Sunday, January 25, 2015

A Classroom Full of Individuals


I have to admit, when it comes to one on one conversations with students about the hows and whys of learning, I fall incredibly short. I think I do a great job doing whole class questioning, pushing students to think more deeply but that doesn't transfer to the individual.

What if we spent 30 seconds each day asking our students questions such as:

  • What do you think this question means?
  • What do you know about this question before you research it?
  • Why did you choose that to be your answer?
  • Have you ever had any experience with this before today?
  • Where could I go to learn more about this information?
  • Where is the information you used to answer this question?
Notice these are process questions and not content questions. They could apply to any discipline at any time throughout the lesson. While content is important, I know that honing the way my students learn is much more important than the information itself.