Questioning Techniques: Questions that Extend Responses

Posing the right questions to students is one of the most important techniques that can be used when teaching and assessing students. Your questioning techniques can expose misconceptions, uncover gaps in learning, cause students to look deeper at a topic, encourage a higher depth of knowledge, and provide students with opportunities to make connections between many different topics.
Because questioning is a topic that has many different levels, I am going to HAVE to spread the techniques that I use over several different posts...Hopefully these posts will come quick and in successive order, however, due to my tremendously busy schedule and A.D.D. (undiagnosed and I which that I had even a slight case of hyperactivity as an adult) I am not sure if this will be the case...
This first questioning techniques post will be about questions that require students to extend their responses. As a math teacher, it is easy to fall into the habit of asking students questions that only require one-word answers. However, in order to prepare our students for courses at higher levels, college, the jobs that will be available to them in the future, and life in general. It is important that we ask questions that extend their learning and their thinking.
Although this is not an exhaustive list, here are some of my favorites...
- What other information/questions might be useful?
- How else could this problem have been solved?
- If _____________ changed, how would the outcome be affected?
- What other observations could you make about ____________?
- What would happen if _______________?
- Based on what you know, what would happen if? What can you predict?
- How did you decided to ______________?
- What would you do it ________________?
- What do you think caused _____________?
What are some questions that you use in your classroom to extend student responses?



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