Lessons grounded in strong questioning encourage higher-order thinking. Questioning, in order to be effective during a lesson, needs to deepen a student’s understanding of a concept or topic. You can add rigor, depth, and complexity through questioning strategies. In addition, you can relate the content being discussed to higher themes (such as force, motion, conflict, and change). This will push students to make connections. Schools can also adopt a thinking model such asPaul’s Reasoning ModelorKaplan’s Depth and Complexityto work from.
“Thinking is driven by questions” that “define tasks, express problems, and delineate issues. Answers, on the other hand, often signal a full stop in thought.”
Design and Implementation Guidelines
- Design questions during a lesson to pose unknowns, establish generalizations, determine relevancy, generate additional questions, or identify ambiguity.
- Practice using question stems that are posted on the wall. Using question stems will help support students as they learn not only to expect and answer these questions in class discussion but to ask them of each other. UseBloom’s Taxonomyto generate higher-level questions.
- Thinking models can also be displayed to support students as they take risks and consider differing viewpoints instead of providing predetermined answers.
Example 1:
Instead of memorizing a list of presidents, provide an advanced or gifted student a choice to select 3–5 presidents from differing time periods and find commonalities in their leadership styles that lead to their successes or failures. Consider what questions and insights this leads to about more recent presidents.
Example 2:
Read “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” Have students independently list what they remembered/observed. For younger students, this could involve drawing instead of writing.
Next, have students share their lists out loud, and group similar items together. For example, list one might be: Momma Bear, Papa Bear, Baby Bear, and Goldilocks. List two might be: chairs, beds, and bowls. List three might be: scared and upset. Overarching themes can be drawn from these lists. For example, list one includes characters, list two includes physical items that become problems, and list three includes emotions. Explain that in order to make a good story, characters, problems or conflict, and emotions are needed.
This exercise started at the most basic level of listing/recall and scaffolded student thinking up to analysis by drawing connections among ideas.
This should also then lead to further questions such as: Are there other characters who influence the story but are not mentioned (such as Goldilocks’s parents)? If Goldilocks came and told your Principal the story, what would their response be? What would Baby Bear’s grandparent bears think when he told them the story?
Example 3:
The class has been studying medieval Europe. Have students independently list what they have learned during the unit. Next, as a class, have students share their lists out loud. As students share, list the items on the board.
Silently sort what students say into categories. List one might be: land, money, resources, etc. List two might be: death, destruction of property, cost, etc. List three might be: feudal lord, knights, fiefdom, etc.
Allow students to explore and negotiate how they would label each group of ideas. List one could be labeled “reasons for conflict.” List two could be labeled “negative impacts of conflict.” List three could be labeled “political structure.” Use questioning to guide students to realize that these general categories you have labeled can work across multiple cultures.
This could also lead to further questions such as: Did different countries utilize different political structures during the same time period to achieve the same results? If you were to create an additional level to the political structure, what would it be, and how would it relate to the other structure? Reference current events to defend or deny the idea that we feel the same negative impacts of conflict.
Helpful Links
Interest-based activities can be used and designed to increase a gifted student’s motivation. Use an interest inventory to let students communicate their interests.
Design and Implementation Guidelines
Begin by choosing or designing a questionnaire that is age appropriate. Find two questionnaire examples under “Helpful Links.” Let the student complete or help the student complete the questionnaire. Look at the responses, and use them to build groups or guide individual instruction for the student. Does the student have wide ranging interests? Does the student have a narrow focus of interests? What types of programs or projects would be most interesting to the student?
Let students research and explore an interest. These interests are not limited to grade-level content. For example, organize a group of students (of one or multiple grade levels) based on a common interest (riding horses, historical periods, historical conflicts, nutrition, etc.). Students then explore that interest and report back to let you know what they have learned. In older grades, this type of project could focus on career interests. Schools could potentially even connect students with professionals in the field.
Interest-based projects/groups can also be designed around a topic within a subject area. For example, a sixth grade class is studying the Middle Ages. Students are allowed to pick a topic about the Middle Ages that they are interested in and wish to pursue further. Example topics could include building armor, weaponry, or the War of the Roses. Teachers and students then negotiate a contract outlining expectations, deadlines, and the end product.
