Chapter three was all about thinking and questioning skills. The first thing that really struck me was that not every student will be on the same level even if they are in the same grade or even the same age. This really got me to thinking how important it is especially in the middle level grades to get to know your students. Along with this point, I really like how it was mentioned that it is our job as middle level teachers to get them from one level to the next. This means that when I am preparing questions I need to make sure that I am challenging every student to help them reach that next level of thinking.
The second thing that struck me about this chapter was just how many types of questions there are to use. I in particular could see myself using the probing questions frequently with my style of teaching. However, I will certainly have to use all three to keep all of my students engaged. This also got me to thinking about my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to this area of my teaching and especially in middle level grades, I will have to practice and reflect constantly to make sure that I am using all different types of questioning to engage all of my students.
A third concept that was discussed in this chapter was discrepant events. I had never really heard of these until now. After reading about them I certainly think that it would an extremely useful tool that I can use to jump start my students higher level thinking juices Another point that goes along with this is that there are three levels of thinking. They are lowest level, intermediate level, and the highest level. These levels are important because like I mentioned in the earlier paragraph my students need to be challenged and supported to reach the highest level of thinking.
A fourth concept that really got me thinking is the concept of think time. I had heard of think time before but that way the author went about it especially for the middle level grades really got me to thinking about my own think time techniques. With me as a teacher wanting my students to reach the highest level of thinking, think time is more important than ever. I must remember to always allow enough time for my students to ponder the question and generate a response. It's also true if I want my students to have a well thought out and detailed response. This chapter is full of great techniques with regards to questioning and thinking skills, and I am even more confident after reading this chapter in my questioning skills, and will certainly take an extreme conscious effort to use these tips and pointers to make sure that I help all of my students progress with these skills in my classroom.
Madison,
ReplyDeleteMy post is very similar to your first paragraph and your last paragraph. I really love to think and learn about all the different ways people think and learn. Something that I talked about in my post was the different stages of the box analogy that Dr. Cantu talked about. I feel that would be something really interesting to share with the student and for us as teachers to use as a mental guidance to help us gauge our formatting of different type of questions to help build our students to the higher level from of thinking.Also by using this as a guide it will help to keep all of your students thinking and thus keeping them engaged in your lesson and the material at hand. It will all flow together nicely when you are in the classroom with the students. :)