Class 4/1 Questions

        In our last class, we talked about questioning, and how important it is to ask students higher level questions. Megh and I went out in the field together in order to observe a class and record what questions were being asked. The first class we attended was spending time going over information on a book they had just finished reading. Unfortunately, I found that most of the questions being asked were low level questions according to Bloom's Taxonomy. For example, one question that the teacher asked towards the beginning of class was "Who is Ron Franz?" Ron Franz is a character in the book that the students were reading. The problem with this question is that it simply requires recalling information and does not require students to push their thinking. This question could get a number of different responses, and most all of them were answers such as: an old man, a character in the book, a truck driver, a friend of the protagonist, etc. A better question that could have been asked could be "Compare Ron Franz to the protagonist, how are they alike and how are they different?" A question like this one would force students to think deeper by analyzing the two characters, and would give students a narrower focus.

          After observing the first class for a few minutes, the class started to watch a movie so Megh and I visited a different classroom. The second class we visited was an AP science class, and they were learning about light bulbs and their electric current. This teacher was asking higher level questions. We were only observing her room for a few minutes, but one question she asked right away was "If my energy from this bulb decreased, would my second light bulb still stay lit?" This question required students to think and analysis what they had just learned about electric currents in order to give an answer. The students took a little more time to answer this question, but they still were able to respond currently after spending a couple of seconds to think the question over.

         This class taught me the importance of Higher Level Questions. As a RIC Writing Center tutor, I find myself asking my clients low level questions such as "Does that make sense?" Rather than "How do you make sense of what I am saying to you?" This class period on questioning has allowed me to reflect on my own practice, and realize that I need to spend more time developing higher level questions to ask both my clients and my future students.