The longer a teacher talks for, the more likely it is the number of pupils paying attention decreases. The trick to sustaining attention is to ask pupils questions and to expect 100% participation DURING an explanation. Questions interrupt the loss of attention. If done well, questions do not interrupt the flow of your explanation, as … Continue reading Choral Response and ‘I Say You Say’
questioning
Turn and Talk
'Turn & talk' is one of the techniques I use most in my classroom - perhaps 20 or more times in any given 50-minute lesson. I recently shared a clip of what this might look like on Twitter (click here). My strategy for explicit instruction involves asking questions in three phases. Phase 1 questions include … Continue reading Turn and Talk
The Three Phases of Questioning
Have you ever delivered a really clear teacher explanation and used lots of checks for listening to ensure your class was paying attention, only to find that when you ask your class a question to check for understanding they respond with: "I'm not sure, sir" or "I think [completely wrong answer], sir" or "Is it … Continue reading The Three Phases of Questioning
Retrieval Cues: Do Your Questions Help or Hinder?
It’s so easy, when we really want our pupils to answer a question correctly, that we give them cues to help them reach the answer. Sometimes we see our pupils still struggling and we become tempted to offer them a just-a-few more cues to help them get there. Finally, they give the correct answer and … Continue reading Retrieval Cues: Do Your Questions Help or Hinder?
Evolution of my Pedagogy III: Questioning
When I began teaching, I used to use questioning for two main reasons. Firstly, as a way of eliciting ideas I desired pupils to construct. For example, if I was teaching pupils about experimental design, I might ask them why they thought we have only one independent variable in an experiment and lead pupils to … Continue reading Evolution of my Pedagogy III: Questioning
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