Quality Questioning to Support
Learning and Thinking
Based on the work of Walsh and Sattes
February 27, 2014
Dr. Mary Lu MacCorkle
Fayette County
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Leadership
High Expectations/rigor
Assessment/Data
Instruction
Collaboration/Planning
Accountability/Monitoring
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Questioning Books by Jackie
Walsh and Beth Sattes
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Essential Question
How can quality questioning enhance
teacher and student thinking and
learning?
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Learning Targets
1. To better understand the relationship between
questioning, thinking, and learning
2. To explore norms that promote a culture of
thoughtfulness in classrooms and schools
3. To consider ways that all students (and adults)
can be engaged in thinking about and responding
to questions
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What Do We Know and
Want to Know?
Use the thinking routine, “Think-PuzzleExplore” (p. 2 in the handout) to think about
the learning targets—and what they mean to
you.
Select one of the objectives. Identify what
you think you know about it. Jot down what
puzzles you about it—and how you might
explore those questions.
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FRAMEWORK FOR THINKING
THROUGH QUALITY
QUESTIONING
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Questioning IS a Process
• Questions
• Participants
(Questioner & Respondents)
• Responses
• Reactions
• Culture
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Framework for Thinking Through
Quality Questioning
Frame
Quality
Questions
Promote
Response
-ability
Nurture a
Culture
for
Thinking
Strengthen
Student
Thinking
Facilitate
Use of
Feedback
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Overview of the TTQQ Framework
What? Table-team Jigsaw
Why? To understand the organizing framework of
thinking through quality questioning
How?
Number off (from 1-5) so that every participant
has a number related to the framework; share
main ideas with other team mates. (See pp. 3-7
in Activity Packet for directions and readings.)
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Does this sound familiar?
• Walk about results:
– 82% of questions—remember
– 88% of questions were asked of 1 student
– Wait time 1 was used 20 out of 500 obs.
– When no answer: repeated the question,
rephrased it or answered it
– 40% of questions answered incorrectly or
incompletely—no feedback
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Norms Associated with Thinking
Through Quality Questioning
• Purposes of
Questioning
• Think Time
• Participation
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Norms:
Purposes of Questioning
1. Use teacher questions to prompt your
thinking, not to guess the teacher’s answer.
2. Use mistakes as opportunities to learn: This
is a risk-free classroom.
3. Use follow-up questions to think about and
self-assess your first responses and to
modify or extend your thinking.
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Norms:
Purposes of Questioning
How would posting and discussing these norms
help teachers pose questions that cause students
to think? Encourage students to think about
questions?
To what extent are these norms in place in your
campus classrooms?
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A Framework for Thinking
about Questioning
Frame
Quality
Questions
Promote
Responseability
Nurture a
Culture
for
Thinking
Strengthen
Student
Thinking-toLearn
Facilitate
Use of
Feedback
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Frame Quality Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Determine content focus.
Consider instructional function.
Stipulate expected cognitive level.
Match to social context.
Polish grammar and word choice.
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1. Determine content focus: 3 R’s
• Aligned with learning goals? (Rigor)
– Promotes identified content standard(s)
– Related to identified student learning target
• Relevant to student needs, interests, and
experiences?
– Within students’ zone of proximal development
– Related to real-world experiences
• Connected to other concepts in the subject under
study or to other subjects? (Relationships)
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2. Instructional Function: Add Rigor and
Relevance
• Calculate the area of a rectangle that is 8 feet by 4
feet.
• Imagine that you and a friend want to create a dog
run, where his dog can play. You have 24 feet of
fencing. Think of three possible shapes you could
create in which the dog could play and run. Which
of the three would provide the greatest area in
which the dog could run and play?
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3. Cognitive Level: The Original
Bloom Taxonomy
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
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Taxonomy Table, Revised
Bloom
Knowledge
Dimension
Cognitive Process Dimension
Remember Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
Create
Facts
Concepts
Procedures
Metacognition
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Increasing the Cognitive
Complexity of a Math Question
The Smith family has three children,
aged 5, 7, and 9. What is the average
age?
The Smith family has three children.
Their average age is 7. What might be
the ages of the children? Be ready to
defend your answer.
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4. Changing the Context
• Is 52 an even number?
• Write down 4 even numbers and one
odd number. Ask your partner to
identify the even numbers. Check his
work. If you disagree, provide a
rationale.
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5. Polish Grammar and Wording
Read the question aloud before class.
How can you improve its
understandability and clarity?
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Grammar/Understandability
What were the major problems facing the
United States that led to the Civil War, and how
would life be different today if the southern
states had not seceded?
A number of factors contributed to the Civil War.
Which do you believe had the greatest impact
on the decision to go to war, and why? Include
political, economic, and moral considerations
for war.
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Frame Quality Questions
• In your table group, talk about the value of
teachers working together to create and/or
edit questions.
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A Framework for Thinking
about Questioning
Frame
Quality
Questions
Promote
Responseability
Nurture a
Culture
for
Thinking
Strengthen
Student
Thinkingto-Learn
Facilitate
Use of
Feedback
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Strengthen Thinking-toLearn Behaviors
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Expect thoughtful responses
Afford time for thinking
Scaffold thinking and responding
Make thinking visible
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What Response Do Teachers
Expect and Accept?
