Differentiating Written and oral activities using Higher Order Questioning in the classroom.

1. Differentiating Written and oral activities using Higher Order Questioning in the classroom. •Name Sofia Lioni•Which of the four face-to-face institute or Elluminate session topics did you select to report on and why?I selected Dr Merseth’ s lecture on Bloom’ s Taxonomy of ordering thinking skills. I am a school psychologist working privately and many students – especially students with learning difficulties – ask my help on how they can work effectively at school. Dr Merseth’ s lecture gave me many ideas on how to try and engage students in asking questions and thinking about their thinking and learning. •With whom did you pilot this new practice and at what grade level did you undertake your pilot? I piloted this activity at my private office with my colleagues who are also school psychologists or special educators. As I mentioned before students with learning difficulties in Greece can mostly get some help about learning privately and not in school settings. The students were of the first and second grade. I also tried to cooperate with their school teachers as many times they also ask me for help on how to engage effectively these students in working and learning. 1

2. Connections with Colleagues • Describe in a few brief phrases what connections you made with colleagues in experimenting with this new practice. • First we had a meeting with my colleagues at the office to discuss the activities (written and oral) that we can use with our students. Secondly I talked with their parents in order to explain to them how they can use questions (low level and high level) and help their children with homework. And finally I tried to meet with their teachers at school and explain to them this new practice. 2

3. Successes • Name two or three 'successes' you experienced with this pilot. What changes did you notice? • Instead of giving students things to memorize (low level task) they started understanding better their material, analyzing it and evaluating. • As Greek students are usually asked to memorize material, they were really happy with this pilot They felt like ‘investigators’. • Parents said that their children had a new ‘tool’ (=questions) to do their tasks in the classroom. And this reduce their stress. 3

4. Challenges • Name two or three challenges you experienced with the pilot. What got in the way of your success? • I don’t have the opportunity of a team – work. I feel quite ‘isolated’ in my office trying to practice this pilot. • Although students like this pilot they cannot always practice it at home or classroom. Many times the pilot looked like an ‘extra’ method and not as a complete change in doing school tasks. 4

5. Next Steps • Name two or three next steps with this material. What will you try next? How will you build on your experiences with the institute? • I will try to practice high – level – cognitive questions to as many Greek classes as possible, for the students that I help in my office. • I will try to encourage my students to ask questions in their classrooms. • I will try to cooperate with school teachers and encourage them to use questions with their students and increase their wait time for the answers. 5