1. Differentiating for AIG Learners: Asking Good Questions Session #2
AIG Booster Shots
Differentiating for AIG Learners: Asking Good Questions Session #2

2. 2-Minute Reflection
List three important lessons about differentiation that you recall from the first AIG Booster Shot.
Which of these is the most important lesson for teachers to understand?

3. Type of DI #1: Acceleration
Student moves through curriculum quickly at a pace matching his readiness
Requires pre-assessment
Used frequently in math and ELA
Examples: reading above grade level, streamlining math lessons or units

4. Type of DI #2: Enrichment
Student pursues different topic, related to interests
Beyond regular curriculum
Often interdisciplinary and real world
Examples: writing fiction about scientific principles, evaluating real estate purchases

5. Type of DI #3: Extension Student works at higher cognitive level
Stretches the regular curriculum
Focused on single discipline
Example: creating comic endings for a story, providing financial advice based on study of economics

6. 4-Minute Reflection
Consider a particular unit you’re currently teaching or are about to teach. How might you apply acceleration, enrichment, and extension to it?
*Which of your students would benefit from these modifications?

7. Questioning in our classrooms…
Takes up about 50% of our instructional time
Falls just behind lecturing in terms of time
Instruction with questioning is better than instruction without questioning
High-level students require high-level questions
60% of the questions we ask are low level

8. Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
Identifies cognitive processes using verbs rather than nouns
Clearly names 19 action words across 6 cognitive processes
Different levels of complexity within each cognitive process based on the type of knowledge required

9. Important consideration:
Creating relates to ideas and plans, NOT products.
Ask: What thinking is required in this task?
*High-level questions require students to critique and test ideas and create new ideas.

10. Pioneer Farmer Supplies
Food: bacon, coffee, flour, sugar, salt, pepper, Saleratus (baking soda), beans & rice, vinegar & spices
Utensils: 2 kettles, frying pan, coffee pot, bake pan, knives, forks, spoons, cups, bucket, soap, medicines, matches, spade, ax, hammer, rifle
Spare parts: chain links, ox yolk, harness parts, horse/ox shoes, bucket of grease, rope, nails, buckskin, ammunition, trinkets for Indians (ribbons, mirrors, tobacco, etc.)

11. 4 minute task: Low, middle, or high level?
1) What kinds of food did the pioneer farmers carry with them in their wagons? 2) How does the food list compare to your diet? 3) Why do you think the pioneers carried vinegar and spices in their wagons? 4) What can we conclude about the pioneers’ diet from their list of food supplies? 5) Last week we were studying the fur traders. How do the pioneers’ supplies compare with those available to the fur traders? 6) Why do you think the pioneers carried trinkets for the Indians? 7) What can we conclude from the fact that the pioneers carried rifles, revolvers, and ammunition in their wagons? 8) What is saleratus? 9) Why didn’t the pioneers carry such things as fish, milk, eggs, and cheese in their wagons?

12. Evaluating these questions…
1) What kinds of food did the pioneer farmers carry with them in their wagons? 2) How does the food list compare to your diet? 3) Why do you think the pioneers carried vinegar and spices in their wagons? 4) What can we conclude about the pioneers’ diet from their list of food supplies? 5) Last week we were studying the fur traders. How do the pioneers’ supplies compare with those available to the fur traders? 6) Why do you think the pioneers carried trinkets for the Indians? 7) What can we conclude from the fact that the pioneers carried rifles, revolvers, and ammunition in their wagons? 8) What is saleratus? 9) Why didn’t the pioneers carry such things as fish, milk, eggs, and cheese in their wagons?

13. 3-Minute Task
What high-level question might we ask about the list of pioneer supplies?
Require evaluating or creating
Focus on asking a question, NOT designing an activity
Think about your highest-level thinkers

14. What makes this question appropriate for AIG students?
“Imagine that you’re a pioneer farmer travelling west. As you cross a river, your wagon tips over, and you have time to grab only 10 items. Which items would you go for and why?”

15. Open-ended questions…
Don’t have one single, predictable answer
Are provocative
Encourage discussion and debate

16. 3-Minute Task: Consider the Civil War, outer space, or a story
Create questions using these question stems:
What do you think would happen if ____?
What effect do you think ____ would have on ____?
How would ____have been different if ____?

17. Some open-ended questions…
Civil War:
What do you think would happen if the US legalized slavery?
How would our rights be different if the South had won the war?
Outer space:
What effect do you think a change in the Earth’s rotation would have on our daily lives?
The Giving Tree:
How would the story have been different if the tree had asked for something in return every time the boy visited?

18. Questions from DPI’s AIG-IRP: Elementary
Is it better to be right or wrong? Why?
Given this type of problem, which strategy works best and most often? Why?
Are positive human impacts on the environment most often in response to problems that humans created in the first place? Why do you say so?

19. Questions from DPI’s AIG-IRP: Middle School
What would happen if we ran out of room on Earth? What would our options be? Which do you think is the best option? Why?
Which of the people involved in this news do you think most/least deserves the title of “expert”? Why?

20. Questions from DPI’s AIG-IRP: High School
What factors must be considered when deciding whether something or someone is evil?
How might the demographics of Wilmington look today if African Americans weren’t forced to leave during the race riots?

21. 2-Minute Reflection Look back over the previous questions:
What makes these questions high level and appropriate for AIG learners?

22. Upcoming AIG Booster Shots
Tiered assignments
Curriculum Compacting
Seminars
Concept-based teaching
Concept Development
Projects, independent studies, small-group investigations