ASKING BETTER QUESTIONS
Schema Activator
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Think-Pair-Share:
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–
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Review the questions you have collected from
teacher observations.
Reflect: Which ones do you consider to be
“higher level”?
Pair & Share: Compare your questions with those
of a colleague.
Characteristics of Teachers
Who Expect Students to
Learn at High Levels

High Expectations

Challenging Curriculum

Instruction: High-level Questioning
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Instruction: Differentiation and Multiple
Intelligences
4 Models of Questioning
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New Bloom’s Taxonomy
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Ciardello’s Four Types of Questions
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Quality

Wierderhold Question Matrix
QUESTIONS
New Bloom’s Taxonomy
OLD
NEW
Ciardiello’s Four Types of Questions
Question Types
Cognitive Operations
Memory
Naming, defining, identifying
Convergent Thinking
Explaining, comparing,
contrasting
Divergent
Thinking
Predicting, hypothesizing,
inferring
Evaluative Thinking
Valuing, judging, justifying,
choices
CIARDIELLO
Question Types
Memory
Convergent Thinking
Divergent
Thinking
Evaluative Thinking
BLOOM
Cognitive Operations
Characteristics of Good Questioning
Q - quality
U - understanding
E - encourage multiple responses
S - spark new questions
T - thought-provoking
I - individualized
O - ownership shifted to students
N - narrow and broad
S - success building
Question Matrix
Chuck Wiederhold designed the Question
Matrix in 1991. As you proceed through the
matrix, the questions become more complex
and open-ended.
I
II
III
IV
LINKING
CIARDIELLO / WIEDERHOLD
Question
Types
Memory
Convergent Thinking
I
II
Divergent
Thinking
III
IV
Evaluative Thinking
WIEDERHOLD QUESTION MATRIX
Event
What is?
Present
Situation
Where /
When is?
Choice
Person
Reason
Means
Which is?
Who is?
Why is?
How is?
Past
What did?
Where /
When did?
Which did?
Who did?
Why did?
How did?
Possibility
What can?
Where /
When can?
Which can?
Who can?
Why can?
How can?
Probability
What
would?
Where /
When
would?
Which
would?
Prediction
What will?
Where /
When will?
Which will?
Imagination
What
might?
Where /
When
might?
Which
might?
Who would? Why would? How would?
Who will?
Why will?
How will?
Who might? Why might? How might?
Ask Questions That:
•
•
•
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Stimulate a wide range of student participation from
both volunteering and non-volunteering students.
Redirect initially asked questions to other students!
Probe initial student answers. Encourage them to
complete, clarify, expand, or support their answers
Require students to generate questions of their own
Results in Student Behaviors
When Wait Time is Increased
• Decrease in “I don’t know” responses
• Length & accuracy of answers increases
• Increase in volunteered, appropriate
responses
• Increased achievement test scores
Results in Teacher Behaviors
When Wait Time is Increased



Questioning strategies became more flexible
and varied
Quantity of questions asked decreased,
while the quality and variety of questions
increased
Higher-order, divergent questions were
asked more often
Classroom “Look fors”
•
Encourage teachers to prepare questions
in advance.
Questions should be scaffolded from
easy to hard.
•
•
Look for an environment that is studentled. Students should be working
collaboratively, raising questions, and
responding to their peers.
Academy of Aerospace &
Engineering Middle School
Math Classroom
English/Language Arts Classroom
Exit Slip
Review questions from Schema Activator.
Review ratings of these questions. Would you change these? Why?
What suggestions would you give to the teacher(s) who originally
developed these questions to help them improve their techniques?