Questioning: A Strategy to Promote Critical Thinking and Improve Student Achievement

Citrus: Literacy, Learners, and Leaders Questioning: A Strategy to Promote Critical Thinking and Improve Student Achievement Cindy Hayslip Margaret Williams Citrus County Schools, Florida

Literacy is… • Listening • Viewing • Speaking • Thinking • Reading • Writing • Expressing using multiple symbol systems Citrus County Schools, Florida

Practice the Non-negotiables • Use the 7 processes of literacy • Read to and with students • Teach, model, and practice key strategies (one of which is questioning) and graphic organizers • Students read by themselves with accountability • Print-rich literacy environment • K-1 phonics, phonemic awareness Citrus County Schools, Florida

“The most important questions don’t seem to have ready answers…. An answer is an invitation to stop thinking…” A question is the “master key to understanding.” Stephens and Brown, 2000 Citrus County Schools, Florida

Questioning … Improves comprehension by: • Helping monitor comprehension • Relating what is to be learned with what is already known • Clarifying confusion • Focusing attention on what must be learned • Strengthening a reader’s dialogue with text • Developing active thinking while reading • Giving a purpose to reading Citrus County Schools, Florida

What the Research Says • Students’ understanding and recall can be shaped by the types of questions to which they become accustomed (Duke and Pearson, 2002) • Students’ generation of their own questions about text improves overall comprehension (Yopp, 1988; Raphael and Pearson, 1985) Citrus County Schools, Florida

Improving student achievement with high-level questioning • Teacher questioning Questions that place a higher cognitive demand on the student promote critical thinking and improve student achievement. • Student questioning Strategy (such as Question Answer Relationships) in which students learn to differentiate questions about text that leads to improved comprehension. Citrus County Schools, Florida

Teacher questioning Questions on FCAT are categorized by cognitive complexity: Low Moderate High complexity Based on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Citrus County Schools, Florida

Cognitive complexity Questions with low cognitive complexity: • One-step problem • Require only a basic understanding of text • Comprise only 10-20% of FCAT • “Right there” answers (QAR) • Recall questions (who, what, where, when, why), retelling, summarizing Citrus County Schools, Florida

Moderate Complexity Questions with moderate cognitive complexity: • Two-step process • Require some inferencing • Comprise 50-70% of FCAT • Answers are “between the lines” • Think and Search (QAR) • Author and Me (QAR) Citrus County Schools, Florida

High complexity Questions with high cognitive complexity: • Require several steps • Require complex inferences across texts • Comprise 20-30% of FCAT • Answers are “beyond the lines” • Author and Me (QAR) • On My Own (QAR) Citrus County Schools, Florida

Student-generated questioning • QAR—Question-Answer Relationships Strategy that that allows students to see the relationships between the type of question asked, the text, and the reader’s prior knowledge. • Students learn how to distinguish questions with answers that are found “in the book” (Text Explicit questions) and questions with answers that are found “in my head” (Text Implicit questions). Citrus County Schools, Florida

Right There Questions The answer is in the text; The words used in the question and the words used for the answer can usually be found in the same sentence. Think and Search Questions The answer is in the text, but the words used in the question and those used for the answer are NOT in the same sentence. The student needs to think about different parts of the text and how ideas can be put together before answering the question. QAR In-the-Book Questions

Author and You Questions The answer is not in the text. The student must think about what he/she knows, what the author says, and how they fit together. On My Own Questions The answer is not in the text. The question can be answered without even reading the text. The answer is based solely on one’s own experiences and knowledge. In-My-Head Questions

Right There Think and Search Author and me On My Own Level 1 Knowledge Level 2 Comprehension and Level 3 Application Level 4 Analysis and Level 5 Synthesis Level 6 Evaluation QAR and Bloom’s Taxonomy Information in the text Information in several places in text Information both in and out of text Information NOT in the text but from background knowledge

Teaching Students to Use QAR • Introduce QAR using a visual aid and a short selection to demonstrate the relationships. • Model identifying and answering questions at each level of QAR. • With teacher guidance, students practice identifying and answering questions at each of the levels. • Students apply QAR to the reading of their regular texts. • For younger students or struggling readers, teachers introduce and practice one level at a time before introducing the next level.

REFLECTION Ask yourself one simple question: Who owns the questions in your classroom? Citrus County Schools, Florida

Questioning: A Strategy to Promote Critical Thinking and Improve Student Achievement