Ages 5-14
Asking Better Questions
2nd Edition
Norah Morgan & Juliana Saxton
Learn a host of inventive new ways to encourage students to become more effective learners by posing more thoughtful questions. Based on extensive classroom experience, this comprehensive and practical guide helps teachers understand why questions are so important to teaching and learning; promotes a simple, three-part classification of questions; offers models, techniques, and activities to promote better questioning; and much, much more. The book recognises that both thought and emotion are essential components of a classroom that respects and encourages questions. It is committed to helping teachers ask the right question at the right moment, within the give and take of classroom talk and activity.
Asking Better Questions explores the compelling role of questions in creating a powerful learning environment. Research tells us that the person who asks the question is the active learner, yet too many classrooms still revolve around teacher-generated questions.
This vital teacher resource recognises that it takes time and diligence to become an effective questioner. Based on extensive classroom experience, this comprehensive guide:
- helps teachers understand why questions are so important to teaching and learning;
- suggests an uncomplicated way to classify the questions teachers need to ask in order to acquire information, build understanding, and generate reflection;
- promotes a simple three-part classification of questions—questions that tap into what is already known; those that build a context for shared understanding; and those that challenge students to think critically and creatively;
- offers models, techniques, activities, and examples which promote better questioning by teachers and students;
- allows for various entry points based on the interests and needs of the classroom teacher.
The book recognises that ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ are the essential components of a classroom that respects and encourages questions. It is committed to helping teachers ask the appropriate question at the right moment, providing a variety of teaching stances, roles, and situations that will elevate language and encourage divergent thinking.
Contents
Introduction: Questioning as a Democratic Skill; What Seems to Be the Problem?; A Question of Thinking; A Question of Feeling; The Example Lesson: Snow White; A Classification of Questions; The Example Lesson: Finding Areas; A Glossary of Questions; Fewer Questions, Better Questions, and Time to Think; Putting the Question, Handling the Answer; The Case for the Student as Questioner; Switching Places: The Student as Questioner; The Example Lesson: Ann Graham; Appendixes; Bibliography; Index; Postscript
2006 160pp paperback
978-1-551382-09-8
£24.99
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