Higher Level Questioning
- 1. + Something to think about HOW DOES YOUR QUESTIONING BEHAVIOR RATE? How often do you challenge students by asking questions that arouse their curiosity? Do you make them want to know more? To what extent do your questions encourage students to listen to each other’s responses, opinions? To what extent do your questions promote self-evaluation by your students? To what extent do you preplan key questions you want to ask during the lesson? To what extent do your questions call for students to think for themselves? Do you ask a variety of questions— recall vs. thought questions? Do you get all students involved in class discussions? Do students speak to each other when responding or only to you? Do you wait a reasonable time for students to think about their responses before calling on them or permitting them to speak? Do you encourage your students to ask questions?
- 2. + Higher Level Questioning: ways to challenge our students Todd Stanley Gifted Services Coordinator www.thegiftedguy.com
- 3. + Why use higher level questioning in the classroom Questioning is the most powerful tool in a teaching repertoire. High-level, open-ended questions lead to better student understanding. Quality, thoughtful questions set high expectations and promote critical and creative thinking as well problem solving. Teachers can challenge every student by differentiating with effective questioning.
- 4. + The core of asking questions Use the levels of Bloom’s to guide you Higher Level Thinking Lower Level Thinking
- 5. + Lower Level Questioning Remember Understand Apply What percentage of your questions fall into one of these three? These act as the building blocks for students but ask yourself how often you are stopping there instead of using this foundation of knowledge and understanding to challenge students with higher level thinking skills. Lower level questions should just be the beginning, the starting point before jumping into deeper levels of questioning.
- 6. + Higher Level Questioning Analyzing Evaluating Creating This is where the depth of learning takes place for students. Because these questions tend to be more open-ended there is no ceiling on them. These levels of questions are not necessarily more complex, they just require students to access a different level of thinking. These also help students to see the context of content, looking at the big picture rather than just a specific fact.
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- 8. + The difference…? Usually questions at the lower levels are appropriate for: Evaluating students’ preparation and comprehension. Diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses. Reviewing and/or summarizing content. Questions at higher levels are usually more appropriate for: Encouraging students to think deeply and critically. Problem-solving. Encouraging discussions. Stimulating students to seek information on their own.
- 9. + Applying Bloom’s Remember – What are items used by Goldilocks while she was in the Bears’ house? Understand – Explain why Goldilocks liked Baby Bear’s chair the best. Apply –What would Goldilocks use if she came to your house. Analyze – Compare this story to reality. What events could not really happen? Evaluate – Judge whether Goldilocks was right for entering the Bears’ house. Defend your opinion. Create – Imagine how the story would change if you moved the setting from the woods to the ocean. Using the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- 10. + Changing the Question from Lower to Higher Lower lever: What is the setting of the book? This question checks a student’s ability to recognize through comprehension where the book is set. There is definitely a right and wrong answer. Higher level question: How does the setting influence the story? If the setting were different would that change the effectiveness of the story in any way? This question allows the student to recognize and identify the setting but also to evaluate whether this was an effective setting and create a setting of their own.
- 11. + Changing the Question from Lower to Higher Lower lever: What are three factors that allowed the Colonists to win the American Revolution? This question checks a student’s ability to recall facts. These facts may be very complex and involving, but they are still something that they were told or read and they are repeating them back. Higher level question: How might the United States be different if the British had won the American Revolution? This question requires them to take knowledge and understanding they have accumulated and make a likely prediction based on these (ex. British people drink a lot of tea, Colonists stopped drinking tea in protest to the Boston Tea Party. Thus Americans would not drink as much coffee and would drink more tea.)
- 12. + What motive does ____ have…..? What conclusions can you draw about…..? What is the relationship between…..? How is ______ related to …..? What ideas support the fact that…..? What evidence can you find…..? What inferences can you make about…..? What generalizations can be made about …..? What assumptions do you make about …..? What is the theme of…..? Analysis Openers
- 13. + Compare two characters in the selection….which was a better person…why? Which character would you most like to spend the day with? Do you agree with the actions of…..? How could you determine…..? Why was it better that…..? What choice would you have made about…..? How would you explain…..? What data was used to make the conclusion…..? Would it be better if…..? Evaluation Openers
- 14. + What would happen if…..? What advice would you give…..? What changes would you make to…..? Can you give an explanation for…..? How could you change the plot…..? Suppose you could _____, what would you do…..? How would you rewrite the section from _________’s point of view…..? How would you rewrite the ending of the story? Creating Openers
- 15. + Take cues from the standards? Look at the verb in the standard for a clue. Work with Time and Money CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.C.7 Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m. Tell and write would both fall under understand, the second level of Bloom’s and lower level thinking. How could you assess mastery of that level?
