Principal's Message - January Edition 2009-2010

EXPLORING HIGHER LEVEL QUESTIONING

When looking into higher level questioning, some may be intimidated in the idea of pushing the instruction in the classroom to be more rigorous with our varying degree of students. When we struggle with discipline at one time or another, we adjust to our environment. Instinctually, we explore two ways to raise the engagement level of our students. The first option is to make the work easier for them so they become more confident. The problem with this is our higher level students get extremely bored. Instead of being the student who stays on task, he or she becomes the one who is distracting other students. In addition, the output of work of the students falls into a certain level, most of the time the middle or lower level group. For instance, if the instruction is adapted to the middle level, the higher levels fall, the lower levels rise, and the middle group just stays the same. When I see a teacher using a word search for an in class assignment or a homework assignment, I know the fight to push higher level thinking is being lost. Visually searching for specific words barely shows up on the “Knowledge” category in Bloom’s Taxonomy (if it does, it would be because you are identifying a word. I don’t think it can even be labeled without a question being asked).

The second option is to help our students become confident with harder work or higher level thinking instruction. A technique that helps tremendously with this is scaffolding the concept with your students. This is something we have been exploring in math for the last two years. For instance, we have been writing steps to concepts being applied. This technique breaks down step-by-step how to solve or simplify a basic problem of our standards. When the teacher begins to expand the scenarios to involve previous concepts, the students are forced to apply previous knowledge to work out the simplification or problem solving. By breaking down the steps, we create entry for all students to access the concept. As other knowledge previously taught is included, the students are able to take on higher level thinking. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, application is the third level up. If the lesson is engaging enough or if enough access is developed, the teacher can use small group instruction and/or one-on-one time to get students to make the connections on their own, explore patterns, design their own methods that tap into their strong areas, or even assess their own performance. All of those requests establish a higher level of questioning.

For the last month, we have been giving the students state assessment questions with scaffolding. We do this by including questions that help guide the students through the thinking that is necessary for problem solving a state assessment question. As the year progresses, we will need to reduce the amount of guiding questions. This will hopefully build enough comfort for our students to answer any word problem they face on the test. Our research has shown that many times, students don’t even read the question. By breaking down the problem, we plan to elevate their ambition to take on these type of problems.

Regardless, it is a matter of confidence. When I was a teacher, I spent so much time convincing my students they could do the work. There were so many times when students would turn to me and say, “That’s it?” or “That’s all I had to do? This is easy.” For one reason or another, our students have convinced their ego that they are unable to do school work. The heavy hitters of our school are rulers of every world except for the learning one. Hence, one of the reasons they resist being exposed to any type of instruction. By controlling their environment, leaving the room or entertaining their peers, they can avoid falling from number one to number 27.

Elevating the level of questioning is much easier to do than one may think. If you provide the right support and positive reinforcement, you can get the students to rise in their analysis, synthesis, and evaluation abilities. Let me explore this with you to make it clearer. When I was observing a class the other day, I heard a teacher pose a question to the students that was in a book. The teacher guided the students through the collection of information in the question by referring to the names in the problem. The question had names in the problem. The teacher asked the students first about one of the characters in the scenario and then asked about the other. The task requested by the students was to locate the name in the problem and finding the information near or next to the name. This is a “Knowledge” level question. In another class, almost the same situation was encountered. This time, instead of referring to the specific names in the problem, the teacher asked, “So what’s important in this question?” By leaving out the names and opening the decision of relevancy to the student, the teacher elevated a “knowledge” level question to an “application” one. The students had to decipher using previous experiences what was important. As long as techniques are provided to help guide the students determine what is important, this is an easy way for a teacher to raise the level of questioning. ELA teachers can do the same by changing the question, “What is your book about?” to “How do you relate to the main character?” or “Who is your favorite character in the book and why? (You need the why to move the question to “Comprehension”, “Application” or “Analysis.”)

Take a look at some of the other questions converted.

Knowledge level: “What’s the word I’m looking for, it starts with a ‘C’?”
Converted Synthesis level: Help the students break the word down when presenting it

Knowledge level: Asking for a definition
Converted to Application level: Having a student use the word in a sentence

Knowledge level: “What’s the first step of this problem?”
Converted to Analysis level: “What’s different about this problem compared to the last one and how
does that change things?”

Knowledge level: “Who were the two sides fighting for in the Civil War?”
Converted to Evaluation level: “Explain why you would have fought for the north or south if you had a plantation in Georgia.”

As you continue on providing the best education you can for our students, start assessing the level of questioning taking place in your classroom. As the administrative team visits classrooms, we will be gathering data on the level of questioning you are providing your students. We will reflect on the results with you to help you grow. What you will realize is that raising the level of thinking is much easier than you thought and is achievable. Even when students are at different levels, the line of questioning you provide will be the access a student needs to evolve into a higher level thinker. We all have the capability of doing this. It will be the administrative team’s responsibility to help you access this type of instruction. We look forward to working with all of you on this.

Staff Birthdays

Leia McKinley 14
Esther DeJesus 22
Sheryl-Ann Mayers 24

Quote of the Month

“If there is anything that the research community agrees on, it is this: The right kind of continuous, structured teacher collaboration improves the quality of teaching and pays big, often immediate, dividends in student learning and professional morale in virtually any setting. Our experience with schools across the nation bears this out unequivocally.” --Richard DuFour