Blog Post 6

what do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

Asking questions can help involve all the students in the classroom. Question can also show how much students are learning and comprehending in class. Questions also give shy students a chance to talk in front of peers and adults.
Asking Questions to Improve Learning helped me get a better understand of "What questions do we ask? All yes or no responses should be followed up with a “WHY” question. How do we ask? We make sure our questions are clear and specific so no one will get confused. I learned about three types of questions: open questions, closed questions, and managerial questions. Open questions are questions that are good for discussion and active learning because they bring about multiple answers. Closed questions are good at testing comprehension and showing if a student has retained the information well because they have only a limited amount of correct answers. Managerial questions are used to make sure the students have the needed materials and are understanding.


The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom blog by Ben Johnson’s contains a lot of useful information. Ben tells us how to use a simple effective approach to asking questions by Mary Budd Rowe. The approach is to ask a specific question. After asking a specific question pause three seconds for a response then call on someone. Pick different students to answer the questions each time. Pausing allows students the chance to come up with an answer. All students will be forced to come up with an answer because they won’t know who you will call on next.

Effective teachers should never ask if everyone understands. Asking the class if everyone understands is a bad idea. Asking this question makes students think that it’s their last chance to respond before you move on. Some Students will not understand and will not respond out of fear of holding up the rest of the class from moving on. An effective teacher should never allow the students to answer with a simple yes or no. Teachers should always make students tell why the answer is yes or no so that they can check for understanding. Teachers should also try to have the question that they want to ask prepared before they come to class. Being prepared allows teachers to know what kind of answers they are looking for and they want confuse your class. As a future teacher I plan to have the question that I want to ask prepared before I come to class.

After viewing all of the links to the assigned videos, I have learned what I need to know about asking questions to become an effective teacher. I have learned that as a future educator I must know what I am teaching and what I expect my students to learn from my teaching. I have learned that I must also come to class fully prepared. I need to know what types of questions that I am going to be asking and how I am going to ask the questions. . It is also important to ask one question at a time so students aren't confused about which question they are supposed to be answering.