PB Module 3 Unit 1 Why question PB MTC V3 FINAL · 2 Unit 1: Questioning skills | Why question? Why? When? How? 1 Lead-in 1.1 | Example question Write a question you asked your learners

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Participant book

Questioning skills

Foundation in Teaching

Module 3 Unit 1: Why question?

Learning outcomes

The aim of this unit is to introduce questioning skills and the topics in this module. You will start by looking at the reasons why teachers ask questions. These reasons affect the types of questions you ask and when you ask them. You will also discuss the difference between open-ended and closed questions. Other units will also look at these types of questions.

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

• identify the reasons teachers ask questions • link these reasons to stages of a lesson• talk about the difference between open-ended and closed questions• write open-ended and closed questions for your lessons.

Key vocabulary

English

to sail

dialogue

order (arrangement)

to focus

to develop

to engage (to interest)

to review

to communicate

recall (noun = ability to remember, verb = to remember)

Unit 1: Questioning skills | Why question? 1

Why do teachers ask their learners

questions?

Participant bookFoundation in Teaching

Translation

ရြကလြငသည

ေျပာစကား

အစအစဥ

အဓကထားအာရစကသည

တးတကေအာငလပသည

စတ၀ငစားေအာငျပလပသည

ျပနလညသးသပသည

ဆကသြယသည၊ ဆကဆသည

အမတရသည

2 Unit 1: Questioning skills | Why question?

Why? When? How?

1 Lead-in

1.1 | Example question

Write a question you asked your learners in a lesson a short time ago.

1.2 | Questions: why, when and how?

Your trainer will give you instructions for this activity.

Look back at the question you wrote in 1.1. Why and when did you ask it?


2 Discover

2.1 | Why do teachers ask questions?

Find and circle ten reasons for asking questions. The first one has been done for you.

ghhachangepacefebliengagelearnershy xxdkialepollernlhelporcheckrecallonkner givelearnerspracticejdfldfjoeruejeojpoier fldaerueiplsncnfoedeveloplearningfdsfss dfreviewlearningplimkqpassesslearning helporcheckunderstandingpreeqqnqnfe diryxnmkploqkeeplearnersfocussedtcde iwcueriuhelplearnerscommunicatecsojnl

Divide the reasons into groups.

Useful language … is similar to … … is very different from … … and … should go together/in the same group because … … and … both include learners/teachers …ing … is linked to … but … is about …

Notes:



2.2 | When do teachers ask questions?

Put the lines of the dialogue in the correct order.

Class:

Tun Tun:

Teacher:

Teacher:

Kyi Kyi:

Learner:

Teacher:

Teacher:

May Mon:

Teacher:

Thura:

Teacher:

Nay Nay:

Teacher:

a)

b)

c)

d)

e)

f)

g)

h)

i)

j)

k)

l)

m)

n)

Heat and light.

Sorry, teacher. I don’t know.

Right. The sun gives us heat. It also gives us light. So what two things does the sun give us? Everyone?

Fire, good. Today we’re going to learn about the sun. What do you know about the sun? Everyone think about this question and write down one or two answers.Nay Nay?

Fire and sun both give us heat and light but the sun gives us food too.

Uses of fire.

Well done. Now I’m going to tell you more about how the sun also provides us with food. Listen carefully… (Teacher presents information).Tun Tun, listen please? What did I just say?

Yes that’s one way it helps us. We eat some plants. The more the plant grows, the www.win bigger it becomes and the more we have to eat. (Teacher continues to present information and ask questions).

OK. Now that you’ve learnt about the uses of the sun. How do you compare the uses of the sun to the uses of fire? I’ll give you a few minutes to think about this and talk to your partner.

(Three minutes later). Kyi Kyi?

I learnt that plants need the sun to grow.

What did we learn about yesterday?

Because we eat plants.

I’ll repeat it. Plants use sunlight to make food to help them grow. How do you think that helps us? Everyone think about this question for a few seconds. Thura?

It’s far away but hot.

Excellent. Now that’s all for today. Before we finish, can you tell me one thing you learnt in today’s lesson? Everyone think of one thing and tell me. May Mon?




