Chapter 5: Questioning!

Are questions important? I think so! Using questions in the classroom is essential to higher order thinking. Questions can be very good for prompting inquiry in students thinking. After students ask questions, I think that it is important to give the students feedback on their answers and their thinking. Another thing that I noticed in the text is the fact that students need adequate time to gather a response to a question. This reminded me of a few times whenever teachers have asked me a question and if I didn’t start talking within one second then they would say, “Well, does anyone ELSE know the answer?”. This gives me some great tips on how to ask questions, wait for response, and then give feedback.

One quote from the book was, "When students learn to classify questions and locate answers, they learn to recognize that the reading process is influenced by the reader and the text." This quotes leads me to my next topic. There were large amount of questioning strategies listed in the book, but one that caught my attention the most was the QAR strategy. This strategy allows the student and teacher to analyze the relationship between the question and relationship. It also allows the students to work into their metacognition. This is good for the students so that they can learn how they learn the best.

Question: What is the best strategy to use or is there a best strategy?

Note-Taking Chapter 7!

Chapter 7 was a great chapter! I loved reading about all the different ways to take notes and how to set students up to successfully take notes. I really LOVE the idea of structured note taking. I had a teacher that made pre-structured outlines for us to use to take notes. This was extremely helpful to me and a lot of other students in the class. I agree with the book that it is very important to prepare students for taking notes. It is significant that students are taught note taking skills. If students are not taught note taking skills then they cannot be reliable to make good notes when listening to a lecture. The “Split Page” note taking skill is a great way to allow students to take notes. I like this method a LOT!

It is important that teachers present information that the students are taking notes on clearly. The information should also be presented in a way that is easy for the grade level to understand and comprehend. Some grades are going to struggle more with note taking than others. It can also be helpful to explain to the students WHY they are taking notes. If it is something that they think is going to be a total waste of time, then they most likely won’t put much effort into it. It is a good idea to stress the importance of note taking. Ex: Note taking IS important because you will need to review this information before the test. Explain that you will not go over the same content over and over and that students should take notes so that they can remember and study what was said in a particular class period. Another thing that is important to me is ending each class or subject with a review of the content. All students should be able to answer some questions teachers might ask after reading a passage to the students.

Quote from text: "While people may have different ways of taking notes, I do believe that it's a skill that can be taught. I also believe that students need to be shown how to take notes - good notes - that they can use later."

Question:

1) How can we get students to WANT to take notes automatically?