1. Do I make certain that all students develop a deep understanding of key declarative (i.e., facts, concepts, generalizations, and principles) and procedural (i.e., skills, processes, and procedures) knowledge by emphasizing higher-order questioning?

2. Do I encourage discussion in my classroom by using open-ended questions?

3. Do I decide on the goals or purposes of my questions?

4. Do I choose important--rather than trivial--material to emphasize students' in-depth exploration of essential/key questions?

5. Do I avoid "yes" and "no" questions?

6. Do I use "probe" questions to encourage students to elaborate and support assertions and claims?

7. Do I ensure that students clearly understand my questions--and avoid a "guessing game?"

8. Do I avoid questions that "contain the answer"?

9. Do I anticipate students' responses to my questions, yet allow for divergent thinking and original responses?

10. Do I use purposeful strategies for helping students deal with incorrect responses?

11. Do I make effective use of Wait Time I and II?

12. Do I vary my question structures to include, where appropriate, the following:

 

Questioning for Quality Thinking

Recalling - Who, what, when, where, how _______? Comparing - How is similar to/different from_______? Identifying Attributes and Components - What are the characteristics/parts of _______? Classifying - How might we organize into categories_______? Ordering - Arrange into sequence according to _______? Identifying Relationships and Patterns - Develop an outline/diagram/web of _______? Representing - In what other ways might we show/illustrate _______? Identifying Main Ideas - What is wrong with _______? What conclusions might be drawn from_______?

Identifying Errors - What is wrong with _______? Inferring - What might we infer from _______? What conclusions might be drawn from _______? Predicting - What might happen if _______? Elaborating - What ideas/details can you add to _______? Give an example of _______. Summarizing - Can you summarize _______? Establishing Criteria - What criteria would you use to judge/evaluate _______? Verifying - What evidence supports _______? How might we prove/confirm _______?

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