- 16. + Examples of assessment of mastery Write the time from the following clock How would you indicate 5:45 on the clock? If it is dark outside would this time be AM or PM?
- 17. + How do we move it to the higher levels of thinking? By having the question be something in which students either analyze, evaluate, or create. A question requiring students to think at this level would be challenging them to go deeper. A question can be anything from answering a one sentence question to explaining yourself at length. It is not the difficulty of the question that causes students to grow, it is the level of thinking you are asking them to do.
- 18. + Analyze – breaking down information into component parts Categorize these times with the appropriate action. Bedtime Lunch Dinner Wake up
- 19. + Evaluate – judging the value of information or ideas Your parents have asked you to pick one of these times as your bedtime. Make an argument for which one is best as well as why the others are not as good a choice.
- 20. + Create – combining parts to make a new whole You are going to invent a game in which those participating must use the correct time in order to succeed. Example: Similar to the card game War, two people will turn over a card from their pile. Then a third card will be turned over from the neutral pile. Whichever time is closest to the neutral pile time wins that round and the other person must add all cards to their pile. At the end of 15 minutes, whomever has the pile with the fewest amount of cards wins the game.
- 21. + Techniques for Successful Questioning Phrasing; teacher communicates the question so that the students understand the response expectation (ie: no one word answers). Adaptation; teacher adapts the question being asked to fit the language and ability level of the students. Sequencing; teacher asks the questions in a patterned order indicating a purposeful questioning strategy. Balance; teacher asks both lower and higher level questions and balances the time between the two types. The teacher uses questions at an appropriate level or levels to achieve the objectives of the lesson. Participation; teacher uses questions to stimulate a wide range of student participation, encouraging responses from volunteering and non-volunteering students, redirects initially asked questions to other students. Probing; teacher probes initial student answers, and encourages students to complete, clarify, expand or support their answers. Wait Time (Think Time); teacher pauses three to five seconds after asking a question to allow students time to think. The teacher also pauses after students’ initial responses to questions in class. Student Questions; teacher requires students to generate questions of their own.
- 22. + Questioning Strategies that Provoke Higher Level Thinking Require students to manipulate prior information Why do you suppose.....? What can you conclude from the evidence? Ask students to state an idea or definition in their own words. Ask questions that require a solution to a problem. Involve students in observing and describing an event or object. What do you notice? Tell me about this. What do you see? Ask students to compare or contrast.
- 23. + If what, now why? If when, then how? Challenge students to ask you questions that cannot be turned into a question. Written feedback on assessments can ask for follow up. Importance of follow up questions
- 24. + When to Use Higher Level Questioning Should be embedded in the day-to-day classroom Bell ringer Exit ticket Daily work Whole group discussion Small group discussion Seminar Assessments, both multiple choice and constructed response Study guides
- 25. + Quality Questioning: Research-based Practices to Engage Every Learner by Walsh & Sattes Creating a Culture for Quality Questions
- 26. Classroom Norm Responding to higher order, think and search questions requires a low-risk environment.
- 27. Classroom Norm Responding to higher order questions requires extended think and wait time.
- 28. + Classroom Norm Students should receive direct instruction on how to formulate higher order questions.
- 29. + Classroom Norm Students should be taught and expected to ask each other higher order questions.
- 30. + Classroom Norm Designing higher order questions requires planning time.
- 31. + Classroom Norm All students should be engaged in asking and responding to questions.
- 32. + Increase Think time and Wait time After framing the question, pause while everybody has a chance to think of an answer Talk less, ask more Move from simple to complex Give opportunities for rethinking and restating Avoid “yes or no” questions Let students prepare or discuss higher level questions Don’t let a few students dominate the conversation/questioning/answering Effective Questioning Techniques
- 33. + The following simple tips can get ALL students involved in the lesson and help them gain a deeper understanding of the content by challenging them to think critically. Create a high-level thinking question for each lesson Require ALL students to answer the question Require students to defend answers. Differentiate questions as appropriate. Promote examination of new and different perspectives. Tips for Involving Students
- 34. + Ask the student/class a thought-provoking question, asking students to reflect before responding. Reverse the order. Offer student(s) the answer, and ask, “What is the question?” Employ the use of “What if...” to encourage student(s) to expand and extend answers. Get students in on the act of writing questions. If you assign a reading assignment for homework, have students prepare questions for next day’s review using Bloom’s Taxonomy. Tips for Integrating HLQ in Your Classroom
- 35. + Questions? Higher level or otherwise? thegiftedguy@yahoo.com Twitter: @the_gifted_guy