5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

Edutopia has been one of my favorite websites to follow over the past couple of years for inspirational and challenging articles on how to be a better educator.  Today, I came across an article that caught my interest:  5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students by Rebecca Alber.  I think every teacher strives to ask the 'right question' that extends and deepens a student's understanding of specific concepts.  It is, however, sometimes harder than one thinks.  It takes pre-planning and forethought to ask a question of that quality.  Alber offers an easy approach to asking questions, that starts any teacher in the right direction towards strategic questioning.  She suggests these 5 questions:  "What do you think?  Why do you think that?  How do you know this?  Can you tell me more?  What questions do you still have?"  She also suggests to allow  a certain amount of 'wait time' for student responses before moving forward or answering the question ourselves.  She also uses pair/share interaction prior to whole group discussion, so that more student's will have something to contribute to the conversation and can practice sharing their ideas.  I found this article to be a great reminder of how to take questioning deeper, and that it doesn't have to be as difficult as we might think.

"5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students". Rebecca Alber.  Article. Edutopia. 31 October 2013.  http://www.edutopia.org/blog/five-powerful-questions-teachers-ask-students-rebecca-alber