October 25, 2013

Reflect on my Questioning techniques. When I am in the classroom I use a lot of questions to aid my instruction. What I have noticed is a change in what I am trying to get out of the students with my questions. At first I would just ask for a basic fact or peice of information, and then I would elaborate on the subject and make it into a concept. This I thought was pretty good until I realized that what I was doing was teaching facts and not applicapble concepts to the students. So what I have done is to modify my questioning techniques for the students. Through this I have changed the types of questions that I am asking. I will ask one student for the fact. Then I will ask another to give me the why for that fact. After that I will ask another student for the what that goes along with the theme. I ask these building questions and then the students build the concpets for themselves. For instance I will ask what a referendum is. One student will tell me that it is a vote on an intiative. Then I will ask another to explain what an initiative is. Then I will ask a student why they are important and another how are they used. This way the students have built the concept themselves and I feel like this is a must more beneficial way of questioning to get the types of learning that I want out of my students.