Rethinking Questions

I love the idea of using questions to teach because if students aren’t engaged, then they won’t care what is coming out of my mouth.  They will only be thinking about when my class is going to end.  Once I lose them, it’s much harder to regain their attention.  Quality questions are important to me as a teacher, because I want my students to know that I and the rest of the class values their thoughts and ideas.  In my practicum, my mentor teacher only asks convergent questions and seems angry when the students don’t answer it the way she expects.  Her classroom is like a one way street with heavy traffic.  You are constantly being pushed in one direction and you can’t slow down enough to notice anything around you. 

Most students have no idea what they think, which is why we are doing them a disservice when we don’t have higher order questions.  Anyone can regurgitate what I tell them 5 minutes ago, but creating questions that require them to filter through their own thoughts allows them to compare and contrast what they think with the literal facts that I give them.  It is through this process that they achieve an awareness of themselves as part of the world.  They have a voice and it is an important one.  Most students don’t know that and teachers are training them think in lazy ways, only giving what is absolutely necessary. 

I like that QtA encourages students to go beyond what they are reading.  I think that students think that if they read it in a book, it must be the final word on that subject.  They need to know that authors are not infallible and should be challenged.  A piece of writing is simply a tool for students to build on their ideas and a great way for students to realize this is through discussion that is organized in a way by the teacher so that students are making intended connections.  As important as it is for teachers to ask students “thinking” questions, it is just as important for teachers to teach how to come up with questions that further their learning.  It is really empowering to view myself as a thinker, and this was something never carried over in my school age years.  I never thought of myself as someone who could think in a way that would generate questions to increase my knowledge.  This is something that I would love to change in my own students.