Questioning and Discussion
Rebecca Gaddie
Betsy Madison
Please complete the
Questioning Anticipation Guide
"Good teaching is more a giving
of right questions than a giving of
right answers."
Josef Albers
Today’s target for learning:
• Today we will expand our
understanding and use of
questioning and discussion
techniques to enhance teaching
and learning and increase student
achievement
Habits Are Hard to Break
A teacher with 20 years of experience
will have asked something like a half a
million questions in her career. And
when you’ve done something the same
way, half a million times, it’s quite
difficult to start doing it another way.
Wiliam (2003)
Questions
Why do we ask questions?
• To guide students toward understanding
when we introduce material
• To push students to do a greater share of
the thinking in the classroom
• To remediate an error
• To stretch students
• To check for understanding
Questioning Facts
• On Average, a teacher asks 400
questions a day (one third of their time)
• Most of the questions are answered in
less than one second (Hastings, 2003)
• 60% recall facts and 20% are procedural
(Hattie, 2012)
• IRE structure is dominate (Initiate –
respond –evaluate)
• Most answers are right or wrong
End of the Day Reflection Activity
• What questioning and discussion
techniques/strategies could you use to
enhance the lesson you brought today?
• How can this lesson better represent the
Critical Attributes of Domain 3B of PGES?
• What one indicator from Domain 3B of PGES
could you focus on in this lesson?
• How can you move this lesson to a more
student led lesson?
• Review your data—painting and table
• Brainstorm a few questions. Select a
question that can be answered using only the data in the
painting and the table.
• Answer your question.
• Select a method of displaying the results of your data analysis.
• Create your display sharing your question and the answer to
your question.
• As a group, what else are you curious about now that you’ve
analyzed your data? What questions do you have that would
require more than the available data you have? Write those
questions.
Effective Questioning and CHETL
5 Keys to Formative Assessment
Clarifying, sharing, understanding goals for learning and
criteria for success with learners.
Engineering effective classroom discussions, questions,
activities, and tasks that elicit evidence of students’ learning.
Providing feedback that moves learning forward.
Activating students as learners for their own learning.
Activating students as learning resources for one another.
To what extent do you
intentionally and
systematically use
questioning to facilitate
formative assessment and
feedback to support student
learning?
(Strategy= Think-Pair-Share)
PGES Domain 3: Instruction; Component 3b:
Questioning and Discussion Techniques
1.Read Domain #3, Component B
As you read this, think about
classrooms you have visited. Which
column best describes what you have seen?
2. Compare and Contrast the “Accomplished”
and “Exemplary” Columns
3. On a piece of paper, Summarize the
difference between the two designations
4. Match up with a partner
5. Listen carefully to their summarization of the
differences
6. NOW- as a team create a NEW summary of
the difference that is SUPERIOR to your individual
answers--Be Prepared to share out.
Strategy: FSLC (Formulate, Share, Listen, Create)
Another variation of FSLC– 4 Corners
Consider what it takes to move your practice
from accomplished to exemplary in the area of
questioning and discussion techniques
Write down one Classroom idea for each
element that you can use to move your practice
from accomplished to exemplary
(Strategy= Give one/Get one)
Open and Closed Questions
Closed Questions

Imply that teacher has
a predetermined
correct response in
mind

Recall of facts

Simple comprehension
where answer has been
previously provided
Open Questions

Allow for range of
responses

Encourage students to
think beyond literal
answers

Help teacher to assess
student’s understanding
of content
Strategies for Redeeming Closed
Questions
•
•
•
•
•
A Range of Answers
A Statement
Right and Wrong
Starting From the Answer/End
Opposing Standpoint
Wait Time--Think Time--Write Time—
Talk Time
 When 3 or more seconds of Wait Time
is given…
 …the length and correctness of student
responses increases.
 …the number of “I don’t know” and no
answer responses decreases.
 …the number of volunteered, correct
answers increases.
 When 3 or more seconds of Wait Time is
given….
 …teacher questions are more varied and
flexible.
 …the quantity of questions decreases and
the quality increases.
 …teachers ask add-on questions requiring
higher-level thinking and processing.
Wait Time=Think Time
 3 second minimum
 Instruct students to take a “thinking moment”
before you either open the floor for answers or,
better yet, YOU choose a student to respond.
 Provides the students with a time of reflection
and rehearsal
 Write the question on the board during
student think time.
Write Time
“I don’t know what I think until I write it down.”
(Norman Mailer)
 Especially helpful for tactile/kinesthetic learners
 It’s not specifically the writing that helps the
learning
Writing is an active, rather than passive, task
 Writing involves more of the whole body in the process of
thinking
 Writing clarifies perspectives

