Rigor and Questioning

• What is Effective Questioning?• How does it relate to Rigor?

Misuses of Questioning

• Primary means to check for comprehension• Initiate-Respond-Evaluate Cycle• Guess what’s in the teacher’s head• Vocal minority of students dominate• Can’t ensure the whole class understands

Developing Authentic Questions

“The important thing is to ensure that the questions engage students in deeper thinking and not merely prompt them to recall information that they have read or been told.”

Fisher & Frey, Checking for Understanding

Rigor

• Rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels, each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels, and each student demonstrates learning at high levels.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

An organizational structure to classify types of knowledge…an excellent tool for developing questions that represent the range of knowledge that should be taught in the classroom

Bloom, Cont’d

• Knowledge: Recall data or information (define, describe, identify)

• Comprehension: Understand the meaning of information (estimate, explain, predict)

Where’s Waldo?

Bloom, Cont’d

• Application: Use a concept in a new situation (apply, demonstrate, show, solve)

• Analysis: Separate concepts into parts to understand (analyze, compare, contrast, differentiate)

Application? Analysis?

Bloom, Cont’d

• Synthesis: Put parts together to create new meaning (create, relate, revise, compile, tell)

• Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of an idea (critique, defend, interpret, support)

Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation

Archimedes' Buoyancy Principle After he discovered his principle of buoyancy, the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes allegedly yelled out "Eureka!" and ran naked through the city of Syracuse. The discovery was that important. The story goes that Archimedes made his great breakthrough when he noticed the water rise as he got into the tub [source: Quake].

According to Archimedes' buoyancy principle, the force acting on, or buoying, a submerged or partially submerged object equals the weight of the liquid that the object displaces. This sort of principle has an immense range of applications and is essential to calculations of density, as well as designing submarines and other oceangoing vessels.

Occam's razor.

• The simplest explanation is usually the right one.

Webb’s Depth of Knowledge

Constructing Effective Questions• Step 1: Formulate the question and its purpose• Step 2: Format the desired response and who will

provide it• Step 3: Wait Time• Step 4: Scaffold the question so that students can

answer• Step 5: Decide where to go next

Instructional Practices to Increase Participation

• Hand Signals (Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down)• Wipeboards• Socratic Seminar• Name Cards (playing cards/popsicle sticks)• Other Great Ideas ??

Other Ways to Check for Understanding

• Writing• Projects• Performances• Common Summative Assessments• Common Formative Assessments