getting students to ask the questions

The answer is 64What is the question?

Getting Students to ask the Questions

Who asks most of the questions in your lesson?

Why would we want to change that?

Higher order thinking involves being able to cut through and pose

questions that will guide a line of thinking,

or uncover the complexities of a

situation.

True independent thinking and learning involves being able to

research and investigate from

scratch.

Just as we would model or teach students how to generate answers, we

need to do the same for how to pose and organise

questions.

What questions would you ask

about this image?

What?When?Where?

How?Why?Who?

Which?What if?

Descriptive

Analytical

Evaluative

Content?

Origin? Source?

Prediction?

Ask the teacher

Working in groups, get students to generate questions that they would like to ask the teacher about the topic they are studying. Each group can choose one question that they can then pose and have to select their best question.

Question Wall

An interactive tool for getting students to pose questions.

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

1

Why?

2

How?

3

What?

4

How?A

Question about what you have learned.

5

Which?A

Question about what you have learned.

6

What if?

7

What if?A

Question about what you have learned.

8

Who?

9

Which?

Think Pair Share

Use the ‘think pair share’ structure to scaffold the generation of questions by students.

Do individually Do in pairs

Share with the group

Hot SeatingHot-seating is where a pupil adopts the role of a character from a book or a play, from a period in history, from another country, or from a particular perspective. Students are put under a spotlight and asked questions by the audience. Because he or she is required to ‘stay in character’, even the most reserved pupil will find this process more comfortable than you might expect, but the planning of questions to ask others in character is very very powerful.

Question DiceAs a plenary activity get students to roll a question dice – and they choose another student or group of students to pose this question to in the class. This works very well alongside the ‘phone a friend’ strategy where students can pass something onto others in the room.

Spend a lesson …Generating and refining questions, reducing and reducing them until they get to one crucial question. Spend a good amount of time reflecting on what makes a good question.

5 Good Questions1. Get students to share

their questions.2. See how many

pairs/groups came with the same questions.

3. Group and order the questions.

4. Peer to peer questioning.

Question 2

Question 1

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

In pairs write down

5questions you know the answer

to.

5 Whys

1. Get students to ask ‘why’ 5 consecutive times.

2. This will develop a ‘deep’ answer and deep thinking.

3. This will help students sequence questions and develop a line of enquiry.

4. It is very very easy to remember.

4Q:

A:

1Q: Why are there

volcanoes? A: Because the earth’s crust is

thinner in some places

2Q: Why is the earth’s crust

thinner? A: Because the crust is split into

plates which always move.

3Q: Why do the plates always

move?

A:

5Q:

A: