Questioning

Today we introduced our next strategy questioning. I love this strategy because asking questions is such an important skill. Both classes looked at quotes about asking questions and wrote down what they thought. Each quote could be summed up by saying that asking questions does not mean you are a fool it means that you are about to learn and acquire knowledge. I want our students to know that by asking questions about the world and the books they read they can learn. Hopefully this skill and desire to learn grows and grows as we work with this strategy and all our thinking strategies all year long.

After sharing their thinking about the quotes, the students came over to the rocking chair and looked at two objects that Ms. Cavallaro and I had brought in for the lesson. My object was a part of my keychain where I can keep glucose pills. A parent gave me the holder a few years ago and just like anything that ends up on my key chain it has stayed.

Ms. Cavallaro brought in a "clicker" responder that she used in large seminar classes at Miami. The remote allowed students to sign-in to class and respond to questions from the teacher. I could not help to think how much college had changed since my time at UD.

The classes made giant lists of questions they had as they looked and passed around our objects. The questions were great. They started with the questions as they looked at the objects, then added more as the object was actually in their hand, and then finally they asked more questions after Ms. Cavallaro and I told them the identity of the objects. These types of questions fit perfectly with one of our main goals of the week. We want the students to realize that when they read they can ask questions before, during and after their reading.

The thinking stems that we are going to use when we are sharing our thinking about questioning include:

• I wonder...
• What if...
• I don't understand...
• It confuses me...
• How could...

I hope your week is off to a great start.