Sunday, February 9, 2014
Blog Post 4
Asking Questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?
According to Ben Johnson in his writing The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom one of the questions teachers should ask is, "Does everybody understand?" We ask them this to check if everybody understands what is being taught. Even though we don't know if they really understand or not because they might not know if they do or don't understand themselves, teachers still ask this question frequently. Some questions can make some students not to care to provide an answer, so they won't. Teachers must be careful on how we word our questions or the type of questions we ask for more effective results. http://topyaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Not-asking-questions.jpg 
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Hi Miriam, I am a student in Dr Strange’s EDM510 class. I agree that the wording of a question is crucial and it should ask for something specific. As a mom I frequently find myself asking my 4 year old, “do you understand me?” Even if she looks me in the eyes and says yes, I am still not sure if she does. I find it is better to ask her to repeat what I just told her or I ask for some other conformation that she has internalized what I have said and it will not be forgotten. I believe that questions need to be appropriate to inspire a valuable response from a student and that these questions will change based on the age and maturity level of the student. As teachers we definitely need to know what answer we are looking for and ask a question that will illicit that answer. I think this is a skill that we may not have in the beginning but one that we will have to be aware of and work to perfect.
ReplyDeleteDid you stop with number 1: Johnson? It appears you did. Unsatisfactory.
ReplyDeleteHey Miriam, I noticed that you picked up on the "Do you understand?" question. I also agree with "Even if she looks me in the eyes and says yes, I am still not sure if she does." I never realized the importance of it, but going through grades K-12 I remember hearing it a lot. As possible future teachers we need to remember this, and think it through. Are we helping the students or just making our job easier?
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