Here are some repeating problems and techniques I’ve spotted while going through my old lessons and updating the questions.
🍲 Test Your Soup – I asked questions that I never tried answering myself. The result: my students faced confusing, poorly worded questions. I didn’t notice those problems until students asked for clarification. I’d stop the class and re-explain. I’d re-write directions on the board. I’d get frustrated. But the reality is, you’d never serve soup you hadn’t tasted first, right? So I darn well should have been testing my questions before I asked them! More on that here.
🧠 Focus on Brains, Not Hands – “Create a 3D, virtual reality, animated model of the planets in order” is at the same level of thinking as “Write a list of the planets in order.” Students are just reciting already known information. It just looks nicer. We want to focus on thinking, not the final product.
🔪 Sharpen Those Questions! – Get specific. Get weirdly specific. Specific questions make people think. Imagine answering “What is a great movie that you just don’t like?” compared to “What’s your favorite movie?” Read more about getting specific.
1️⃣ Beware One-Offs – Never ask one question and jump away to another topic. Ask sequences of questions. That’s how you get to high-levels of thinking. It’s also how normal, human conversations happen! We ask naturally follow-ups and push deeper. Read more about asking sequences.
🪜 To Climb High, Start Simple – The first questions in a sequence should be simple. They’ll build momentum. We ease students towards the higher-level questions. So, a great lesson won’t target just one level of Bloom’s. It will climb several levels. And, yes, not everyone will get to every question or complete every task, but that’s differentiation!
⚖️ Get To Analyze – I want to make sure I make it to the Analyze level of Bloom’s. This level is the key. As a new teacher, I’d either stop my questioning below this level or I’d jump right over it – and confuse my students. Once my students are Analyzing, it naturally unlocks the Evaluate level of thinking. And that makes it much easier for students to Synthesize. So, how can students compare, contrast, or categorize? Read more on why I ❤️ Analyze.
🤫 Don’t Write “Explain Why.” I don’t need to write “Explain why” any more than I need to write “Please write in complete sentences” or “Capitalize all proper nouns”. This is a basic expectation. We always explain our thinking. And, if a student doesn’t explaining their thinking, just hand the work right back to them! I wrote more about “explain why” here.
🤡 Engagement Isn’t The Goal – So many of my questions relied on silly names or situations to try to “engage” students. Great questions are naturally engaging. What’s better, they are interesting. They get students thinking. Beware of aiming for mere engagement.
✅ Checkpoints. Wait. How do you handle all of these tasks and questions? In my class, I’d give just one task at a time. Then students would bring me what they came up with. I’d either check it off and give them the next task, or I’d say, “Hmm, I think you could do better,” and hand it back. This way, I’m ensuring quality all the way up, I’m taking care of grading as I go (very few things need an actual grade), and I’m interacting with all of my students.