That’s a Good Question!

2. That’s a Good Question! … the role and importance of questions in the classroom

3. Some preliminaries… • Could you make a lens from ice and use it to burn some tinder? • Can a flame cast a shadow? • Can you magnify without a lens? • What are the colours of the rainbow? • How many different ways can you think of to show that white light consists of a “rainbow” of colours? • He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. • Mark 7:14-15

5. What questions “tell us” • The questions you ask reveal what you value in a curriculum! • Restricting yourself to “fact based questions” should be avoided “A good question may mean the difference between constraining thinking and encouraging new ideas, and between recalling trivial facts and constructing meaning” Moyer & Milewicz, JMTE 5: 293-315,2002

6. Girl number twenty,” said Mr Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger, “I don’t know that girl. Who is that girl?” “Sissy Jupe, sir,” explained number twenty, blushing, standing up and curtsying. “Sissy is not a name,” said Mr Gradgrind. “Don’t call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.” “It’s father as calls me Sissy, sir,” returned the young girl, in a trembling voice and with another curtsey. “Then he as no business to do it,” said Mr Gradgrind. “Tell him he mustn’t. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?” “He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.” Mr Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand. “We don’t want to know anything about that here. You mustn’t tell us about that here. Your father breaks horses, don’t he?” “If you please, sir, when they can get any to break, they do break horses in the ring, sir.” “You mustn’t tell us about the ring here …

7. Very well then … Give me your definition of a horse.” (Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.) “Girl number twenty unable to define a horse! … Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals!” … The square finger, moving here and there, lighted suddenly on Bitzer … “Bitzer,” said Thomas Gradgrind. “Your definition of a horse.” “Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs too. Hoofs hard but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.” … “Now girl number twenty,” said Mr Gradgrind, “you know what a horse is.” Hard Times Charles Dickens, 1854

8. Ways of Classifying Knowing and Questioning • Blooms Taxonomy… Adapted from Bloom 1954

9. Control Stimulate Create attitude ? Reinforce Arouse Encourage

10. Blosser’s Schema*… • Questions can be: • Closed...limited number of acceptable responses • Open...greater number of acceptable responses • Managerial...facilitate classroom operations • Rhetorical...re-emphasize, reinforce a point *an excellent resource on questioning in science lessons is on the National Association for Research in Science Teacher (NARST) web-site.

11. Other considerations…Don’t be afraid to • Ask Challenging Questions • avoid creating a dependence on “simple-answer” questions • pique the curiosity of students – especially the more capable • Ask Well-Crafted, Open-Ended Questions • make it clear what you are asking – use appropriate vocabulary and grammatical construction • Ask Uncluttered Questions • avoidadding “layers” of sub-questions • Learn to Wait • use wait-time!! (link to some UTube examples…) • Presentation • Prepare overhead or written version of “essential questions”

12. In-class task (time permitting) • Here is a sample of questions that I wrote (rather hurriedly) for the Grade 11 Ontario physics text I am currently writing. Quickly scan these and assess how many are: