Building Thinking Classrooms: Ch 5 - How We Answer Questions

This chapter had excellent information and suggestions for what to do with student questions.

Students perceive their job as a student is to ask questions.

And the job of the teacher is to answer these questions.

While this is true in theory,

It's the types of questions that we need to be focusing on.

Question 1

What are some things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

I totally recognized the PROXIMITY questions.

Questions from students while I'm in the area to make them look like they are on task,

But questions they themselves could easily answer.

"Removing" myself for the first 3-4 minutes to avoid these proximity questions will be my first line of defense.

Question 2

The introduction talked about institutional norms being a potential source of student disengagement and lack of thinking in the classroom. This chapter talks about the way we, as teacher, answer questions as contributing to students' not thinking. In what other ways do our interactions with students reduce or remove their need to think?

For many many years, I have been answering student questions with a question.

My thinking being that if I asked them a question back, they would have to think through the process.

However, here lately, I have started to wonder if my questions were too leading,

And actually taking away the ability for them to do the thinking. 

Question 3

Many of the practices for building thinking classrooms discussed to this point are ways in which we can create environments that get students to think. The practice discussed in this chapter, in many ways, is the opposite of this. In this chapter, you learned about ways to avoid doing things that stop thinking. What other practices stop thinking?

Reading, going over directions prior to the activity.  Instead, I should have students read the directions, consult with their group, and then ask questions of me for items they don't understand.  By going over the directions together, students tune out knowing that someone in their group will know what to do. 

Questions 4

What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

Recognizing the proximity and stop-thinking questions when they happen.  I will need to create a cheat sheet of the list of go-to questions (see below) until they become second nature. 

1. Isn't that interesting?

2. Can you find something else?

3. Can you show me how you did that?

4. Is that always true?

5. Why do you think that is?

6. Are you sure?

7. Does that make sense?

8. Why don't you try something else?

9. Why don't you try another one?

10. Are you asking me or telling me?

Remembering when answering a question with a question to walk away so the stop-thinking questions don't start up again.  If walking away seems to abrupt, simply smile at the student to encourage them and acknowledge the question, and then walk away.