Asking the Right Kind of Questions

One of the themes of Common Core instruction (Benchmark and Agile Mind) is developing students who think, rather than students who merely recite information. To do this, teachers must ask the right kind of questions. Questions that require more than a simple "yes" or "no" response. We are looking for thinking that requires reasoning or evidence. As I tell teachers, we are shifting from teachers giving instruction and then having students respond (or perhaps a better "r" word would be regurgitate), to having students discuss and then teachers respond (by building on what they know to guide them to what they do not know.)

With that in mind, the PDF link provided (click on the picture below) offers several question stems to help guide us to the types of questions that will help us ask the right questions as we seek to facilitate the thinking our students.

Thanks to Laura Swain, Instructional Coach for 3rd -5th grades for ACS for the info!