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​Classroom Strategies and Terminologies

The Art of Questioning for Teachers: from a Linguistic Point of View

The paramount role of a teacher's question in the classroom interaction has long been established. In recent years research into teacher's questions has increased tremendously (Sunga, 2004). Studies show conclusively that teachers ask questions and that teachers ak quetions that do not develop higher order thinking. To address this issue, good questioning techniques should be employed so that questions asked will not only foster studenbt learning but likewise provide useful feedback for the teacher.

1. A question in essence is something that is meant to elicit a response. It is best however to note that instructions and questions are two non-interchangeable things. When directions or instructions are translated into questions a danger in changing the social and cognitive interaction can take place, meaning the learner or listener may just answer the question without necessarily producing an action. take a look at these examples: Will you please stand?//** Both examples require a response which may come either verbally or non-verbally, however, if the learner only responds a yes or a no for the second question and does not react accordingly,then the purpose of asking that question is not realized.
 * //Stand!

2. A question is made up of words that begin with an interrogative operator and ends with a question mark. These questions may be in forms of wh- questions, yes-no questions, tag questions, and or-questions. Take a look at these samples: Are you alright? Do you like cookies or cake? Shakespeare alos write poems, didn't he?**
 * When did he arrive at the scene?

3. Effectiveness of a question also depends on voice inflection which can turn almost any sentence into a question, whether you mean it or not. Take a look at these samples. Of the three, the third one exhibits the perfect structure of a poem linguistically, however with the proper voice inflection, the other two are also considered questions. Miguel is leaving for good? Is Miguel leaving for good?
 * You said Miguel was leaving for good?

Why do we question?** 1. Questions initiate learning by arousing interest and by making the learner be focused ona topic. 2. Questions guide learning through the learner's previewing or comprehending the text through a graphic organizer, learner's focus on significant parts of a given text prior to reading, and through redirection of thinking. 3. Questions are used to assess learning.

1. Low-Level Questions - those that enable learners to retrieve or recall facts explicitly stated in the text; repeat a definition found in the text; exercise learne's memory; give limited and specific answers; give a single correct answer. 2. High-Level questions - those that enable the learners to do more than mere recall; translate and interpret information; apply informatin through understanding basic concepts; analyze information; sysnthesize informatin; make judgments.
 * What are the types of classroom questioning?**

1. Extending - a string of questions of the same type and of the same toic. 2. Extending and Lifting - initial questions request examples and instances of the same type followed by a leap to a different type of questions. 3. Funneling - begins with an open question and proceeds to a narrow down to single deductions and recall or to reasons and problem solving. 4. Sowing and Reaping - problems posed. open questions asked, followed by more specific questions and restatement of initial problem. 5. Step-by-step Up - sequence of questions moving systematically from recall to problem solving, evaluation, or open-ended questions. 6. Step-by-step Down - bgins with evaluation questions and move systematically through problem-solving toward direct recall.
 * How do we question in the classroom?**

1. Redirection - increases student paricipation and prevents teacher domination. This done through askng a single question for which there are several answers or to call on students who don't normally participate during discussion. 2. Prompting - uses hints and clues to assist student to come up with a response done through asking series of questions containing help for the learner to develop a response. 3. Probing - deals with insufficient answers thus promoting reflective thought and critical thinking and can be done for clarification, asking for support, for a consensus, for accuracy, for relevance, for more examples, and for complexity. 4.Wait time - the time teachers spend to elicit a response from the learners.
 * What are the techniques of Questioning?**

1. The wrong answer - acknowledge the wrong answer and refocus student to the original question. 2. //I don't know the answer// - show willingness to assist, contextualize the problem, make the learner idenify himself/herself with the problem, decompose high level questions to simple factual ones. Use wait time and prompting as much as possible. 3.The weak/inadequate answer - acknowledge the answer, refocus student to the original question, decompose high level questions, use wait time and probing. 4. The wrong answer due to teacher's failure to activate prior knowledge - activate prior knowledge, contextualize the problem, start with low level questions, use prompting, waiti time, and probing as necessary. 5. The "no answer" due to language - contextualize the problem by making learneridentify himself/herself in the problem, decompose high level questions to simle factual ones. DO NOT shift to any other language but maintain the use of English.
 * How should teachers handle student responses?**

**__Teacher Interaction with Students __ **
 * A teacher's interactions with students set the tone for the classroom. Without a positve tone, very little learning is possible. **

In classroom with robust cultures for learning, all students receive the message that, although the work is challenging, they are capable of achieving thye goals if they are prepared to work hard.
 * __Expectations for Learning and Achievement__

__Monitoring Student Behavior __ **
 * Experienced teachers are attuned to what is happening in the classroom and move subtly to help students reengage with the lesson content. When skillfully done, the learning of the other students continues and the intervention goes unnoticed by the rest of the class.

