Let’s Talk: Questioning Strategies and Academic Feedback

Table of ContentsTypes of Questions• Quality Questions• Building Learning Capacity• Barriers to Implementing QuestioningFeedback• Categories

• Self• Peer• Teacher

QUESTIONING

• Research repeatedly illustrates that reciprocal interactions between teachers and students—that is, classroom conversations with open-ended questions in which teachers incorporate student responses into future questions—have a profound effect on engagement and achievement (Jordan, 2009; Nystrand, 2006).

It’s too loud in here! When are you going to get control and start TEACHING?

• Discussion not only includes cognitive dimensions, but also “[c]ontextual traces that refer to the social event (seeing the faces and body language of the group members), the physical context of the discussion (how the classroom looks and sounds), the smells of cafeteria food wafting through the corridor, and the social and affective memories of the discussion, such as feelings of embarrassment or excitement or the emotional charge of a speaker’s comment” (Malloy & Gambrell, 2010).

• Unfortunately, IRE (initiate, respond, evaluate) still prevails.

• Let’s focus on IRE² (initiate, respond, explore, and expand).

• “The rich get richer, and the poor get direct instruction” (Dudley-Marling & Paugh, 2005, p. 156)• Open-ended and student-initiated discussions are the hallmark of gifted

and talented classrooms.• If we don’t believe students can think of their own correct answers, we

teach them how to come up with our correct answers.• What does your classroom look like? How do we teach them to come up

with the correct answers on their own?

“The Rich Get Richer, and the Poor Get Direct Instruction”

Types of Questions• Knowledge questions: Close ended and ask

students to recall facts and ideas• Skill questions: Require students to apply the

knowledge they have learned in a new context• Big ideas: “[A] concept, theme, or issue that gives

meaning and connection to discrete facts and skills” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p. 5)

Knowledge: When did Columbus set

out to explore India?

Skill: Why did Columbus explore

a new trade route?

Big idea: Why do we explore?

How to Formulate Quality Questions• The roles of the teacher in intentional questioning include

the process of formulating the question, determining required scaffolds based on cognitive demand, providing feedback, and creating a classroom atmosphere in which all students participate and understand the purposes of the questions being asked.

• In an engaged classroom in which all students are learning, all students must be held accountable for their thinking.

• Creating time for students to think about and reformulate their thoughts is a vital part of the learning process.

Student Behaviors Student Outcomes

Pay attention to all questions and answers Know facts

Think of answers to all questions Develop understanding based on facts

Are on alert to answer all questions aloud Use knowledge to solve problems and make decisions

Answer questions at the appropriate cognitive level Develop new products and ideas

Use wait time to think about answers Make inferences and draw conclusions

Give wait time to others when asking questions Know and use effective questioning skills

Ask questions when confused Thoughtfully answer teacher and peer questions

Ask questions when curious Ask many high-quality questions

Make meaning out of facts  

(Walsh & Sattes, 2005)

Building Learner Capacity• Accountability

• Capacity to ask quality questions

• Collaboration

Barriers to Implementation• Content coverage

• Time constraints

• Habit or tradition

• Need to maintain “control” of the class

• Ease for teacher

• Don’t want to put students on the spot

(Walsh & Sattes, 2005)

• What if their conversations “wander”?• Provide purpose (letters to the newspaper or pen pals)• Think about your own learning as an adult

• Still not sure? Try it both ways and see which yields a better product (remember that if students haven’t had the opportunity to talk in the past, you will need to model/discuss expectations and monitor/give feedback).

• Some students are shy or take longer to formulate their thoughts (and these might be the ones who would benefit most from discussion).

What If . . .

• Assessing Questions – This type of question is asked to determine what students know. The questions are based closely on the work the student has produced. They serve to clarify for the teacher what the student has done and what the student understands.

