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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”

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.

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.

Creating Better Research Questions

Once students have a topic they'd like to research, how do we help them form more interesting questions?

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.

Tweaks To A Character Study

A teacher sent me a sequence of questions about the story My Father’s Dragon. Based on what you’ve read so far, what is one word you could use to describe Elmer? What from the story made you choose this word? Think of other books you’ve read. What character from another story you know is similar […]

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?

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, […]

Inquiry Training: Teach Students To Ask Better Questions

Inquiry Training is a model of instruction that looks a lot like 20 Questions. You'll teach your students to ask more helpful questions and to avoid rushing to a hypothesis too quickly.

Introducing “Criteria” To Students

Teaching our students to identify the criteria behind a decision will make them better decision makers and help them understand others' points of views.

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