K. Janae's High Five - Excuse me, I have a question.

You mean to tell me there's a right way and a wrong way to ask a question?

Better yet, you mean to tell me that I can ask questions that will stretch my students thinking beyond their normal capacity, questions that will help develop further interest and critical thinking skills?

Yes, yes I do. Here's my high five of questions all about questions. (See what I did there?!)

1. Who?

• Who asks questions? Not just me. As the facilitator of learning, I play a pivotal role in asking the right questions at the right times. I will use questions to lead and to assess, but I'm not the only one who should ask the questions. In fact, I want to create a classroom environment where questions are frequent and welcome; a room where we leave without questions. What if we trained our students to ask questions at higher levels of thinking? 

2. What?

• What kinds of questions do I ask? Questions don't simply need to serve the purpose of assessing. I want to ask questions that cultivate thinking. Questions can solicit direct responses, like a yes or no. Questions can be rhetorical and stimulate thought process without a necessary thought process. Questions can be used to refocus or rephrase. The kinds of questions I ask are quite simply endless, the real question is if that question was effective.

3. Where?

• Where can I ask questions? Quite simply, you can ask them anywhere. Cornell University suggests that questions can be used in a variety of contexts, such as discussions, small-groups and writing activities. Questions can be used as a method of assessment in open or closed form, multiple choice and matching. 

4. When?

• When is it appropriate to ask questions? Not surprisingly, questioning does have an appropriate time and place. In order for questions to be most effective, they must be strategically placed to help connect content, review, assess or dig deeper. As a teacher, time is of the essence. Intentional use of learning time is crucial, so it is important to not waste time asking when we should be telling, or falling into the "question trap" as this article explores.

5. How?

• How do I design better questions? Cornell University gives an extensive list of ideas to design more effective questions, (here) but I especially like their recommendation to be mindful of the day's learning objectives when designing questions. When I am consistently aligning to what I want my students to know by the end of the class, I can be sure to have questions strategically placed that check for understanding, review what was just presented and make connections to content learned elsewhere.

Simply put, I want to be an educator who is an effective user of probing questions; calling my students to think deeper and make connects as frequently as possible. 

Simply put, what questions are there? ;)

Here's a High Five from You to Me, K. Janae