activity (10 min): Introduction with Etherpad. You have now been doing your typing practice for a while, and this will now help you now! We are going to use a collaborative writing activity to make note of open questions. The facilitator will now introduce you to Etherpad. Work in small groups (one group per computer), and enter your open questions into Etherpad.
Introduce participants to Etherpad (or another collaborative writing application), and get participants to write open question as they occur to them.
Throughout this session, make a note of open questions: We will usethose later when planning an activity.
Questioning our questions
Whole group discussion (10 min) of questions you can ask, and collecting these in Etherpad. Now look at the questions we have collected. How can we decide whether these are open or closed?
Draw attention (or hand out)‘questions you can ask’ (see end of this session).
Encourage participants to use this resource for planning their activity (see below) and as ready reference during teaching (by printing them on cards).
Refer to open and close queastions if you get stuck.
Questioning and Bloom's taxonomy
Reading (20 min) questioning the questions. Read pages 2 and 3 of the "Questioning the Questions" handout (Questioning the Questions (info)).
You will need one copy of pages 4, 5 and 6 (deals with Bloom's taxonomy) per group for this card sort activity along with some scissors.
Cut out the different sections so that there are six equal sized pieces of paper, each with one section each on it. These are the sections:
- remembering
- understanding
- applying
- analysing
- evaluating
- creating
Discuss:
- What was your most important learning from the handout?
- Which points from page 3 are you already practising during your lessons?
- Which points can you immediately carry out?
- Which points might need some more preparation?
- What other points would you like to include in this document?
Allow at least 15-20 minutes for the reading. Proceed from reading to discussion only if most participants are ready. This will show that you are respecting the participants’ pace, something that they could follow in their classroom. Participants who have read sooner than others can be asked to think of other points about "questioning and handling responses" that they would want to include in this handout.
Reinforce some learning from previous sessions during the discussion, such as use of props and use of rules. What about ‘no hands up’ (point 8 on p.3); is it a useful technique?
Discuss points 1 and 3 only if you think there is less time. It is important that participants do the reading activity during the workshop.
Video on crime writing
Video (10 min) on crime writing. Watch the video in which an English teacher is introducing the crime-writing genre to 12- to 13-year-old pupils in a UK classroom. The lesson prepares them for writing their own crime story.
The situation mentioned on the board is “An abandoned briefcase has been handed in to police. What could the content reveal about the owner?”. The clip illustrates teacher questioning and handling responses for encouraging pupils to consider alternatives.
Suggested questions for reflection:
- What did you notice about the teacher’s questions in this clip?
- Which questions elicited multiple responses or could have done?
- How did the teacher handle multiple responses?
- How would you improve the teacher’s questions?
- What would you do differently while handling multiple responses?
VIDEO
Caroline briefcase clip
Unit 2, session 2 - Caroline briefcase clip
Video/Unit 2 session 2---Caroline briefcase clip.m4v, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Unit_2_session_2---Caroline_briefcase_clip.m4v,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Video from other organisations folder. Duration: 1:47 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Video from other organisations, episode N/A)
Developing my practice: Planning in activity
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Planning in pairs (15 min): Plan an activity with open ended queastions. In the activity template, plan for questioning as part of a lesson that participants will teach in the coming week; the questions will follow the ICT pictures activity. They list some open and deep questions to ask in the class in order to challenge pupils and get them thinking! Try out some of the points mentioned in page 3 of the handout. Record specific questions on the template.
Ask participants to focus on the questioning part of the activity. Therefore ask participants to record on the template:
- Pictures and their use - What will they be used for? What is/are the purpose(s)?
- Questions to start the lesson?
- Questions while pupils are looking at the pictures? Clear explanation of task.
- Questions after looking at the pictures? Questions about pupils' thoughts that relate to objectives of the lesson? Questions that summarize pupils' learning?
For example, if the topic is clean water, participants can record:
- Pictures - sources of water that show clean and unclean water.
- Questions to start such as, look at the pictures and identify sources that are safe for drinking.
- Questions while pupils are looking at pictures such as, why is water from this source safe? how does the water get contaminated?
- Questions at the end such as, what can we do in our homes to ensure that the water we drink is clean? What are the effects of drinking unclean water?
They can complete the remaining plan later.
ICT practice
ICT practice (20 min) on various topics. You now have 20 minutes to do ICt practice. You might want to use this time to familiarise yourself further with either
- Etherpad or
- Geogebra.
As you work with those applications, occasionally think about how you would use those in the classroom.
You should at this stage plan an activity with Geogebra in your classroom. Refer back to the Geogebra work we did in previous sessions. You can have a look at the introduction to Geogebra here, and might want to base your lesson on something similar.
Connecting with overarching goals of the programme
Open space (10 min). It's now time for the "open space", that gives you an opportunity to discuss issues that have arisen, and to relate those to the broader context of the programme. Do not just gloss over this section, but make time to raise issues, and probe the progress that you are making. You could use this space to:
- Remind yourselves of the of the Most Significant Change Technique, and e.g. collect more of your stories.
- Discuss your assessment portfolios: Is there anything that you are unsure about? Is it going well? What could be done better?
- Check on the work with the classroom assistants: Is this going well? Are there any tensions? Any observations or tips you can share?
- Reviewing individual ICT practise (such as typing practise).
- If you are preparing a presentation for other teachers, you could work on the presentation (about what you have been learning, stories emerging from MSC).
- Remind those who are doing audio diaries, to upload them.
- You could discuss any other issues that have arisen.
You will find notes and summaries of various techniques and concepts on our reference page, and you might want to refer to those for clarification during this activity if needed.
Follow-up activities
Agreeing follow-up activities (5 min).