Creating and posing a quality question is step 1.
Do you remember the data from the
Walkthroughs?
Step 2 is helping students respond thoughtfully,
correctly, and completely.
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Afford Time for Thinking
Wait
Time
1
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The length of time a
teacher waits after
asking a question
before naming a
student to respond
(Recommended: 3-5
seconds minimum)
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Answering As a Process
Attend to
the
Question
Bring
Question
to Working
Memory &
Decode
Search
Long-term
Memory for
Relevant
Knowledge
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Bring
Relevant
Knowledge
to Working
Memory &
Form a
Response
Answer
Question
Out Loud
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Provide Time to Process
Wait
Time
2
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The length of time a
teacher waits after a
student stops talking—
before giving feedback
or calling on another
student
(Recommended: 3-5
seconds minimum)
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Wait Time Patterns
Teacher
Question
Wait
Time 1
Student
Answer
Talk by
students
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Wait
Time 2
P
A
U
S
E
comes
Teacher
Reaction
P
A
U
S
E
in
bursts
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Norms Associated
with Think Times
• Use the pause following the asking of a
question to think and formulate your
response.
• Use the pause after your answer to reflect and
add to or change it.
• Use the pause following a classmate’s answer
to compare it with your own. Be ready to
agree or disagree and add your own ideas.
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A Framework for Thinking
about Questioning
Frame
Quality
Questions
Promote
Responseability
Nurture a
Culture
for
Thinking
Strengthen
Student
Thinking-toLearn
Facilitate
Use of
Feedback
(c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013
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Scaffolding
Teacher scaffolding assists students in correcting or
extending their knowledge and thinking.
Which of the following is NOT appropriate
when scaffolding?
a. Providing students with the correct answer
b. Asking students to repeat the question
c. Asking questions to get behind student
thinking
d. All of the above
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Scaffolding
What does a teacher need to find out and/or
keep in mind when scaffolding?
a. The expected (i.e., correct or acceptable)
answer
b. The thinking behind the answer given by a
student
c. The knowledge and skills required to give an
acceptable answer
d. All of the above
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Standard Stems
• Stems to Extend Student Thinking
o What made you say that?
o Can you say more about ___?
• Stems to Clarify or Narrow
o Can you give me an example?
• Stems to Build Accountability for Evidence
o What is your evidence?
o What are your criteria for evaluation?
See page 8, Activity Packet, for more examples.
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What Response Do You
Expect and Accept?
Review the template, “Planning for Effective
Scaffolding.” (page 9, Activity Packet)
This is a tool best used in collaborative work with
colleagues.
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What Response Do You Expect
and Accept?
Number off at your table, 1-4. Take your handout (p.
10) and find a partner with your same number.
Using the response that matches your number (1-4),
brainstorm a number of possible teacher follow-up
questions or comments after a student gives your
assigned response.
Choose one of those teacher comments. With your
partner, role-play the asking of the question, the
student response, the selected teacher follow-up
prompt, and the student response, continuing for two
or three moves between teacher and student. Don’t
forget to use wait times as non-verbal prompts!
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A Framework for Thinking
about Questioning
Frame
Quality
Questions
Promote
Response
-ability
Nurture a
Culture for
Thinking
Strengthen
Student
Thinkingto-Learn
Facilitate
Use of
Feedback
(c) Walsh & Sattes, 2013
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Participation Norms
Responding to questions matters. “So
when teachers allow students to choose
whether to participate or not . . . they
are actually making the achievement
gap worse.” —Dylan Wiliam, Embedded Formative
Assessment, p. 81
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Participation Norms
1. Raise your hand only when you have a
question—not to volunteer to answer.
2. Be open to wonder and ask, not just to know
and answer.
3. Listen with respect to other points of view in
order to fully understand and learn
4. Monitor your talk so others can contribute.
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Changing the Rules and the
Roles of the Game
Traditional classroom questioning can be
compared to a baseball game. The
TEACHER plays the roles of: pitcher,
catcher, umpire, base players, and
outfielders.
The STUDENTS? One at a time, they come
up to bat: take a swing (sometimes hit and
sometimes miss); then go back to sit on the
bench until it’s their turn to bat again.
Who’s engaged all the time?
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Changing the Rules and the
Roles of the Game
Quality questioning classrooms engage all
players: in pitching questions, batting
(answering) in cooperative response formats,
fielding the responses, and throwing followup questions to one another.
This requires that all stay alert and
engaged all the time!
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Changing the Rules and the
Roles of the Game
Take your handout, “Shifts in Relationships—Flip It” (p.
11, handout) and stand to find a partner. Review Figure
6.2, “Shifts in Teacher Role and Relationships with
Students.”
Which would be most challenging for teachers and
students in your school?
Which do you believe might have the greatest potential
impact on student learning? Explain your choice.
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From Command and Control
To Partner in Learning
Expert
Serves as coach
Establishes goals
Students form own goals
Asks questions with answers in Ask questions to find out what
mind
students think
Evaluates students answers
Engages students in selfassessment
Tells and lectures
Designs engaging work
Traditional discussion (IRE)
Sits to discuss and interact with
students
Favors high-achieving students Holds all students accountable
in discussion
to respond
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Talk with a partner
What strategy to improve the quality
of questions and responses will you
take back to your classroom? How
will you incorporate it?
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