QQQ - Question. Question? Question! - Three Questioning Techniques

When done right, questioning is a high yielding formative assessment tool. Here are three ways to ask questions that can be organically incorporated into your lessons, especially when using interactive notes. Question. (00:24) Based on the content you’ve just presented or had the students read, have them write questions they think should be on a quiz. If you’re lazy like me, now you have a quiz made for you. Sample: In the space below, type two multiple choice questions that have the following criteria: A correct option (highlight it in green) A clearly wrong option A distracting option that might fool someone not being careful A silly/funny option Question? (00:59) Have students ask authentic questions about anything they actually didn’t understand. I like asking, “What questions do you have?” as opposed to asking something like, “Any questions?” The latter implies that it’s time to move on. The former assumes that questions will be asked. I had a professor require we ask at least two questions before we transition as a way of checking to see if we understand the point of his lecture. If we didn’t ask the “right” questions, then he needed to revisit the content. Though that’s a bit extreme, you could normalize transitioning between topics by prompting, “Before we move on, I need three clarifying questions.” Question! (02:08) Have students fill in this blank: “I hope _____ is not on the test!” You can use this as a transition to a new topic or as an exit ticket to quickly figure out what you need to reteach the next day. You may notice a pattern or a gap in understanding that you can address before actually giving it to them in a test.