The quality of your answers can only be determined by the quality of your questions. You ask good questions, you’ll get good answers.
-Andy Andrews
A stark reality of education is how much time we spend asking questions of students.
How do you know? What happened next? What is the first step in the equation? What thing happened on this date? Who traveled to this place?What did you do this weekend?
What are you doing right now?
Some of these questions are pertinent to the moment and some of them stimulate thinking.
Some of the questions assess learning and some of the questions inspire imagination.
What we don’t always think about is how we are framing questions. Will this question get a response that is specific or will it allow a student to use reasoning?
We want our students to improve their thinking. We want students to be responsible citizens. We want our students to find their muse and to grow as learners and people.
Take some time to plan your questions for tomorrow. Even if it’s just one question- avoid the pre-primed questions from a classroom text, avoid working off of improvisation in the moment. Plan your questions and get better responses. Frame your questions and get your students to think.
Ask better questions and get better answers.