2.3 | Open-ended and closed questions

Answer the questions below.

In what year did Myanmar become an independent state?

a) _______________________________________________________

Question

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Reason Stage



How is India different from its neighbours?

b) ______________________________________________________

Look at the clock. What is the time?

c) _______________________________________________________



Boats sail on the rivers,And ships sail on the seas;But clouds that sail across the skyAre prettier far than these.

(Extract from Boats sail on the rivers by Christina Georgina Rossetti)

What do you think about when you read these lines?

d) _______________________________________________________

3 Embed

3.1 | More open-ended and closed questions

Complete the table with questions from the classroom dialogue in 2.2.

Closed questions Open-ended questions



3.2 | Advice for questioning

Circle the correct word/phrase.

3.3 | Your questions


Notes:

g) Start/do not start

Advice for questioning

a) Use open-ended/closed questions to find out what learners know about a topic.

b) Use open-ended/closed questions to check if learners recall facts.

c) Use open-ended/closed questions to keep learners focussed.

d) Use open-ended/closed questions to develop learning.

e) Use open-ended/closed questions to develop thinking skills.

f) Try to use some/do not use any open- ended questions.



4 Practise

4.1 | Writing questions

Write four questions for your subject.

4.2 | Asking questions

Your trainer will give you more information for this activity

Useful language It’s your turn to ask a question. Can you repeat the question? It’s an open-ended question because… Move the coin one square. We’ve won!




5 Reflect

5.1 | I want to learn more about…

Complete these sentences:

In this session I enjoyed………………………………………………………………………………

I found it easy to……………………………………………………………………………………….

I found it difficult to…………………………………………………………………………………….

I want to learn more about……………………………………………………………………………

5.2 | Homework

Plan one open-ended question for a lesson this week. Ask it in the lesson and reflect on the answers and its use.

Question: ____________________________________________________________?

Answers: ____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Use: ____________________________________________________________


Appendix one - Classroom dialogue

What did we learn about yesterday?

Uses of fire.

Fire, good. Today we’re going to learn about the sun. What do you know about the sun? Everyone think about this question and write down one or two answers.

Nay Nay?

It’s far away but hot.

Right. The sun gives us heat. It also gives us light. So what two things does the sun give us? Everyone?

Heat and light.

Well done. Now I’m going to tell you more about how the sun also provides us with food. Listen carefully… (Teacher presents information).

Tun Tun, listen please? What did I just say?

Sorry, teacher. I don’t know.

I’ll repeat it. Plants use sunlight to make food to help them grow. How do you think that helps us? Everyone think about this question for a few seconds. Thura?

Because we eat plants.

Yes that’s one way it helps us. We eat some plants. The more the plant grows, the bigger it becomes and the more we have to eat. (Teacher continues to present information and ask questions).

OK. Now that you’ve learnt about the uses of the sun. How do you compare the uses of the sun to the uses of fire? I’ll give you a few minutes to think about this and talk to your partner.

(Three minutes later). Kyi Kyi?

Fire and sun both give us heat and light but the sun gives us food too.

Excellent. Now that’s all for today. Before we finish, can you tell me one thing you learnt in today’s lesson? Everyone think of one thing and tell me. May Mon?

I learnt that plants need the sun to grow.

Teacher:

Learner:

Teacher:

Nay Nay:

Teacher:

Class:

Teacher:

Tun Tun:

Teacher:

Thura:

Teacher:

Kyi Kyi:

Teacher:

May Mon:



Appendix two – Board game

start

finish



References and resources

Muijs, D and Reynolds, D (2011) Effective Teaching: Evidence and Practice. Sage Publications LtdSpendlove, D (2009) Putting Assessment for Learning into Practice. Continuum

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/asking-questions

A short article about types of question, reasons for asking them and effective questions for English language teaching



© British Council 2015/ E532 – KnoS4The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

Documents

PB Module 3 Unit 1 Why question PB MTC V3 FINAL · 2 Unit 1: Questioning skills | Why question? Why? When? How? 1 Lead-in 1.1 | Example question Write a question you asked your learners