-Emmeliza L. Cabanero  ​ **Talk Moves //Taken form// //Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help students Learn by Suzanne Chapin (publication date: September, 2003)//

This move not only gives the instructor time clarify what the student is saying, it also provides opportunity for fellow students to have another opportunity to clarify and make sense out of what a student is saying.
 * Revoicing** //"So you're saying that..."//

This move is useful instead of the instructoe revoicing. Ask one student to repeat or rephrase what another student has said, and then immediately follow up with the first student. //"Is what so-and-so said what you meant?"//
 * Asking students to restate someone else's reasoning** //"Can you repeat what (another person) just said in your own words?"//

After a student has made a claim, and the instructor has made sure that everyone else has heard it and has had time to process it, he/she can move on to elicit learners' reasoning about the claim.
 * Asking students to apply their own reasoning to someone else's reasoning** //"Do you agree or disagree and why?"//

This move can be used after the instructor has revoiced what a student has said. This prompting for more input on previous statement will, over time, result in learners showing more willingness to weigh in on what the group is considering.
 * Providing students for further //participation//** //"Would someon like to add on?"//

Many teachers are familiar with the important finding that after having asked a question, a teacher should wait at least ten seconds for students to think before calling on someone for an answer. Wait time also comes into play after a student has been called on. After an instructor has called on a particular student, that student should be given at least the same amount of time to organize his or her thoughts.
 * Using wait time** //"Take your time...we'll wait..."//

//--- shared by Geraldine Rosos // __What is Enrichment?__ by E. Ballano, Jr. The Practical Strategies Series in Gifted Education booklet on //Enrichment// authored by Julia Roberts provided a definition of enrichment as the act of making something rich or richer especially by the addition or increase of some desirable quality, attribute, or ingredient (Webster Dictionary). The book also provided description of the strategy given by both Joseph Renzulli and Sally Reis (1997) that the strategy of enrichment is designed to encourage creative productivity on the part of young people by exposing them to various topics, areas of interests, and fields of study and to further train them to apply advanced content, process-training skills, and methodology training to self-selected areas of interest. On the other hand Schiever and Maker (2003) explained that enrichment is aimed at offering a curriculum that is greater in depth or breadth than that generally provided. Enrichment is done either in or out school giving multiple opportunities to the gifted population that could enhance their giftedness and bring it to a higher degree. The book gave several reasons for enrichment—fostering interest, nurturing talent, developing expertise, and increasing achievement. Such reasons follow up a result of differentiated activities through pre-assessment scores. The notion of the theory of enrichment is coined at the fact that students or individuals are indeed disctinct. No two persons learn in the same exact way (Tomlinson, 2001). Using the theories of Gardner (1999), Renzulli (1978), and Sternberg (19990 as a springboard, creativity, talents, and intelligence of the youth who are observed and found to be precocious should be given and be exposed to multiple and varied opportunities to tap their talents and develop their potentials to a maximum level. VanTassel-Baska’s (2003) nonnegotiables in gifted education declared that for a school system that provides gifted service to succeed, an opportunity for enrichment must be present. This idea is clearly given example in Tolan’s (1996) where she used a cheetah as a metaphor to developing the talents and honing potentials of giftedness. If exposed to various enrichment activities ( such as academic teams, competitions and contests, debates and forensics, problem –solving programs, literature-based programs, leadership seminars, send-out or pullout services, simulations, clubs and organizations, drama, music, art, and literature opportunities, mentorships, summer programs, weekend programs, travel studies, study groups, and student-initiated projects), the talented and gifted individuals are exposed to a variety of choices where they could readily examine their capabilities resulting to being able to fully develop what they are good at, and improving on what they need to focus more. Offering enrichment is not a sole responsibility of the academe but even the community in general—that is even parents, government officials, and the neighborhood. As an educational vision of any school, everyone aims that any student going to school must receive the necessary skill in order to ready him/her to become responsible citizens in the future. In order to make this vision come true, enrichment is just one opportunity that could serve as a catalyst for this process. Looking at how activities and processes in the schools in the United States, specifically in Prince George’s County Public Schools, there seems to be some factors observed to have hindered the offering of this opportunity. It seems that the idea of differentiated instruction, which is very significant in offering enrichment, is not fully understood. Despite many attempts to provide professional development, teachers may have found difficulty in implementing the theory because of the decreasing quality of students’ concept of school, and to top it all the multi-culturalism that is present in every school. With the much structured curriculum mandated by the state, it seems that offering enrichment is far from possibility as teachers’ creativity have now been blocked by structured lessons, anthology, and many other resources. More so, some teachers do not have the competence to teach the subject matter and even the administration of the said theory. Sad though, yet we continue to aim high and envision a better future for each of these students. I think that if the primary root of the problem is addressed—that is ensuring that the goal of education is fully understood by all the stakeholders—there would be no problem in implementing whatever new trend and theory there is to improve education. True enough; no two individuals learn the same way. Therefore, as educators, I firmly hold that we continue to explore better understanding on what we really need to do, on what and how are students want to learn, and on pointing out necessary stock of knowledge that every individual should have in every grade level. Once these are settled and identified, opportunities such enrichment can very well succeed.