"Stock-up" on Strategies
Empowering Students in all Content Areas
Question Chart--Expanding the Rigor through Questioning
How To Use It!
For classroom teachers this chart can be a great tool to plan out your essential questions before presenting a lesson. This could also be used to encourage questioning among your students and allow them to create deep level thinking questions.
You will notice that there are question pronouns along the left side ( the 5 W's and How) and along the top are verbs that develop the question further. The verbs along the top such as "is" are conjugated according to the subject ("What are the characters doing about the problem?") or the tense (What was the problem for the Titanic?)
You will also notice that there are quadrants to the Q Chart. Each quadrant identifies certain types of questions that can be posed before, during and after reading.
Red (Knowledge/Factual)
For the most part, questions that are posed from this quadrant can be answered by reading the text further, or by referring to another source for an answer. i.e. "What does "biodiversity" mean?" A question that may be answered from reading further into the text. "What is this section about?" A question that may be answered using text features or perhaps can be answered by reading/rereading a section to gather facts.
Yellow Quadrants (Analytical and Prediction)
Questions in these quadrants are more analytical and require students to use what they have read to pose more in depth questions. "How did the advertisement use persuasion to sell its product?" (analytical) "Why willthe main character feel bad about his actions?" (prediction) To answer the questions, the reader must use more of the information that they have acquired to find answers that may not be obvious and/or require them to draw on background knowledge.
Green Quadrant (Synthesis and Application)
This quadrant involved application and syhthesis of the text. "Why should I be concerned about biodiversity?" (Synthesis) or "How will I help support my local environment?" (application).
As students move through the quadrants from Red to Green, they will be required to think more critically about the texts and/or media they encounter. The goal of a Q Chart is to have students using all of the quadrants before, during and after reading. In addition, they should be posing more in-depth questions that can be found in the Yellow and Green quadrants.
Anchor Charts for all Content
Why Use Anchor Charts?
by Karen Nelson from We Are Teachers
- To recognize goals:
“They help students know (and be able to verbalize) what they are accomplishing.” - To review concepts:
“For me, it's something I can reference back to when teaching new content that builds off of an old concept. It gives the child something visual to 'anchor' their learning back to when old concepts are spiraled in. I believe anchor charts should be made with the kids because when they are active participants, they are more likely to remember what was taught.” - To set expectations:
“It is a way for you to write and draw out your expectations or steps for things. You can hang it to reference later or use them for self-reflection on things like if they followed center rules.” - To involve students:
“It gives the students something to refer back to when working on their own. In comparison to a poster, they are involved in the process of creating the anchor chart, whereas a poster is just hung up on the wall and just becomes background.”
Earon Sheats
Email: earon.sheats@hartselletigers.org
Website: learningunpacked.com
Location: Hartselle Junior High School
Phone: 256-773-4907
Twitter: @earonsheats