“Questioning and Posing Problems” Mini Advisory Lesson

Objective:
Students will use questions to define or solve a problem.

P.R.I.D.E.
(P) Personal Responsibility
(R) Respect
(I) Integrity
(D) Discipline
(E) Engagement
Lesson Notes/Elements
of PRIDE
Opening (10 mins.) Engagement

Do Now
 Students will be given a survey to complete upon entry into
the class that they will complete independently.
o Surveys will be collected after completion.
 What do you think this quote means in your own words?
Commented [WU1]: Allowing students to take this survey will
provide me with information on how they assess themselves on
their questioning and ability to pose problems. This information
can help to inform my instruction and provide more opportunities
to practice this habit of mind.

Use your annotation strategies to interpret its meaning.

“One of the distinguishing characteristics of humans is

our inclination and ability to find problems to solve.
Effective problem solvers know how to ask questions to
fill in the gaps between what they know and what they
don’t know.”

I will call on three students to share their responses facilitate a

discussion about questioning.

T: Work in mathematics is always centered on problem-solving.

Often when we are solving problems, the task can become
complicated. This complexity forces us to communicate and ask
questions that will help us deepen our understanding. Asking
questions and posing problems is critical to your future success in
all aspects of your life.
Introduction to New Material (10 mins.) Discipline
Engagement
T: To begin our journey on questioning and posing problems we Respect
will focus on asking elaborative and clarifying questions in order to
support our learning in all content areas.
  Teacher will direct students to look up the definition of
“elaborate” and “clarify” using their smart phones or class
dictionaries.
o Elaborating provides more important information
about a topic or idea.
o Clarifying means to free of confusion.
Questioning to Clarify and Probe
T: Students need to ask good questions to get conversations going
and to keep them going. In fact, one of the highly ranked skills
wanted by employers is asking good questions. A good question
sparks conversation, brings up issues that have not yet been
addressed, looks at different perspectives (posing problems), and
addresses big-picture and long-run issues. Questioning also shows
others that you genuinely care about what they think and say.
Commented [WU2]: “It is important to teach students to say,
“Can you elaborate on . . .” rather than just, “Canyou elaborate?”
because this forces the asker to pick out a certain part of what the
speaker is say-ing and give it a name. For example, asking “Can you
elaborate on your reasons why you thinkhe altered the
documents?” demonstrates that the asker has been listening and
wants to move theconversation deeper. Moreover, when an
asker is not specific and instead says, “Can you elaborateon that?”
you can teach the speaker to respond, “Elaborate on what?” Tis
forces the asker to bemore specific and process what he or she is
listening to” (Zwiers & Crawford, 2011).
Commented [WU3]: Students “need to learn to listen to one
another, to share their thinking, and to challenge or affirm the
thinking of others” (Brahier, 2013, p. 193).

 I will go over what questioning and posing problems looks

like and sounds like…
o Looks like…
 Students using S.T.A.R.
 Making eye contact
 Taking notes
 Referencing language frames
 Sitting up straight
 Speaking at a volume that everyone required
to listen can hear
o Sounds like…
 Using academic vocabulary/language from the
word wall
 Respectful talk
 Students referencing the text or visual
 Productive noise
o Why is it important to ask elaborative and clarifying
questions?
 We ask elaborative and clarifying questions to
gather more information on a topic. These
questions can assist us is problem solving and
gaining the understanding to apply new
learning in the future. Learning tends to
happen in social environments when students
affirm or refute the reasoning of others.
Guided Practice (20-30 mins.) Personal
Responsibility
Students will be broken into groups into to complete a gallery walk. Engagement
Each group of students will be given a different color marker to Respect
represent their groups. Students will go out in the hallway and
collaborate within their groups to come up with a response(s) to the
prompts on each posters. The prompts students must contribute to
are…
 Synonyms for elaborate
 Synonyms for clarify
 Elaborating question stems
 Clarifying question stems
 Response Starters (elaborate)
 Response Starters (clarify)
 How can you elaborate on something in math class?

Each group will have 2-3 minutes to spend at each poster and 10
seconds to transition between stations. Each group is responsible
for contributing a response on each poster.

After each group has visited each poster, we will reconvene inside
the classroom to hold our discussion on what the students created.
I will let students decide which student-produced responses they
agree with most to add to our class STEMS and tablemats.
We will work together to create tablemats students can tape to their
desks to use and reference during academic conversations.
Commented [WU4]: I have found when I allow students to
“create” or “produce” their own strategies and processes, they
retain the information more effectively. My students are the
leaders of the class and allowing them to take control of the
process allows them to take ownership of their learning.

Independent Practice/Activity (10 mins.) Personal

Students will work independently to complete the Y-chart graphic
organizer on questioning and posing problems. (Boys & Watts,
2009).
Closing & Reflection (5 mins.)
Responsibility
Commented [WU5]: Learning about habits of mind through my
coursework at Hopkins, I’ve gained access to resources that I can
use to push my students understanding of the habits. This
Personal worksheet is a worksheet that assess my student’s understanding
Responsibility of questioning and posing problems.

Think-Pair-Share Commented [WU6]: All students participated in the think-pair-

share. I was able to circulate to listen to student’s brief
 Is the Habit Questioning and Posing Problems one conversations. Most students were easily able to make connections
that will be useful to work on? Why or why not? on how they can apply this habit to their current work in school.
 How can asking elaborative and clarifying questions
support your work in math class?
Lesson Summary

This lesson explored the importance of posing questions and

elaborative and clarifying questions.
 References
Boys, K., & Watts, G. (2009). Action tool 1: Exploring the meaning of Habits of Mind with
teachers. In Developing Habits of Mind in elementary schools (pp. 11–16).
Retrievedfrom
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/books/boyesAT2009_exploring_the_meaning_of_
habits_of_mind_with_teachers.pdf

Brahier, D. (2013). Teaching secondary and middle school mathematics (4th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Zwiers, J., & Crawford, M. (2011). Academic conversations: classroom talk that fosters
critical thinking and content understandings. Portland, Me: Stenhouse .