• Advancing Questions – This type of question is asked to challenge students or move students beyond their current thinking. The questions use what students have produced as a basis and extend what they know to move the student toward the lesson’s goal. The questions press students to think about something about which they are not currently thinking.

Assessing Questions vs. Advancing Questions

FEEDBACK

• Should be related to the learning objective and be developmentally appropriate

• Should address both the strengths and needs of the student

• Should be consistent• Should allow you to guide the student to use

feedback to:• Evaluate his or own strengths and needs• Deepen understanding and skills related to the current

work • Generalize feedback beyond the current work sample

What Does Effective Feedback Look Like?

What It Is/Is NOTExamples of Effective Feedback Nonexamples of Effective Feedback

You did an excellent job of incorporating adjectives in your writing to help the reader imagine the setting. Next time think about how you can also use adverbs to convey your thoughts.

Good job!You are so smart!

Those two questions are similar so I can understand why you got confused. Let’s review the definitions in your fraction book to determine the correct answers.

76% Try harder next time!

I noticed that when you got stuck on that word you tried to sound it out, but that didn’t seem to work. Let’s look at your strategy bookmark and see if another strategy might help in this situation.

You need more examples in your paper.

  I am so impressed with your project!

• Let’s look at some examples you brought, in as well as some we have collected.

What It Is/Is NOT

Teacher Poses a Question

Student responds

Is the answer appropriate?

Yes No

Prompt to activate background, focus on cognitive and

metacognitive processes Probe to elicit more

information

Is the answer appropriate?

Is the answer appropriate?

Yes Yes

No No

Pose new question

Cue to shift attention to information source

Is the answer appropriate?

No Yes

Pose new question

Offer direct explanation and modeling

Pose original question again

Pose new question

START

Feedback Sequence

Types of FeedbackSelf-Feedback Peer Feedback Teacher Feedback

Goal setting Think-pair-share Questioning

Progress monitoring Peer editing Written feedback with

suggestions

Self-evaluation on a rubric Performance assessments with peer

feedback

Journal writing

Recorded readings Author’s chair  

Writing portfolio Gallery walk  

  Small group discussion  

We will watch the classroom teacher again, but this time let’s focus on the feedback techniques she uses

• Is it related to the learning objective and developmentally appropriate?

• Does it address both the strengths and needs of the student?

• Does it allow the teacher to guide the student(s) to use feedback to:

• Evaluate their own strengths and needs• Deepen understandings and skills related to their current

work • Generalize feedback beyond the current work sample

Feedback Strategies

• Let’s practice giving feedback with the set of papers you have brought to class

• Think about what questions you would ask to facilitate your students’ learning throughout the lesson.

• What comments would you write on the papers?

Giving Feedback

• Take a new set of papers and write down what questions you would ask to facilitate your students’ learning throughout the lesson and what comments would you write on the papers.

• Write a short reflection on the back about what you learned through this process and what you still need to practice to implement it successfully.

Entrance Ticket for Next Week . . .

Summary• Quality and timely feedback is paramount for

student success.• Effective teachers realize they need feedback to

improve also. Perhaps the most powerful feedback they can receive is in the form of analyzing student learning within the classroom

• By examining how your students are performing, most likely through formative assessments, you can begin to adjust and reformulate your ideas and plans to better suit the learning needs of your diverse students.

ReferencesDudley-Marling, C., & Paugh, P. (2005). The rich get richer; the poor get direct instruction. Reading for profit: How the bottom line leaves kids behind, 156-171. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Jordan, J. (2009). Beyond sharing the pen. Dialogue in the context of interactive writing (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Tennessee, Knoxville.Malloy, J. A., & Gambrell, L. B. (2010). New insights on motivation in the literacy classroom. Essential readings on motivation, 163. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.Nystrand, M. (2006). Research on the role of classroom discourse as it affects reading comprehension. Research in the Teaching of English, 392-412.Walsh, J. A., & Sattes, B. D. (2005). Quality questioning: Research-based practice to engage every learner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.