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Differentiation TechniqueAsk Better Questions

Read The Overview: Four Types of Questions You Can Ask

Asking questions is *such* a basic tool of teaching, yet how many of us have ever been taught to ask good questions? In this opening to a series about questioning, we'll explore how to get students asking each other questions.

Specific Examples of “Ask Better Questions”

Fluency: Asking For (Way) More Than One Answer

Being able to generate many possible answers is key to high-level thinking. So why don't we ask students to do it more often?

The Resiliency Tournament

I got to work with several groups of students (of many ages) and I tried out this task: building a tournament to decide who was the most resilient historical figure or fictional character? Kids came up with some amazing ideas.

Divergent Questions (How To Ask ‘Em)

How to ask Divergent Questions and ensure that your students are thinking rather than merely remembering.

Why I don’t include “Explain Why” in Questions

I used to think that adding "explain why" to the end of a question somehow made it higher-level. But now I see two problems in asking students to "explain their thinking".

Curiosity Skill: Encouraging Students to Ask Other Students

If you want to make a massive change in the culture of your classroom, move from teachers asking students all of the questions to students asking each other questions!

Puzzlement Tournament

Perfect to wrap up the year: a four-round puzzlement tournament.

How I’d Change this Question from my Textbook

Here are a dozen ways to transform a not-so-critical-thinking question from one of my district's textbooks.

Climbing Blooms With A Science Lesson

How I'd push a mere science demonstration to higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Evaluate with Academic Tournaments

The bracketed tournament isn't just for college basketball. Set up a tournament to determine best president, state, element, or literary character and challenge your students to make interesting judgements.

A Depth and Complexity ELA Worksheet with Problems

Here’s a Depth and Complexity worksheet I used to use with my students: I look at it now and shudder. I was making so many mistakes here. Let’s just zoom out and imagine that I asked the same questions at a book club with fellow adults. Me: What is this story’s main theme? Him: Oh, […]

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