Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

1. Open Ended Questioning Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

2. Back to Outstanding Learning Extended Wait Time When asking questions make sure you give enough wait time, it sounds simple but many teachers fall into the trap of not waiting long enough. Give them time to think! Paired talk is a good way of getting all pupils to engage with a question before they answer it, not too long, just enough is the key. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

3. Back to Outstanding Learning It’s Basketball not Table Tennis Try to get pupils to bounce answers off each other, passing them on and commenting on what has already been said It’s Teacher …pupil…pupil …pupil… NOT Teacher…pupil…teacher…pupil… Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

4. Back to Outstanding Learning What is a ‘good’ question? Discuss with students what makes a ‘good’ question. The process can explicitly show them the difference between open and closed questions. They can then come up with questions on a topic and decide which are best, and then move on to discuss and answer these. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

5. Back to Outstanding Learning Bouncing Bounce answers around the room to build on understanding and have students develop stronger reasoning out of misconceptions. E.g. “Jimmy, what do you think of Sandra’s answer?” “Sandra, how could you develop Carl’s answer to include more detail?” “Carl, how might you combine all we’ve heard into a single answer?” Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

6. Back to Outstanding Learning Rich Questioning Use an enquiry question to stimulate high-level thinking in the lesson or unit. e.g. Do scientists invent complicated words to stop other people from understanding what they're up to? Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

7. Back to Outstanding Learning ‘Might’ When questioning, insert the word ‘might’ to give students greater opportunity to think and explore possible answers. e.g. What is meaning of osmosis? What might the meaning of osmosis be? The first infers a single answer known by the teacher whereas the second is inherently more open. What might the osmosis look like? Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

8. Back to Outstanding Learning X and Y Ask students why X is an example of Y e.g. Why is an apple an example of a fruit? Why is a fox an example of a mammal? Questioning in this way avoids factual recall and asks for the underlying reasoning to be made explicit. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

9. Back to Outstanding Learning Tell your neighbour Students ‘tell their neighbour’ as a means of articulating their thoughts. • Ask a question, give thinking time and then ask students to tell their neighbour their thoughts. • Tell students what the new topic is and then ask them to tell their neighbour everything they know about it. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

10. Back to Outstanding Learning Group Answers Students work in small groups to agree on answers – when tests are returned or in other situations. The process of agreeing should include reasoning over the validity of the consensus answer, as well as reasoned negation of misconceptions or wrong answers. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

11. Back to Outstanding Learning Idea Thoughts When you have received an answer to a question, open up the thinking behind it by asking what others think about the idea. e.g. “What do others think about _________’s idea?” Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

12. Back to Outstanding Learning Synthesise Make links L7 Use models to explain L6 Apply Explain Describe L5 L4 Match/name/identify L3 Level Ladders and Questioning Use the vocabulary in the ladder to put questions to pupils at different levels, they can be trained to identify them and can comment on or improve each others answers. It will help you to move away from low level questioning (i.e. Key word answers). Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

13. Back to Outstanding Learning Why? How? What would happen? Using the words • How… • Why… • What would happen… At the start of a question tends to make it more open-ended and gets better responses from pupils. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

14. Back to Outstanding Learning Extending Help pupils to extend their answers with supplementary questions • Why do think that… • What evidence is there…. • What have we done that makes you think that… • Can you justify that… • Can you include the idea of particles… Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

15. Back to Outstanding Learning Word Count Set a minimum number of words that must be used. I want you to use at least 10 words in your answer! Set some words that must be used in the answer I want you to include the words particle, bonds and reaction in your answer! Paired talk works well with these types of approaches. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants

16. Back to Outstanding Learning Pyramid Discussion This activity provides a structure for whole class or group discussion of “big” open-ended questions. • Cut out the six triangles, each of which has a comment about a • big question. • Arrange the triangles into a pyramid… • Placing the comment you most agree with at the top. • Placing the three comments you least agree with at the base of the pyramid. • Placing the two comments you quite agree with in the middle. • Use your pyramid to scaffold discussion of the big question. Jules Gordon and Adie Bett Teaching, Learning and Assessment Consultants