Part A: Use your questioning activity. Teach a lesson with this activity and try out the questions that you have planned. Record any questions that you generated without planning (as best as you can!)
Part B: Try out Geogebra with your class. Also see whether you can continue carousel-style groupwork for typing practice.
Part C: Reading. Read p. 6 of the VVOB handout, section on “handling answers”. Think about how you will handle/respond to the multiple answers to your questions (that you just planned). Record your ideas on the lesson plan template sheet.
Remind participants to bring the VVOB handout for the next session.
In the next session, these follow-up activities will be reviewed. If you are using this session on its own, you can have a look at the review of follow-up activities here.
Handouts
Questions you can ask in class
- Can you guess what will happen?
- Can you give me an example? Can you find an (another) example?
- How does (cause) relate to (event)? or How does this explain ...?
- Is this the same as …? Is this different from ...?
- Tell me something that is true about ...
- What connections can you see between ...?
- What always seems to happen?
- What other ways are there to …?
- What do you think is happening?
- What would happen if ...?
- What could be changed if we want...? What would you change so that ...?
- What is wrong with ...?
- What happens when ...?
- What did you observe?
- What do you think about ...?
- What do you think about what X said? Why?
- Why do you think that ...?
- Can you explain that to your partner?
- Can you group these?
Here are some questions classified using Bloom's taxonomy, in order of increasing demand:
Remembering
- What do you remember about ...?
- How would you define ...?
- How would you recognise ...?
- What would you choose ...?
- Describe what happens when ...?
- How is ...?
- Which one ...?
- Why did ...?
Understanding
- How would you clarify the meaning ...?
- How would you differentiate between ...?
- What did you observe ...?
- How would you identify ...?
- What would happen if ...?
- Can you give an example of ...?
Applying
- How would you develop... to present ...?
- What would be the result if ...?
- How would you present ...?
- How would you change ...?
- Why does ... work?
- Can you develop a set of instructions about ...?
- What factors would you change if ...?
Analysing
- How can you classify ... according to ...?
- How can you compare the different parts ...?
- What explanation do you have for ...?
- Discuss the pros and cons of ...?
- What is the analysis of ...?
- How is ... similar to ...?
Evaluating
- What criteria could you use to assess ...?
- What data was used to evaluate ...?
- What choice would you have made ...?
- What is the most important...?
- How could you verify ...?
- Is there a better solution to ...?
- What do you think about ...?
- Do you think this is a bad or a good thing?
Creating
- What alternative would you suggest for ...?
- What changes would you make to revise ...?
- Predict the outcome if ...?
- What could you invent ...?
- How would you compile the facts for ...?
- If you had access to all resources how would you deal with ...?
- Compose a song about ...
- Design a ... to ...
You can print this content on a separate sheet here: OER4Schools/Questions you can ask.
How do you find out whether your question is open or closed? How do you find out whether your question is surface or deep? Let's first look at some examples:
Closed versus Open questions:
- Closed questions are factual and focus on a correct response. Some examples are: Name the different parts of a plant? What are the five nutrients that must be present in a balanced diet? How many sides does a triangle have? What is the formula for calculating perimeter of a square? How many planets are there in the solar system? Name two sources of renewable energy.
- Open questions have many answers. Some examples are: What could be the consequences of water contamination? How does a balanced diet help us? How could we use flowers from plants? Suggest ways to prevent the spread of malaria in your community?
Surface versus Deep questions:
- Surface questions elicit one idea or some ideas. For example, What is the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers? What is the use of carbohydrates in a balanced diet? Which part of the sugar cane plant is used for eating? Which features of a cactus plant are useful for its survival in desert regions?
- Deep questions elicit relations between ideas and extended ideas. For example: What would happen if only inorganic fertilizers are used for growing plants? What connections do you see between the climate of a region and its vegetation? Why is the water in the nearby pond not safe for drinking?
‘What if’ and ‘Why’... questions can help you delve deeper into pupils’ thinking.
Here are some questions you can use about your questions!
- Does this question have one correct answer?
- Is there more than one answer to this question?
- Are you using this question to get a student to give you a particular answer?
- Could a student come up with the answer through their own thinking, or is it something that they either know or don't know?
- If the question is answered by somebody, would it be possible for somebody to object to the answer, and come up with a different answer (that can be justified, or one that at least isn't easy to dismiss).
Also try to answer the question yourself: Is it a productive question? You could also test your question on a colleague: Again, how do they answer the question?
Also see OER4Schools/Questions you can ask, and also see Starting the enquiry based learning process regarding "productive questions".
You can print this content on a separate sheet here: OER4Schools/Open and closed questions.
At the end of each session, we provide an overview of the activities in this session, together with their suggested timings. Although this appears at the end of the session (for technical reasons), you should keep an eye on this throughout the session, to make sure that you are pacing the workshop session appropriately!
Total time: 135 (min)
Activities in this session:
- Work in pairs (5 min): Coming up with some questions.
- Facilitator talk (5 min) on open and close questions.
- Game (5 min) on open and closed questions.
- Whole group discussion (10 min): Reflecting on current practice.
- Reading (10 min) about open and closed questions.
- ICT activity (10 min): Introduction with Etherpad.
- Whole group discussion (10 min) of questions you can ask, and collecting these in Etherpad.
- Reading (20 min) questioning the questions.
- Video (10 min) on crime writing.
- Planning in pairs (15 min): Plan an activity with open ended queastions.
- ICT practice (20 min) on various topics.
- Open space(10 min).
- Agreeing follow-up activities(5 min).
If you have printed this session for offline use, you may also need to download the following assets:
- Questioning the Questions
- Video/Unit 2 session 2---Caroline briefcase clip.m4v (local play / download options / download from dropbox)
