Did I just ask that?

I feel like I am settling in quiet well with my classroom and am enjoying every minute being there. Today my teacher asked me how I would feel about taking a small group of year 2 students for a maths activity. I was both excited and nervous to see how this small group activity was going to play out. I am happy to report the small group activity went really well! The kids were for the most part well behaved and I felt almost like a teacher (well at small group work anyway)

During my time with my group, one thing I found myself stumbling on was the types of questions I was asking the children. After each question I asked myself “was that a good question?” “Was it open ended?” and lastly “was that even the right thing to say??” Gall (1984, as cited in Barry & King 1998) states that as teachers we can ask up to several hundred questions per day! They also state that effective questioning and responding to answers are one of the most difficult skills in teaching (Barry & King, 1998). Wow, I think I have my work cut out for me!!

 I can see why it is a difficult skill and it is really something as a teacher I feel I would need to plan for.  I observed my teacher for the rest of the afternoon to see what types of questions she was asking and how she worded them. I actually wrote many of the questions and responses she gave to the children down and she seemed to do it so effortlessly. I spoke to her later about her questioning technique and she said it was all about planning and hinted to me that it’s a skill you develop naturally after teaching for so long.

I wanted to see how often questioning was referred to by the NSW institute of teacher and I found it in: Element 4: 4.2.2 Use questions and classroom discussions effectively to probe students understanding of content.  The questions I ask need to “enhance and extend students thinking and assist them in learning from the experience” (Fellows & Oakley, 2010). I now know these are the types of skills I will need to demonstrate as a teacher and should be developing fairly quickly.

I have added a video from Youtube which I found really helpful. It has great examples of questions the teacher was asking the students in a Grade 5 class in reference to the novel they are studying, take a look:

References

Barry, K. & King, L. (1998). Developing instructional skills. In Beginning Teaching and Beyond, (3^rd ed.), (pp144-167). Social Science Press.

Fellowes J., & Oakley, G. (2010). Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education.

 Australia: Oxford University Press.

NSW Institute of Teachers. (2006). Professional Teaching Standards, Retrieved from http://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au.