Weekly Web Wonder 5: Asking Questions and Letting Students Know They Matter

Questions

Questions are the key to education. There is no other aspect that we can control more, or use to have a greater influence. Most of the time we think of questions as an assessment of learning, but we can't overlook how important they are to guiding learning. Questions will naturally happen in the classroom, but if we question ourselves on how we ask questions (see what I did there?) we can start asking at higher levels and some pretty cool stuff can happen.


Here are a few ideas (according to James E. Dyer) that I want to document because I feel are important to keep in mind:

• There are low and high levels of questions, and both are important in their own right. Low level questions Evaluate comprehension/preparation, diagnose strengths and weaknesses, and Review content. Higher levels of questions encourage deep/critical thinking and discussion, solve problems, and stimulate self-directed learning. 
• Questions can be open or closed
• Wait time is a thing. It refers to how long you wait to solicit a response after asking. A good wait time is 3 seconds, but shouldn't be longer than 5-7 seconds. 
• How you handle response to questions is just as much of a craft as what you ask. 

I know that asking the right questions is a matter of practice. After a while, we will be asking appropriate questions with little conscious effort. Nevertheless I still want to consciously improve this skill, specifically responding to answers correctly. (If you watch my labs, you will see I could use work on this). I will continue to dive into this and work on it with my peers and Mr. Brown.

Students Matter

While the first part of our weekly investment was important to developing my pedagogy, I feel the second part was equally important to developing my passion. More than any other piece of information my students will learn in class, I want them to know they matter. One of the main reasons I went into ag education over anything else is that ag teachers have such a unique opportunity to work with students as people as well as learners. I have had many good talks in this matter. One example is taken from a recent email with Mr. Brown. He said: "I had a class of 9th grade students today make a statement that said, Mr. Brown we wish all teachers were like you and Mr. Turner-teachers that get to know us as people not just students and that really care about what we do on a daily basis." 

This comes back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. As the Ted Talks pointed out, if students feel like their ideas matter, they will create wonderful things! Also, this feeling of importance is more than a facade that we construct as a tool to achieve an end result. It has to be real! I know this because I experienced this as a high school student. 

My senior year, I had Mrs. Hyde for English. The classroom engagement was pretty average as far as English classes go, but I will always remember the custom poster she had at the front of her room. By this point, I knew I wanted to teach ag, so before I knew any of the theories behind it that I know now, I wrote it down and promised myself that I would have a similar one in my classroom one day. I will leave you with a similar copy below. Remember: we are more than simple teachers. We have the ability to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing premier leadership, personal growth and career success each and every day while we instruct our curriculum to the future of the agricultural industry!