Questioning Strategies to Improve Skill and

Concept Development K-12

D. Brown & K. Kopp
August 5, 2009

CCSB Motto 2009-2010: Leading and Teaching with Intentionality

 These strategies can be used throughout
instruction.
These strategies are best for practice or
reinforcement of instruction.
HEQ should be used about 10 to 25 minutes
daily.
These strategies help students learn to think
critically about what they read.
The questioning strategy is systematic.
 Engaging students in questioning:
Assesses students current understanding of
subject matter
Creates new learning moments
Improves teacher understanding of how students
think
Engages reluctant learners
1. A critical thinking skill is a mental act.
Critical thinkers are active and not passive.
2. A critical thinking skill is a critical or
important mental act.
3. Critical thinking skills can be taught, and
instruction that builds and reinforces critical
thinking is imperative.
4. Critical thinking skills are able to be
generalized across all content areas.
 Write out these three numbers on a sheet of
paper:
One thousand eight hundred sixty-one
One thousand seven hundred seventy-six
One thousand nine hundred forty-one
 Answer these questions.
What do you notice about the numbers?
Are the numbers just quantities or
something else?
How are they the same or different?
What do they all have in common?
Are they in any particular order?
What is the theme of this content?
 We use our critical
thinking skills to
construct concepts
that tie together pieces Critical
Thinking
of content. The more Skills

developed the level of Concepts

critical thinking skills,
the greater the Wars History

understanding of the
American
Dates Wars
content of school
instruction. Content

1776 1861 1941

Triangle of the Three Cs

 Scope
Example: For the figure The question should be phrased
below, a good broadly- in such a way as to allow for the
scoped question would broadest set of possible answers.
simply be:
Maintain broad scope in your
What do you see here? initial questions.
B C
Triangle Triangle Narrow your scope as the
Triangle
ABC BCD questioning continues.
BCE
Triangle Triangle
ABE CDE Intentionality
E
The answers you intend to hear
back from students should have
the characteristics of being
A D (1) specific; (2) justified; and
You should continue questioning until (3) complete.
students match your intentionality and
can label all 5 triangles.
1. Students come to school with the need to
learn, and when they are in school, they do
not have the right not to learn.
Ensure involuntary questioning of each and every
student

2. Students are undertrained not under-

brained; they are dormant but not dead!
Try to ask each student an equal range of questions
(quantity) and, initially, questions of similar difficulty
(quality). Remember to choose your question, then
choose your student.
1.

2.

3. We must learn to use intensive questioning,

not just occasional questioning.
Ask only questions during the session and refrain
from explaining, telling, hinting, and using other
non-questioning strategies. Question, question,
question ask only questions.

4. We must follow a question-response-

question (Q-R-Q) pattern in our questioning
of students
Have students justify all responses.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5. We must try to keep our questions positive but not

pushy.
Never ask negative questions. Be positive or neutral.

6. We do not ask questions that promote random trial

and error behavior.
Do not ask questions that encourage guessing.

7. We must act to discourage the use of I dont know

as a way for students to avoid classroom
participation.
If a student says I dont know, follow up immediately with
one to three additional questions to the same student.
http://www.workshopsinquestioning.com/
(Refer to The Most Intelligent Person)
 Read the information related to your HEQ
Step.
Define the Step and explain why it is
important to the HEQ process.
Give examples of verb stems.
Review the sample questions from the Power
Point and book. Include any additional
questions you thought of.
Include any other information everyone
should know.
 Step 1: Label, Identify, Find
What facts do you observe?
What can you tell me as you look at the page?
What are the most relevant facts? How do you
know?
What is the key information?
What do you see?
 Step 2: Connect, Compare, Contrast, Infer
What is connected?
What is implied?
What should connect but doesnt?
What is disconnected?
How is A alike/different from B?
How are A and B like C and D?
What is the relationship?
What do you know about A?
What is the moral of this story?
How do you know what the graph will look like from the
given information?
Where in everyday life might you use this type of graph?
 Step 3: Sequence, Classify, Integrate, Pre-
summarize
What is this paragraph about, overall?
What are the main points?
Put the information given in order.
What is the sequence of events?
What is the trend?
How would you classify this information?
Give a brief summary of the information.
Outline the process so far.
What do all the separate points have in common?
 Step 4: Decode, Interpret (questions)
What is the question asking, and why?
How can we use the information given to solve the
problem?
What does the author want us to do, in your own
words?
What are we solving?
Where do you see that in the question?
Tell me more.
 Step 5: Encode, Answer (questions)
What is your answer, and why?
What did you come up with, and how?
What evidence supports your answer?
How did you get that?
Which answer best answers the question?
How do you know A is not the answer?
 Step 6: Apply, Predict
How would you apply this?
If we were to change A, how would this affect B?
What if A never happened?
How does the solution to this problem relate to
another problem?
Where do we see this in our own lives?
 Step 7: Summarize, Conclude
What did you learn today?
Summarize todays lesson.
What do you remember from this lesson?
Walk us through the entire process from beginning
to end.
How did we meet our goals today?
 Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
 Where do the questions generated at the
beginning of the workshop fall with regard to
the HEQ strategy?
 Use your own content area text. Write a
series of HEQs for an up-coming selection.