Questioning

Today the class were desperate to share their Easter weekend news with me and the entire class instead of in their buzz groups. I thought it was a great opportunity to take a snapshot of their speaking and also their questioning.

I am desperate to expand childrens thinking and questioning skills and we have begun some work on this - not getting very far up until swimming finished. So far, we have really only just touched the surface, discussing briefly: what questions are, why we need/use them, what question words can we use and we've started gathering some exemplar questions using the 3-2-1 method (What would you ask Maui/Easter Bunny?).

My results have confirmed the need to have a focus in this area. Of the 60 questions asked...

• 20 were yes/no
• 30 were one word/closed questions
• 10 were open questions

The most popular question words were did/do/does (11), how (11), what (10) and was (8).


12 questions were asked by one student and 5 each from another 2 students.


Where to?

• Integrate questioning into everything!!!!
• Discuss questioning types, probing for extra information
• Encourage thinking and give plenty of opportunites for students

I Love Teaching Conference

Alison Mooney - interesting to have four personality types, but all equally important. I think I'm a bit of a mixture but mostly "a peaceful." My character traits are easygoing, diplomatic and patient. I am a balanced, calming, levelheaded and approachable. I thought it was a great presentation and I spent most of the time thinking about the adults I know and fitting them into types, however it would be quite enlightening to fit my students into the types and come up with a plan to teach to those needs. We often talk about learning needs and character traits are just another way to look at it.

James Nottingham - P4C - Using picture books to get children to think and question more deeply. You don't have to come up with all the answers. There are a variety of benefits to why you might teach?/encourage? Philosophy in the classroom, the most relevant to me at the moment is getting participation and more focussed questioning from the children.

James Nottingham - Challenge, Wobble and Roll - This workshop brought up again, are we challenging/teaching our children or giving them the information for them to regurgitate. It made us all very aware that our perception, as teachers, is quite different from every other teacher. I need to have the children in the learning, or wobble, zone. That's the zone where the children are thinking "why can I not do it the way I know?" another interesting thought, that will be expanded upon tomorrow, is - be careful what you praise, it can get in the way of the learning zone. Isn't it interesting at Finland's educational success and yet they only have 18 hours teaching time a week. The difference - they use a model based on Vgotsky and we, in New Zealand use a model based on Piaget.

Websites:
Www.p4c.com
Www.Jamesnottingham.co.uk