Questioning 101

1
Questioning 101

• Its all about asking the right questions

Hornets Nest Elementary School Millie Snyder,
Principal D.J. Midgett, Media Specialist
2
I Can Teach That Kid How to Conduct Research with
A Coat Hanger and aComputer.
3
Questions

• Allow us to make sense of the world. They are the
  most powerful tools we have for making decisions
  and solving problems, for inventing, changing and
  improving our lives as well as the lives of
  others.
• Jamie McKenzie

4
Powerful Questioning

• Leads to Information Power
• The ability to
• Fashion solutions
• Make decisions
• Create plans
• That are original, cogent, and effective

5
Information Gap

• We, as educators, must address the ever
  increasing gap between
• The rich and the poor
• Not the economic gap,
• But the information one
• The FUTURE is held in the hands of the
  informational rich
• David Thornburg, Futurist

6
Research Write

• First step of the RW cycle
• Requires lots of prior planning
• Probably the most difficult and critical step of
  the cycle
• Definitely MESSY!

7
Why Research Write

• Students learn best when they USE what they find
  out, to construct their own answers to
  higher-level questions
• Constructivism

8
Why Questioning?

• Once you have learned how to ask relevant and
  appropriate questions, you have learned how to
  learn and no one can keep you from learning
  whatever you want or need to know
• Teaching as a Subversive Activity

9
Why Questioning?

• Taps Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
• Using the cerebral cortex

10
Where do I begin?

• Think about thinking. (Metacognition)
• Talk about questions
• Discuss the differences between questions and
  statements
• Brainstorm question words, stems or kernels

11
Questions Statements

• Make a statement.
• Write it on a sentence strip.
• Turn the statement around and make it a question.
• Write the question on a sentence strip.
• How does the statement begin?
• How does the question begin?

12
Questioning Web Sites

• From Now On www.fno.org
• The Great Question Press Squeezing Import from
  Content
• 21st Century Literacies http//www.kn.pacbell.com
  /wired/21stcent/sitemap.html
• Questioning www.questioning.org
• Questioning Strategies
• http//www.css.edu/USERS/ggaetz/Student.pages/Ques
  tioning_Strategies_webpage.html
• Inquiry Page
• http//inquiry.uiuc.edu/

13
Question Words

• Ask students to list some question words - words
  that begin questions.
• With each word they give you, use it in a simple
  question (or if it isnt a question, use it in a
  statement).
• If the word they give is the beginning of a
  yes-no question, give an example and stress that
  the question is a simple one.

14
Deck of Questions

• Take six index cards.
• Write a question word on each card.
• What do you notice about many of the words?
• Now sort the cards into two piles
• Words that promote skinny or simple answers
• Words that promote fat or complex answers

15
Question Words

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• How?
• Why?
• What if?

• Person
• Thing
• Time
• Place
• Require thoughtful more elaborate answers.

16
How do I plan for the use of technology in
questioning and research?

• CONTROL the questions

17
Dont Begin with the TopicBegin with an
essential question that encompasses the topic
Kindergarten The Wind
First Grade Animals
Second Grade Whales
Third Grade City Wildlife
Fourth Grade Careers
Fifth Grade Stars
18
Essential QuestionThe BIG Question

• Allows students to build their own answer
• Uses the information gathered to analyze,
  evaluate, and/or synthesize
• Usually begins with how, why, what if, or which
• Cant be looked up, but must be built using
  researched information

19
Essential Question Examples

• How does the wind help and hurt us?
• How are animals alike and different from us?
• Why are whales endangered and how can we protect
  them?
• Why have we, in our society, forced animals to
  live in cities?
• How can we accomplish our dream job?
• How will learning about the stars help us to
  learn more about the Earth?

20
Supporting QuestionsLittle Questions that Hold
Up the Big One

• Work backwards from the essential question to
  come up with supporting questions
• Limit your number of supporting questions
• K-2nd three to five
• 3rd-5th five to eight

21
Supporting Questions

• Why have we, in our society, forced animals to
  live in cities?

• 1. What is city wildlife?
• 2. Where do they live in the city?
• 3. What do wildlife in the city eat?
• 4. How does mankind "feed" these critters?
• 5. What plants grow wild in the city?
• 6. What wildlife is found in your backyard or on
  your school ground?
• 7. What changes have we caused in our
  environment that affect wildlife?

