HOW DOES ASKING OUR
STUDENTS QUESTIONS ENGAGE
THEM IN THEIR LEARNING?
Campbell County Schools
What, Why, How….
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What are you learning? Ask this question after going over the learning
target for the lesson.
Why are you learning about this? Make a real-world connection with the
students so they see how this effects their daily lives.
How can I use what I am learning? I can use this concept (math) for adding
up my lunch money. (science) for seeing what I need to wear for the day
Make connections between content
How could we use this concept in another
subject?
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Original
Revised
Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Jigsaw
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Explore the your assigned level of Bloom’s with your
team
Consider:
The definition
 Verbs for objectives
 Outcome/product/instructional strategies
 Model questions
 What do you think the relationship of student engagement is
to each level?
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Prepare a chart for our gallery walk that represents
your level of Bloom’s
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Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling
relevant knowledge from long-term memory. Think:
How engaging?
Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral,
written, and graphic messages through interpreting,
exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring,
comparing, and explaining. Think: How engaging?
Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through
executing, or implementing. Think: How engaging?
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Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts,
determining how the parts relate to one another and to an
overall structure or purpose through differentiating,
organizing, and attributing. Think: How engaging?
Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and
standards through checking and critiquing. Think: How
engaging?
Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or
functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern
or structure through generating, planning, or producing.
Think: How engaging?
Student Engagement
What is the power in these questions?
How can these be used in the classroom to enhance
student engagement?
How often should these questions be asked? What
does this do to enhance the learning in the
classroom?
How can they be part of assessment? How can this
add to engagement of the students?
How are thinking processes related to language
functions ? Which language functions are most
engaging?
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A thinking process
becomes a
language function
when we
communicate our
thoughts in written
or spoken words.
Identify the actions
in the 2nd column
that are language
functions – indicate
which may be most
engaging to
students.
Goldilocks Example
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Remember:
Describe where Goldilocks lives.
______ lives in ______ which is _______.
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Understand:
Summarize what the Goldilocks story was about.
The story was about a ________ who _________.
Goldilocks Example
Apply: Construct a theory as to why Goldilocks went
into the house.
I think _____________ because ___________.
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Goldilocks Example
Analyze: Differentiate between how Goldilocks reacted
and how you would react in each story event.
If I were Goldilocks I would have _____________.

Me
Goldilocks Example
Evaluate: Assess whether or not you think this is a
fantasy or a reality.
I think this story is __________ because ________.
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I think this story is __________ because_____.
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Create: Compose a song, skit, poem, or rap to convey the
Goldilocks story in a new form with a modern day theme.
Developing Rigorous Questions
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Powerful Questions, essential questions and smart
questions are the foundation for information,
engaged learning and informational literacy
Five Questions about a title
Last Lines
 How
do the questions line up with Blooms?
 How can those responses be used as a formative
assessment? For differentiation?
 How engaging are these questions for students?
Socrates on Questioning
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Thinking is not driven by answers, but by questions
Every intellectual field is born out of a cluster of questions to
which answers are either needed or highly desirable
Questions define tasks, express problems and delineate
issues. Answers signal full stop in thought
Only when an answer generates a further question does
though continue its life
The quality of questions students ask determines the quality
of the thinking they are doing
No questions=no understanding
Superficial questions= superficial understanding
What Questions Matter?
Why?
- requires analysis of cause and effect and the
relationship between variables
How?
- the basis for problem-solving and synthesis
Which?
- requires thoughtful decision-making
Give examples of questions here
Examples should be “problem based” – so they can see how the question could
walk right into an action/task/project based learning activity….
Does that make sense to you?
1.
2.
3.
An essential question that encompasses the
entire year
An essential question that encompasses
one of your instructional units
An essential question that can be
answered after a lesson
Essential Questions
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Are central to our lives, common to all and
contestable
Are the heart of the search for truth
Probe the deepest issues
Are at the center of all the other types of questions
Lend themselves to multidisciplinary investigations
Answers are not readily found
Engage students in real-life problem solving
Need to be answered with subsidiary questions
What does this look like?
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Open ended questions
Non “yes” or “no” answer possibilities
Precise language
Include wait time
Acknowledge or all responses
Response must be non-judgmental or “guess what I’m thinking” – not
looking for “pleasing the authority”
Paraphrase, not praise
Rephrase, not repeat
Thinking aloud
Think/pair/share
Entices more questioning
What have you learned?
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Reflect on what you have learned
Blooms levels of questions
How questioning strategies lead to thinking and
student engagement
Essential questions and their uses
Incorporating questioning strategies in the
classroom