SCS New Teacher Training Series
Session III
January 27, 2015
Group Norms
Be Present
Please put all technology away as it will not be needed
Be Brave
Be willing to take risks and try something new
Be Engaged
Ask questions
Engage in meaningful dialogue with your colleagues
Engage with the content during each session and have
fun
THE GIRAFFE TEST
How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
Stop and think about
it and decide…
The correct answer is:
Open the refrigerator
Put in the giraffe
Close the door
*This question tests whether you tend to do simple things
in an overly complicated way*
How do you put an elephant
into a refrigerator?
Stop and think about
it and decide…
Did you say, open the refrigerator,
put in the elephant, and close the
refrigerator?
(WRONG ANSWER)
Correct Answer:
Open the refrigerator
Take out the giraffe
Put in the elephant
Close the door
*This tests your ability to think through the repercussions
of your previous actions. *
The Lion King is hosting an animal
conference. All the animals
attend.... except one. Which animal
does not attend?
Stop and think about
it and decide…
Correct Answer:
The Elephant.
The elephant is in the refrigerator.
You just put him in there.
This tests your memory.
Okay, even if you did not answer the first three
questions correctly, you still have one more chance
to show your true abilities.
There is a river you must cross but
it is used by crocodiles, and you do
not have a boat.
How do you manage it?
Stop and think about it
and decide…
Correct Answer:
You jump into the river and swim across.
Have you not been listening?
All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting.
This tests whether you learn quickly from your
mistakes.
Turn and Talk
How does this relate to how we must instruct our
students?
“A good teacher makes you think even when you
don’t want to.”
(Fisher, 1998, Teaching Thinking)
Objectives
 Participants will learn questioning strategies that will
challenge students to probe for higher order understanding.
 Participants will learn questioning strategies that will
challenge students to synthesize complex materials and
arrive at a new understanding.
TEM 4.0 – Teach 5
The Griny Grollers
Moral of the Story
Students can answer
low- level questions
without thinking.
They will enter or exit
the classroom with
no more
understanding of
what they've learned
than what "The
Griney Groller“
taught you!
Strategies
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Questioning
Inference Squares
Think Alouds
Teach Like a Champion
Why Questioning
Why Questioning
College Readiness
Historically, state and national surveys indicate that
approximately 80% of the questions K-12 students
are exposed to are lower-level questions. In college
this trend reverses, and students are asked to deal
primarily with high-level critical questions.
Why Questioning
Professional Performance and Growth
Teach 5:
Higher Level Thinking Skills
Teacher ensures the lesson develops higher order
thinking skills by modeling his or her own thought
process for generating and asking questions, so that
students begin to generate their own questions.
Why Questioning
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Leads to deeper exploration of the concept.
Helps students clarify understanding.
Guides the learning process.
Directs student thinking.
Identifies gaps in student learning.
Helps students make connections.
Challenges students’ thoughts, opinions, ideas.
Promotes “risk taking” in the learning process.
Factual learning alone does not develop full potential.
Questioning Strategies
• Bloom’s Levels of Questioning
• Open-Ended Questions
• Inference Squares
Open vs. Closed Questioning
Closed Questioning
Open Questioning
• Almost always requires
factual recall.
• Can be answered finitely
by either “yes” or “no.
• Responses are restrictive.
• Quick and easy for
students
• to answer.
• Keeps control of the
conversation with the
questioner.
• Almost always requires
higher order thinking.
• Answers are not
predictable.
• Responses require
additional information
from the inquirer.
• Requires students to think
and reflect.
• Hands control of the
conversation to the
respondent.
Open vs. Closed Questioning
Closed Questioning
Open Questioning
• Do you need more
clarification?
• Is that correct/right/ok?
• Do you understand?
• What year was Theodore
Roosevelt elected?
• Who is the protagonist in
The Great Gatsby?
• What is your understanding
of the adage “If you tell the
truth, you don’t have to
remember anything.”
• Why is this answer
correct/not correct?
• How did the presidency of
Theodore Roosevelt differ
from his predecessor? Was it
more effective?
Strategies
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Questioning
Inference Squares
Think Alouds
Teach Like a Champion
Inference Squares
What can I infer?
What questions do I want to ask?
What does the resource tell
me for certain?
Inference Squares
Strategies
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Questioning
Inference Squares
Think Alouds
Teach Like a Champion
What is the Process of Modeling
Your Thinking (Think-Aloud)
I
do
Think Aloud
We do
Student explains thinking
You do
Scaffold & Cue
 Think Alouds make the invisible mental processes visible.
 Highly skilled readers use thought processes before,
during, and after reading.
 Think Alouds slow down the reading process and let
students get a good look at how skilled readers construct
meaning from a text.
Let’s See It in Action
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/theories-of-character
Let’s Practice It
• Turn to your elbow partner.
• One person be the teacher.
• One person be the student.
• Teacher (I do) - Think Aloud and problem solve 3+(2+5)=
• Student Explains (we do) - Think Aloud and problem solve
6+(1+7)=
• Teacher (scaffold and cue) - Follow up with the correct
answer with a question.
Prompting Student Questioning
• Introduce and model different questioning strategies.
• Develop student awareness of different types of
questions and the type of thinking required.
• Promote and “celebrate” student questions.
• Provide constructive feedback to student questions.
• Provide clarity when needed.
• Follow up questions with a higher-level question
• Think Aloud
Strategies
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Questioning
Inference Squares
Think Alouds
Teach Like a Champion
Teach Like a Champion
Right is Right
– This is the difference between an almost correct answer
and an 100% correct answer. The teacher should set a
standard for 100% correctness 100% of the time.
Stretch It
– This is a line of questions that extends the right answer.
Recap
• Why Questioning
• Effective Questioning
• Bloom’s Level of Questioning
• Open vs. Closed Questioning
• Inference Squares
• Think Aloud
• Prompting Student Questioning
Exit Ticket
What was one aha moment from
today’s lesson?
QR Session Evaluation