1. 1 Name Nektaria SelimaWhich of the four face-to-face institute or Elluminate session topics did you select to report on and why? I opted to report on the institute on the subject of “Engaging children in collaborative literacy learning” in combination with the first session referred to questions that are asked in classrooms. The reason for this this selection is related with my everyday professional practice.With whom did you pilot this new practice and at what grade level did you undertake your pilot? I pilot this new practice with a colleague of mine who is the teacher of the third grade, because he was willing to apply this new practice in his lessons and felt safe to do so. I also applied the same practice in my class, which is the fifth grade. In this point I would like to define that our school is composed of six grades, which means that every grade is one single class. The question game

2. 2 Connections with Colleagues - A few words about our new practice and connections with colleaguesin experimenting with this new practice After the first illuminate session I took under serious consideration the fact that in most cases I am the one who asks the questions though I was really interesting in making children ask questions instead. I shared my thoughts with John and we started thinking together when and why we ask questions and how could we motivate children do that instead of us. We both agreed that we asked questions in order to make connections with prior knowledge, assess if students are with us in the attempt of learning something new and generally that asking is a way to maintain our students active during lessons. So we thought that it would be a good idea to ask our students make questions instead of us and we choose to do so in history lessons. We thought that it would be tempting to pupils if they would be presented as a game among teams. So each team should think of a question related to the previous lesson, which would also be a kind of prior knowledge assessment for both teams, the one who asks and the other who answers. In order to assess the understanding of new knowledge we would do he same thing. Each team has the right to choose the team who would answer the question and then review the answer. The team who answer correctly will ask the next question in another team, in order for all teams be able to participate the game. In this attempt of pupils we decided to be the facilitators and help pupils express themselves, review others’ answers. We also had the role of the “referee” as we had to grade the questions with preannounced points. (what and when questions= 1 point, which questions = 2 points, how and why questions = 3 points).

3. 3Successes Name two or three 'successes' you experienced with this pilot. What changes did you notice? 1) Pupils seemed to enjoy asking questions and there were times that there had been imaginative questions. 2) Collaborative learning was boosted as students had to cooperate in order to think of a question that would not be very easy for the other team. 3) This practice motivated students remain active during the lessons and captured their interesting as it has so many in common with kids beloved sport, which is basketball. 4) Low performance students involved themselves more in the lesson as it seemed more like a game to them, which they liked to attend.

4. 4Challenges Name two or three challenges you experienced with the pilot. What got in the way of your success? 1)I was not sure about how low performance pupils would accept this pilot practice. It was a relief that all students like this “game”. 2)Most common questions still are these of low significance (what and when questions) 3)Why questions are usually asked and answered by high performanced students.

5. 5 Next Steps Name two or three next steps with this material. What will you try next? How will you build on your experiences with the institute? 1.I always liked to try new practices in my class. After attending this institute I think that I have taken the right path and I feel safer to try new practices in the future time. 2.I will do my best to engage and motivate students remain active during lessons. 3.I will promote team working because peer sharing bring students near and give them the opportunity to understand that two brains are better than one, which in my opinion is life lesson.