Let’s Talk! The importance of purposeful talk and pre-planned questioning Whitney Arnold

Why is purposeful talk an important part of the writing process?

No, David By: David Shannon

Write it out! What did you learn about the main character in the story?

How did not being able to talk make you feel about completing this task?

[Students] gain confidence as a writer because of talk. Let’s Talk, Pg.1 Trusting relationships in a writing classroom can only be built through meaningful talk. Let’s Talk, Pg. 4

David Gets in Trouble By: David Shannon

Write it out! Take what you learned about the main character and finish this sentence. I got in trouble when…

Types of talk… 1.Teacher to Student Conferencing During work time “I like how you illustrated this… Can you tell me what this means to you?” 2.Student to Student Partner talks Table talks “We have been talking about setting… Can you talk with your partner about what setting is, and why it is important to a story?” 3.Whole group Carpet “Who can tell me our main character of the story?” 4.Teacher to Teacher Para-educator “I like how you helped Joe with that problem… I am going to try that way next time.”

So… How do we create purposeful talk? What do we do?

THROUGH GOOD QUESTIONS

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein

Pitfalls Asking too many closed questions Yes or No questions Short answer- recall based questions

Yay! Blooms Taxonomy! Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge or Recall Assess, Compare/ contrast, judge Design, create, compose Explain, infer, analysis Demonstrate how, solve, try in a new contrast Translate, predict, why? Describe, identify, who when where Where do you live as a teacher? Do you take the time to plan those synthesis or evaluating questions?

Activity time! Three Little Pigs Can you put these questions into categories according to Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Three Little Pigs…. How’d ya do? 1.Can you think of a different ending? (Synthesis) 2.What happened in the story? (Knowledge or Recall) 3.What would you have built your home from? (Application) 4.Give examples of how the third big showed cunning? (Analysis) 5.How did the wolf manage to blow down the two homes? (Comprehension) 6.Why did the three little pigs have to leave home? (Knowledge or Recall) 7.How would you defend the wolf’s action? (Evaluation) 8.Which part of the story did you like best? (Analysis)

What the research shows us… …as much as 80% of classroom questioning is based on low order, factual recall questions. WHAT?!?!

You may be thinking… I don’t know how to produce these questions… Don’t worry I am going to help ya!

Tips for developing good questions… Create a checklist –What is the question trying to achieve? –Make decisions and judgments? –Solve problems? –What is the focus of the questions? –Create something new (in terms of their thoughts)? PLAN Allow wait time Ask open ended questions Use questions to develop collaborative work

“If teaching is the act of asking questions, it’s important that we think about them and plan them appropriately.” –Socrates

Top 10 Questioning Strategies 1.Key questions as learning objectives 2.If this is the answer… what is the question? 3.Thunks 4.‘Just one more question…’ 5.Socratic questioning and Socratic circles 6.Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce 7.Hinge Point Questions 8.Question Continuum 9.Questioning Monitor 10.The Question Wall

Top 10 Questioning Strategies Key questions as learning objectives Is the main character in the story a good kid or a bad kid?

Top 10 Questioning Strategies If this is the answer… what is the question? David Shannon is important to this story. Why? If this is the answer 3.14 What is the question?

Top 10 Questioning Strategies Thunks Simple questions to initiate deeper thinking If you are in a shop reading a book is that stealing? If I think I know everything can I learn more? Are humans man made or natural?

Top 10 Questioning Strategies ‘Just one more question…’ What if…?; Suppose we knew…?; What would change if…? Suppose we knew…?

Top 10 Questioning Strategies Socratic questioning and Socratic circles Q1. Get your students to clarify their thinking Q2. Challenging students about assumptions Q3. Evidence as a basis for argument Q4. Viewpoints and perspectives, this challenges the students to investigate other ways of looking at the same issue Q5. Implications and consequences, given that actions have consequences, this is an area ripe for questioning Q6. Question the question, just when students think they have a valid answer this is where you can tip them back into the pit

Top 10 Questioning Strategies Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce dded&v=029fSeOaGio

Top 10 Questioning Strategies Hinge Point Questions What is the setting of the story?..how do you know that?

Top 10 Questioning Strategies Question Continuum -Create questions on post-it notes in pairs on any topic -Display on a wall with a horizontal axis (interest level) and a vertical axis (complexity) -Students could feedback their opinions, shaped by the teacher, to identify the best questions - Questions can be arranged to find the best nine questions

Top 10 Questioning Strategies Questioning Monitor -Involves students in the evaluation and reflection of the questioning process -Select two students to be your question monitors over a certain time span. -They track the frequency of questions: teacher and student -Show you value evidence and the quality of questioning going on

Top 10 Questioning Strategies The Question Wall -Can overlap with the question continuum… advised not to do both -It is a working space for students to communicate questions about their learning. -By giving students post it notes and asking them to commit questions to writing typically eliminates those questions that reflect a sense of ‘learnt helplessness’ -Fosters independence and pushes students to think more about what they are asking.

Now… Have-a-go!