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Activity 9: What questions do I ask and why?

Reading and Reflection: 1 hr 30 mins
Group Activity: 1 hr
Reflection: 30 mins

 

3 hrs



 

The purpose of this activity is to encourage you to start thinking about your own practice in the classroom, especially concerning the questions that you use.

Think about what makes an effective teacher.  Asking the right sort of questions is an important quality of an effective teacher.  Let us start to look at ourselves as teachers, as a step towards making our own teaching more effective.
Activity 9
  1. Write down 10 questions that you have recently asked during lessons.  

  2. Next to each question on your list, write down your reason for asking that question. Remember to include a short description of the subject, grade and topic to let the others see your lesson in context.  Send your list of questions and reasons to the group (with a message heading of "List of Questions").

  3. Read other people's reasons for asking questions. Which kinds of questions are used most often by teachers in your group?

    We recommended that you read Why we ask questions in class in order to learn about questions that make learners think.

  4. Now that you are more aware of the questions that you and your group members ask, think about the following questions:
    • Which of these types of questions encourage thinking?
    • How often do we use questions which encourage children to think?
  5. We recommend that you read more about open and closed questions in order to distinguish between the two.
    Which of your questions were closed?
    Which were open?
  6. Write down one idea for improving your questioning techniques. 
  7. Send your idea in a message to your group with the subject heading "Questioning_techniques_idea".
  8. Read other people's ideas and comment on at least two of them. It will help you to think further about your teaching when you share your ideas with your group.
  9. Conclude by writing your thoughts in your e-diary.
 

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Click here to go to Activity 10- Promoting discussion

 
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