Teach Like a Champion Tuesday
Stretch It (Technique 13) - The Reward
Better Questions Equal Better Answers!
The Reward
How do we reward our students when they provide the correct answer? What type of feedback do we give? When is their answer a sufficient response? One of the most beneficial responses to a correct answer is rewarding them with another (more challenging) question. How is this a reward?
- The deeper you dig into a concept through questioning demonstrates the value you have of knowledge, which is something we as teachers want to instill in our students themselves.
- This allows us teachers to mitigate the false positive and identify potential misconceptions or limits to students' understanding of a concept.
There are six essential categories of Stretch It questions.
- Ask "why" or "how"
- How do you know?
- Ask for another way to solve the problem
- Can you think of another way besides ... to get the answer?
- Ask for a better word or a more precise explanation
- Can you define...?
- Ask for supporting evidence or an example
- Can you find an example from the reading to support your answer?
- Ask students to integrate related skills
- Can you add a descriptive word (adjective) to your answer to describe...?
- Ask students to apply the same skill in a new setting
- How would you change the process if you were given...?
Connection to Danielson's "The Framework for Teaching"
3b - Questioning and Discussion
Element (Quality of questions/prompts):Questions of high quality cause students to think and reflect, to deepen their understanding, and to test their ideas against those of their classmates. When teachers ask questions of high quality, they ask only a few of them and provide students with sufficient time to think about their responses, to reflect on the comments of their classmates, and to deepen their understanding. Occasionally, for the purposes of review, teachers ask students a series of (usually low-level) questions in a type of verbal quiz. This technique may be helpful for the purpose of establishing the facts of a historical event, for example, but should not be confused with the use of questioning to deepen students’ understanding.
Critical Attribute (3):The teacher uses open-ended questions, inviting students to think and/or offer multiple possible answers.
Critical Attribute (4):The teacher builds on and uses student responses to questions in order to deepen student understanding.
Clip 16 - Well Said - Stretch It