22
Find the Resources and Answers before you start.

• Tools
• Q A Chart
• Questions and Answers
• Graphic Organizer
• Planning
• Open Court Stories
• Variety of resources
• Availability of resources
• TECHNOLOGY

23
Planning for Technology Use

• Questioning with Students
• Inspiration or Kidspiration
• Thinking Maps
• Planning for Resources
• Authentic Websites
• TrackStar
• Gathering Information
• Search Engines
• Digital Camera
• Document Camera
• Video Microscope
• Scanner

• Sorting Sifting Information
• Search Engines
• NoteStar
• Synthesizing Creating a Work Product
• Student Writing Center
• PowerPoint (trading cards, biocubes, artifact
  cubes)
• Online graphing software (graphs of all types)
• Spreadsheets (timelines)
• Evaluating
• PowerPoint (Presentations)
• RubiStar

24
Online Tools www.hprtec.org

• ThinkTank
• Research organizer
• TrackStar
• Organize and annotate websites
• NoteStar
• Organize projects and take notes online
• Web Worksheet Wizard for Teachers
• Project Poster for Students student created
  quick easy web pages
• RubiStar
• Create and find rubrics
• QuizStar
• Create Quizzes

25
Online Tools for Classroom Use

• Kathy Schrock http//kathyschrock.net/cooking/
• Bibliography Maker
• Boolean Machine (for searching)
• Citation Maker and Citation Machine
• Create a Graph
• Create a Venn Diagram
• Project Interactive (math tools)
• SurWeb (online multimedia presentations photo
  collections)
• Timeline Maker

26
Using Conventional Software in Non-Conventional
Ways

• Excel or other spreadsheet
• Timelines
• Charts
• Graphic Organizers

• PowerPoint
• Trading Cards
• Billboards
• Biocubes
• Artifact Cubes

27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
Triceratops

• Description
• 15-20 feet tall
• 25 feet long
• 5-7 tons
• Diet
• Plants such as palms and cycads
• Fossils Found
• Western Canada
• Western U.S.

31
(No Transcript)
32
Harriett Tubman
Born as slave in 1820 in Bucktown, Maryland Suffered pneumonia from checking owners muskrat lines in the icy river Escaped to Pennsylvania at the age of 29
Freed her sister and family by taking them along the Underground Railroad Acted as a spy for the North during the Civil War. Made a home for freed slaves on her own property. Died in 1913 at the age of 93.
33
Baking Powder Bottle
Tyler Green Mrs. Baileys Third Grade Composition It is made of green glass and had a cork top. Size It measures 4 ½ inches tall and six inches around.
Shape It is shaped like a cylinder. Purpose It was used to store backing powder Adjectives Dull Smooth Breakable
34
Questioning Session with Students

• Guide their thinking
• Steer them towards the big picture
• Give them Think Time
• Record questions
• Think about the relationship of their questions
  to the essential and supporting questions
• If you keep working at itthey will generate the
  right questions.

35
Create Categories

• Group their questions into categories
• Align the categories to your supporting questions
• Model how you categorized
• Circle keywords

36
Concept Question Board

• Record and display your questioning session
• Utilize the Concept Question Board
• Make copies of your transparencies to compare
  later work

37
Use Realia Real Stuff!

• Wind
• Pinwheels, Kites, Anemometers, Bubbles
• Habitats
• Sailboat, Moss, Shells, Rocks, Vines,
• Storytelling
• Artifacts like old bottles, antiques, folk toys
• Communication
• Record player, photo copier, Braille, typewriter,
  radio
• Stars
• Telescope, sextant, compass, spyglass, GPS

38
Comparing Real Stuff
39
(No Transcript)
40
Use Authentic Web Sites

• Pumpkins
• Habitats
• Community
• Helpers

• Online Pumpkins Farms
• http//www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/pumpkins/farms.htmlO
  L
• Virtual Field Trips http//www.uen.org/utahlink/to
  urs/fieldtrips2.htm
• Real People Interviews http//teacher.scholastic.c
  om/commclub/

41
The Mystery Coat HangerAn example of how its
about process, not content

• What do I know?
• Name
• Services
• Location?
• Phone Number
• What do I want to know?
• Where is it located?
• How old is it?
• Is it still there?
• How do I find out?

42
(No Transcript)
43
(No Transcript)
44
Kindergarten Second Grades

• MODEL, MODEL, MODEL
• May need to assist in rewording the question
• Explain what you are doing
• Model thinking for them

45
Kindergarten How are apples and pumpkins alike
and different?

• What color are apples and pumpkins?
• What shape are they?
• What do they need to grow?
• What do the plants look like when they are
  growing?
• How long does it take for them to grow?
• How big do they grow?
• How do we eat them?

46
First GradeHow do plants and animals in a
habitat depend on each other?

• What is a habitat?
• Why is the soil in a habitat important?
• Why is the temperature in a habitat important?
• Why is the water in a habitat important?
• What kind of plants live in certain soils?
• How much water and temperature do the plants and
  animals need?
• What kind of plants do the animals need?

47
Second GradeHow do fossils tell us about
dinosaurs?

• How big was your dinosaur?
• How do we know?
• How much did your dinosaur weigh?
• How do we know?
• What did your dinosaur eat?
• How do we know?
• Where did your dinosaur live?
• How do we know?

48
Revisit Questioning at the End of the Research
Write Cycle

• Evaluate the product in terms of the supporting
  questions and essential question