Excellence in Education: Problems With Closed-Ended Questions and How to Deal with Them
Last week I shared the value of closed-ended questions, so this week let’s explore some problems with them and how to problem solve.
Problem 1: When students believe that there’s a correct answer and they are unsure, they will be slow to respond.
Solutions
- Use wait time after asking questions and after students’ responses. These wait times should be at least 3 seconds for complex questions as well as providing more time for increasingly complex questions.
- Use a No Hands Up approach unless asking opinion questions where some students may not feel comfortable participating.
- Another technique I liked using was group pass. In using group pass, you can group students by similar readiness levels or by varying levels. The teacher poses a question and each student writes down an answer. Students then pass the paper to a peer who checks the answer. The process is repeated.
Problem 2: It’s the same students responding to questions
Solutions
- Ask questions to all students. When we ask on student a question, most other students stop thinking.
- Randomly call on students using popsicle sticks or one of a variety of random name generating tools available online.
- Say, “I am going to wait until 75% of students have their hands up before calling on someone.”
- If you’re checking for vital/must know information, use choral response. To check for understanding, ask the class a series of questions and have the class respond in unison. This technique works best with simple answers with minimal wait time. Choral response works best with intensive-explicit questions with right/wrong answers and can be pretty rapid-fire.
Problem 3: Students do not know or say, “I don’t know.”
- Jim Knight suggests using the 4R Approach
- Repeat the question
- Rephrase the question
- Reduce the question by breaking the question down into smaller parts
- Reach out. Allow the student to reach out to a classmate for help or call on another student. Then go back to the original student and have him/her repeat the answer.
- Take responsibility for students now knowing the answer. When a student doesn’t know the answer, they most likely are a little embarrassed. Take that shame off of them by saying, “I obviously didn’t do a good job of teaching this. Thanks for alerting me to this,” or “That’s OK. This tells us that you don’t know it yet, but we’ll get it.”
- When the whole class is silent, resist the urge to answer the question by yourself. We’ve all been there. After teaching a unit, we ask a complex question and all we hear are crickets chirping. Silence.
Fight the urge to answer the question yourself.
And perhaps this isn’t a time where you want to use the 4 R’s.
Provide the students with a clue on where they can find the answer. Let them do the heavy lifting. For example, you may cue the students by saying, “Why don’t you look at your notes from yesterday. I’ll wait. This is a tough question, but you need to know this.”
Excellence in Education: Numbered Heads Together
This is an oldie, but goodie from Spencer Kagan, a cooperative learning guru. I had great success using it for anything from unit reviews to the most complex, higher-order questions. And it solves the three problems listed above.
How to:
- Students are placed in groups of 4. Assign each of the 4 a number (1-4).
- You, as the teacher, pose a question. Of course, it helps for students to be able to see the question as well as hear it.
- Students individually think and write down their answers. Answers can be written on a their desks (using white board markers), individual white boards or on paper.
- Provide the students with a set amount of time to answer the question individually and provide them with a countdown as time is about to expire.
- After time is called, the group discusses the answer and works towards a consensus answer.
- Each member of the group should be able to answer the question for the entire group.
- Randomly call a number (1-4) and that student reports the answer to the entire class. Again, depending on the type of question, you could use this as a competition between groups by keeping score or by having all of the randomly called numbers write their answer on a small whiteboard. For example, after giving groups time to answer, tell them to erase their answers. Randomly call on a number and have all students who were that number write down the correct answer on their whiteboard. Then have them display their answers to you. It’s also great to ask follow-up questions too.
Why it works?
- Each student is accountable, but the team approach eliminates fear
- It provides opportunities for students to talk and listen, making learning visible
- Appropriate grouping means stronger students can support struggling students without feeling “slowed” by them
Need To Knows
Substitutes: As you create your substitute plans, please be sure to provide them with information regarding student accommodations (health plans, SBIT, 504s, IEPs).
Student Emails: When emailing students, you should not be using their personal emails. Please use their school-issued emails.
Friday long lunch: Please note that there’s a transition period between 1st and 2nd lunches. For those eating second lunch, please do not dismiss your students before 11:34.
PD Day Follow-up: By October 12, your PLC should create a student watch list and document your plans using this form for the following items:
- P-Based learning unit / lesson
- Buck Institute rubric - determine where you are on this rubric as an individual or PLC
- Open Portfolio Project (artifact)
- Plan for culminating assessment
Useful Links
Technology / Website Permission Request Form Please use this form to request use of a website or any resource that requires student log-in if the site is not already on the approved list. DART approved list
Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm Please be sure to have announcements cued and ready to go at 8:55 every morning.
Announcement Request: http://tinyurl.com/requestannouncement
Calendar and Memo Items
September 26: Interim Period Ends
September 29: Grades in PowerSchool by 9am
September 29: Mentorship
October 5: Parent-Teacher Conferences
October 11: PSATs
October 12: Faculty Meeting
Shout Outs
Hat tip to Jennifer Meade and Kelly Lawrence for Homecoming Week, capped off by a great dance. Thanks to all who chaperoned! Not only do we appreciate it, our students loved seeing you there!
Thanks to all of you for making our Spirit Week and Professional Development Day a Success. Thanks especially to Rob Garland for the staff picture and Thomas Warren for the staff picture and leadership on portfolios, respectively.
Worth Your Time
20 Types of Learning Journals That Help Students Think Some great ideas that can incorporporated into every class including uses for blogs and open portfolios
