Layered Questioning Techniquesfor Diverse Learners

Caryn LewisRiverside County Office of Education

Session Outcomes

• Discuss effective questioning techniques can improve comprehension in students with limited English proficiency.

• Distinguish between instructional strategies and questioning techniques that can be used before, during and after the reading of the text.

• Identify questions that may be generated by the student and/or the teacher and apply them to different types of text.

Research/Application/Practice

Let’s take a look at instruction!

Supporting Comprehension

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Year 1 -prior toinstructionalstrategies

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Year 2 - withquestioningstrategies

Comprehension results: Grade 6

The Artistry of Effective Questioning

Student• Student-to-self• Student-to-student• Student-to-teacher

• Teacher-to-self• Teacher-to-teacher• Teacher-to-student

Teacher

Questioning Cycle

During reading

Afterreading

Before reading

Effective Questioning

• Encourages cooperative learning• Promotes group discussion • Builds on prior knowledge • Allows for choral response• Uses differentiation techniques• Develops increasing levels of cognition

Before Reading

• Questions about topic or genre

• Questions about words or language

• Questions that clarify learning objectives

• Questions that access prior knowledge or experience

Student generated

Teacher generated

Learning Objectives

• Content objective: Based on academic content standards

What do I want them to do?• Language objective: Based on English

language development standardsHow do I want them to do it?

J. Echevarria, M. Vogt & D.J. Short, Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners: The SIOP Model (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000)

Stages of Language Acquisition• Beginning (pre-production)• Beginning (early production)• Beginning (early speech emergence)• Early intermediate• Intermediate• Early advanced• Advanced

Differentiating Language ObjectivesExample: Give a description of the setting using

precise vocabulary.Beginning One- or two-word responseEarly intermediate Simple phrase Intermediate One or two simple

sentencesEarly advanced Multi-sentence response

with few errorsAdvanced Multi-sentence response

with near native speech

Teacher-Focused Questions

• What are the learning objectives?• Do my students have the prerequisite skills

necessary to complete this task?• What academic language or vocabulary will I

need to preteach?• What language will I require the students to

use during the lesson?• What will the final student product be?

Student-Focused Questions

• What is my purpose for reading?• What are the learning objectives?• Do I see any unfamiliar words or ideas?• What is the culture, theme or topic?• What are the key ideas?• What is the activity or assignment I must

complete?

Plan-Prepare-Present

With your table group, fill out the questioning log. Look at the application process from both the teacher and student perspectives. How will the lesson be different with this questioning process?

During Reading

• Questions about key ideas • Questions about words or

language

• Questions that maximize language output

• Questions that guide learning objectives and promote higher-order thinking

Student generated

Teacher generated

Cues, Questions, Prompts

• Question-response-evaluation. The teacher asks a question and then appraises the answer.

• Question-response-feedback. The teacher asks a question, the student answers, and then the teacher provides feedback. The feedback includes paraphrasing the student answer, which leads to the student rephrasing his response.

• Student-organized interaction. Students ask and answer questions in small groups. The teacher becomes a facilitator and discussion participant.

J. Hill, K. Flynn, Classroom Instruction That Works With English Language Learners (Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2006).

Tiered Questioning

• Lowers the affective filter • Builds confidence • Increases oral language opportunities• Allows access to the text for all students

Color code the questioning chart to simplify lesson delivery and maximize language.

Text Walk-Text Talk

With your table group, use the text to design a series of questions that focus specifically on language output. What do you notice about these questions? How does the questioning chart help to facilitate lesson delivery?

Question

• Student generated• Literal: Who, what, where, when• Inferential: Why, how, what if

Question-Answer Relationship

• Teach the four types of questions:– Right there– Think and search– Author and you– On your own

• Use non-linguistic representation to support student understanding and practice

• Use scaffolding model to build success- Taffy Raphael, 1982

QARs

In the text

In my head

• Right there• Think and search

• Author and me• On my own

Right There

The answer is right in the text and usually easy to find.

The words used to make up the question and the answer are usually the same.

Question: What year did the Civil War end?

Answer: The Civil War ended in 1865.

Think and Search

The answer is in the text, but you need to put different parts together to answer it.

Words for the question and words for the answer are not usually the same.

Question: What are the primary organs of the

digestive system?

Answer: The esophagus, stomach and intestines make up the digestive system.

Author and Me

The answer is not in the text, but the text will be used to find an answer.

Think of what you already know and link it to what you know from the text. See how they fit together.

Question: Using the graph, decide which

team was most successful.

Answer: I think the blue team was the most successful because …

On My Own

The answer is not in the text so prior knowledge and experiences must be used.

The question can be answered without having read the text.

Question: Why is it a good idea to conserve

water?

Answer: I think water should be conserved because ...

Visual Resources

After Reading

• Student identifies text connections with lesson questions

• Student responds to original focus questions

• Teacher reviews original focus questions

• Teacher poses final questions that allow students to formulate an opinion or conclusion

Student generated

Teacher generated

Instructional Strategies for Questioning in Grades 3-8• Focus questions• Question-answer relationship (QAR)• Reciprocal reading• Tiered questioning• Central question diagram• Question the author• Question tree and sea• Question frames

Management Strategies

• Give up the lecture! • Ask interactive questions.• Increase oral language opportunities.• Allow for choral response.• Encourage cooperative learning.• Use questioning frames.• Pair students with alternate ranking.• PRETEACH!

Caryn Lewisclewis@rcoe.us

Implementation Activities

• With a team of teachers, select a language arts or content area lesson and identify the learning objectives for both academic content and language.

• Use the lesson map to create a plan for questioning that will take place before, during, and after a text-based lesson.

• Create a system for easy recognition of levels of English proficiency with the students in your classroom, or school site. Color code the student names to correlate with the stages of language acquisition.