Practicing Self-Questioning
While reading Chapter 5, Buehl discussed how important is is for students to have modeling of good questions to ask themselves and for the teacher to ask as well. This caught my attention, because while reading with my students I feel like I am constantly stopping and asking questions to make sure my students are are understanding the novel being read. I also like how he mentioned that it is important that not all the questions should be coming from the teacher. “Students need plenty of practice engaged in questioning like disciplinary insiders as they read, share their thinking in conversation, interact with their understanding, especially through writing.” (Buehl page 172) Teachers need to “let go” and allow for the students to engage in conversations with their peers. When students are able to engage with their peers many are also more willing to engage in the conversation because it eliminates the pressure of the whole group. Also this provides me with a better understanding of their mastery level. If the students are able to ask questions and teach each other it proves that they have a deeper understanding of the text. As a teacher, starting to “let go” of the control of my class was very challenging. As first, it was challenging because I was nervous there would be too many side conversations and they would not be conversing about the topics. As time has gone on though, I have done a better job as a teacher of letting my students question one another. It is interesting to walk around and listen to all their conversations especially for those students who do not participate as much in whole group. It is nice to see all students actively engaged in their own learning. “ Students will be able to progress from readers dependent on someone else’s questions to independent readers who use their own questions to monitor their thinking and gauge their understanding of complex texts.” (Buehl page 172) Also it has been great to see how engaged the students are and I think this is because they are in control. They like having time to discuss with their peers and “show off” what they know instead of having a teacher direct the entire lesson.
Since I do teach 4th grade and it is still the beginning of the year, my students need much guidance when it comes to questioning. I model for them often and they all have their “cheat sheet” of starter questions that I have provided. There are 5 categories for the students to choose from: make a prediction, ask a question, clarify something, make a comment, and make a connection. I usually do this in groups of 4 or 5 about once a week until the students start to understand it. Later in the year, I will try it in pairs and see how it works as well. I am trying to gradually release control so the students have time to become comfortable with leading class discussions. The 5th grade team also uses these categories so that when my students move to 5th grade they will be prepared for discussion and annotation of different texts. This will be important in their learning process as it will build their confidence next year and help them to become more successful. Even though the text will get harder they will still be able to apply the same necessary skills to understand it.
Hello Suzanne,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post about practicing self-questioning, and it is interesting to see your personal teaching experience about modeling self-questioning for students. As Buehl mentioned, "questions are used to assess if students got it, but rarely are designed to help students get it" (page 171). Before reading Chapter 5, I thought it's students' responsibility to self-evaluate their thinking and understanding of the concepts, but actually teachers should also offer the opportunity for students to self-question. Your "letting go" strategy is a good way to put students to challenge the thinking among peers and make them participate in self-questioning and questioning others, which, I think, can be helpful to maintain the confidence and interaction with peers. Also, your guidance for coming to questioning is helpful because each step follows the questioning taxonomy (Buehl, 2009a), not just self-questioning but also questioning the author, the concepts, and even their peers. As a future teacher, how to model the self-questioning with mathematical texts is worth thinking and having a practice.
Hi Suzanne
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you and Buehl on teachers "letting go" in the classroom and giving students the opportunities they need to engage in questioning and discussing the material. I think giving students the chance to discuss the material in smaller groups is a good way for them to engage in class and understand what you just taught. It gives them the chance to ask questions in the smaller group and you can bring it up when the class comes together again. I think your idea of a cheat sheet to help lead discussions is a great idea because it guides students to form questions and thoughts they want to share.
Hello Suzanne,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week. Chapter 5 contained so much useful information and I really thought you did a great job in summarizing everything. As a student, I always found it difficult to question new material when looking at it for the first time. Modeling the self-questioning practices can prove to be very helpful to students for them to see what this essentially looks like. I like how you discussed that teachers need to let go and let students do more questioning of themselves and one another. I really appreciate you sharing your experience in the classroom. As a pre-service teacher, I am always so interested in seeing how these practices play out in a classroom. As you have shown, giving students the opportunity to question each other then shows how much they know about the concept for themselves, but also for the teacher as well. Your strategies for modeling this in the classroom sound fantastic. I really liked the cheat sheet idea to help lead the students' discussions. Great idea! Thank you so much for sharing and great post!
Suzanne,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience in your classroom. I like the idea of "let go" and the idea of small group conversation and questioning. Students need to be frequently provided with activities that engage them in generating questions, rather than receiving questions and information. When I was a high school student, most of my teachers used to be questions askers, and I had to work complex texts on my own which was a struggle for me. I think teachers need to "let go" as you said, and let the students generate their questions while reading and resolve their questions on their own, and the teacher need to model the kind of questioning they would like students to do. I think this self-questioning strategy is a very promising practice that would let students engage in meaningful learning and help them to be independent readers.
I can only imagine how much of a struggle that must have been! As I stated, "letting go" is still a challenge for me because you are use to having total control. Eventually, I believe teacher will see the value of modeling questioning techniques to better the knowledge of their students.
ReplyDeleteHi Suzanne,
ReplyDeleteI agree that not all questions should be coming from the teach and that it is important that students learn to question texts themselves in a critical manner. You provided interesting first hand insight into this. I also found it interesting when Buehl talked about the types of questions teachers should be asking and that it is important that teachers do not ask "leading questions" but rather they ask essential questions. This is something I have not really thought about and would be interested to know if you ever find yourself having to differentiate between the two types of questions in class or ever find yourself asking leading questions by accident?
John