Talk Time
“If you have to talk, you have to think.”
The importance of talk

“ By the age of 4, the child of professional parents in the US will
have had nearly twice as many words addressed to it as the
working-class child, and over four times as many as a child on
welfare. For the middle-class child, encouragement from
parents vastly outweighs discouragement; but for the child on
welfare the climate of adult reaction is an overwhelmingly
discouraging one. While talk is essential for intellectual and
social development, for some children, the talk which they
engage in at school is nothing less than a lifeline.” (Robin
Alexander, 2004)
Agree or Disagree with this statement
“If my students are to
demonstrate, explain, critique,
analyze, and answer, they need
to have academic
conversations.”
Think Time/Write Time
 Write a few of your thoughts on a post-
it note
Talk Time
 Group (table) discussion using
Discussion Stems
Right is Right
• What’s the difference between pretty
good and 100% correct?
• How do you respond to “almost right”
answers?
Right is Right
 Many teachers respond to almost-correct
answers by “rounding up.” They affirm and
repeat the answer, adding the details to make
it fully correct.
 Most students stop processing when they
hear the word “right.”
 What does this communicate about the
standard of correctness in your classroom?
 Who’s doing the cognitive work?
No Opt Out
 A sequence that begins with a student unable to
answer a question and should end with the
student answering that question
1. Teacher provides the answer; the student repeats
the answer.
 2. Another student provides the answer; the initial
student repeats the answer.
 3. You provide a cue; the student uses it to find the
answer.
 4. Another student provides the cue; the initial
student uses it to find the answer.

Cold Call
• ALL students should answer ALL questions in
their minds.
– You merely choose one student to speak the
answer out loud.
• The goal is for the student to get the answer
right, not learn a lesson by getting it wrong.
• Ask the question, pause, call the name of the
student you want to answer the question.
Cold Call benefits:
• You can check any student’s level of mastery
at any time
• Time saver
• Shows students you want to hear everyone’s
opinion
• Establishes that you are in charge and all
students are accountable
How do we make sure Right is Right,
no student can Opt Out of answering a
question, and reduce the anxiety of
Cold Call, while not humiliating
students?
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: Close Reading of a
Non-Fiction Text
Simple to Complex
• Simple questions engage student thinking,
and activate memory and opinions.
• Simple questions build a fact base
students can build on to argue more
complex questions.
• Correctly answering simple questions
builds student confidence and increases
the likelihood they will attempt harder
questions.
The Role of Background Knowledge in
Student Success
Every child comes to school with a “frame”
made of their experiences since birth.
 Some students have a frame that looks like garden
lattice.
 Some students have a skinny little
frame.
All day long, we throw “dirt clods” at
their frames.
New Knowledge has to have Prior
Knowledge to “stick” to.
Which frame will more dirt clods stick to?
Stretch It
• The questioning experience doesn’t end with
a correct answer.
• Correct answers are built on with:
– How? or Why?
– Another way to answer
– A better word
– EVIDENCE
– A related skill
– Application in a new setting
Effective Student Discussions
“Involving students in
discussion is like allowing them
to double swipe their cognitive
card. It forces them to stop,
reflect, process, repackage, and
deliver whatever they’re
learning.”
{Persida Himmele}
Authentic Discussions~ what does it
take?
• A warm classroom climate- students must
feel comfortable talking to each other
• A physical set up conducive to discussionstudents need to see each other
• Establish criteria for a good discussion- if
you want to see if you need to teach it…
• Listen well and validate questionsexpand on them, challenge them, and
encourage students to challenge you!
• Allow enough time for the discussion
and for students to respond. “wait
time.”
• Warm up the audience: review
questions, etc…
• Talk Moves
How do we increase the likelihood that our
students will engage in academically focused
conversations?
Curiosity +
Purpose
+
Structure
Mathematics Discussion
• How does Ms. Simpson encourage
mathematical discourse?
• How does Ms. Simpson encourage her
students to respect and value differing points
of view?
• What is one take-away, from this video, about
facilitating discussion in your classroom?
Socratic Seminar
• Socratic Seminar in the Classroom
• What strategies encourage higher student
engagement and the participation of all
individuals?
• How might you use Socratic seminar with
other grade levels?
The Power of Sentence Stems
• “Providing students with the beginning of an
academic response is a very effective tool for
increasing the quality and quantity of student
participation. Sentence starters serve to both
focus attention on critical content as well as
provide students with the language support
needed to engage in academic discussions. It
also increases the likelihood that students will
apply previously taught lesson terms in their
formal writing and speaking.”
• Kevin Feldman & Kate Kinsella
Purposeful Pairings
Coming to the Discussion Prepared
• Preparation for the Discussion
• How does this strategy enrich discussion?
• How could you use this strategy to encourage
reluctant students to participate?
Tricks of the Trade
•
•
•
•
•
Poker Chips
Talking Sticks
Discussion Cards
Hand out Questions in Advance
Post-Its
Student Questioning
• “Four Strategies to Spark Curiosity via Student
Questioning”
• (Strategy) LAST WORD
Engaging Students in Effective Questions

When giving an assignment, ask your students to
prepare three questions they had while they were
completing the assignment.

Ask your students to write three questions they would
expect to answer on a quiz covering the assignment
content.

Start class by having your students share their
questions in small groups or as a whole class.

Your students’ questions will stimulate discussion and
provide you “informative” assessment data.

Use your Blooms’ Flip chart to help. Make a class set.

Students Asking Questions
Teachers cannot teach
(and students cannot learn)
everything there is to know.
(Brookhart, 2009)
Authentic Questions
End of the Day Reflection Activity
• What questioning and discussion
techniques/strategies could you use to
enhance the lesson you brought today?
• How can this lesson better represent the
Critical Attributes of Domain 3B of PGES?
• What one indicator from Domain 3B of PGES
could you focus on in this lesson?
• How can you move this lesson to a more
student led lesson?