This document discusses various techniques teachers can use to understand students' current level of knowledge and thinking in order to plan effective instruction. It emphasizes the importance of exploring students' ideas before instruction rather than making assumptions. Specific techniques discussed include asking diagnostic questions, using wait time after posing questions, and implementing all-student response systems to gather real-time feedback from all learners. The document stresses using this feedback to make adjustments to instruction that meet students' current learning needs.

2. FINDING OUT WHAT STUDENTS KNOW
• Once you establish clear learning targets, you need to determine where students
are in their learning.
• Teachers carefully plan instructional activities, but rarely plan in detail how they
are going to find out where the students are in their learning.
• Teachers need to make sure the questions you ask, allow you to determine if the
students’ learning is on track.
• Sample question p.71

3. WHERE DO STUDENTS’ IDEAS COME FROM?
• Overgeneralization is a fundamental feature of human thinking.
• Ex. “I spended all my money.”
• Children are active in the construction of their own knowledge. They “make
sense” of the things that go on around them, including what we teach, and
sometimes the sense they make is not what we intended.
• Ex. A child might associate “bear” with all stuffed animals.
• *It is essential to explore students’ thinking before assuming that students have
understood something.

4. WHEN TO MOVE ON?
• Whether to go over something one more time or to move on is a professional
decision that the teacher must make.
• The teacher must take a number of factors into account:
• Is the concept a prerequisite for other skills?
• Can the student continue to make progress without mastering this skill?
• Consider high stakes testing
*In your classroom, how do you
determine when to move on?

5. PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES
• Teacher-led classroom discussions is one of the most universal instructional
practices.
• American teachers talk less than teachers in other countries with higher levels of
student achievement.
• *How much students learn depends more on the quality than the quantity of the
talk.
• In a study (p.79) of elementary school classrooms, one thousand teacher
questions were analyzed. It was found that 57% of teacher questions were
managerial. “Who is finished?” “Do you have your books?”
• Wiliam suggests there are only two good reasons to ask questions:
• 1. To cause thinking and to provide information to the teacher about what to do
next
• 2. To collect information to inform teaching
Reflect on the questions you ask in your
classroom. What types of questions do you
ask? How much time do you spend asking
managerial questions?

6. PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES
Student
Engagement
Wait Time
Alternatives
to
Questions
Evaluative
and
interpretive
Listening
Question
Shells
Hot-Seat
Questioning
All-Student
Response
Systems

7. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
• Matthew effect (Matt. 25:29) “For to all those who have, more will be given, and
they will have an abundance; but for those who have nothing, even what they
have will be taken away.”
• This effect happens in classrooms everyday – some students are so eager to
answer questions and others try to fly below the radar.
• When teachers allow students to choose whether to participate or not – raising
hands, etc. – they are actually making the achievement gap worse.
• In order to avoid this use a “no hands up” policy, or a randomization device .
• Teachers must create an environment where classroom participation is NOT
optional.

8. WAIT TIME
• The amount of time a teacher allows a student to respond before evaluating the
response is important.
• The amount of time between the student’s answer and the teacher’s evaluation is
just as, if not, more important.
How long do you wait for
students to respond?
How much time do you
spend evaluating
student answers?

9. ALTERNATIVES TO QUESTIONS
• Asking questions may not be the best way to generate good classroom
discussions.
• Rather, teachers can make statements and have students agree or disagree.
• The quality of a discussion is enhanced further when students are given the
opportunity to discuss their responses in pairs or small groups before responding.
(Think-Pair-Share)

10. EVALUATIVE AND INTERPRETIVE LISTENING
• In response to why other coaches were not as successful as he was, John
Wooden stated, “They don’t listen. Listening is the best way to learn. You have to
listen to those who you are supervising.”
• Teachers must learn how to listen to students’ responses.
• Most focus on whether a student response is correct, rather than the level of
understanding.
•Teachers who listen evaluatively learn only
whether their students know what they
want them to know.
•These teachers simply respond by teaching
the material again.
Evaluative
•Teachers who listen interpretively gain
information about how to teach something
better from what students say.
•More interested in what/how students
think rather than the “right” answer.
Interpretive
What kind of listener are you?

11. QUESTION SHELLS
• General structures that can help frame questions in ways that are more likely to
reveal students’ thinking.
• Ex: “Why is __________________ an example of ____________________?”
• Ex: “Why is a bird not an insect?”
• More thoughtful and reasoned responses are likely to be generated by asking
questions in this way.
• “Is magnetism a metal?” vs. “Why is magnetism a metal?”

12. HOT-SEAT QUESTIONING
• Hot-seat questioning is another technique for deepening classroom discussion.
• In hot seat questioning, the teacher asks a student a question and then a series
of follow-up questions to probe the student’s ideas in depth. Other students pay
close attention because they could be called on at any time.

13. ALL-STUDENT RESPONSE SYSTEMS
• An All-Student Response System is simple- the teacher asks a question in such a way
that allows him to get a response from every student in real time.
• Examples:
• Some teachers use class polls.
• “thinking thumbs”
• “fist to five”
• Make sure that the questions being asked are cognitive – thinking rather than
feeling.
• Works best with questions for which a single response is required.

14. ALL-STUDENT RESPONSE SYSTEMS
• ABCD Cards
• For questions in which there is more than one correct answer.
• This allows teachers to incorporate items that supports differentiation with
questions that all students should be able to answer as well as responses that
challenges high-achieving students.
• Can also be used when there are no right answers but different points of view.
• Can also be used to bridge two lessons.
Disadvantage:
ABCD cards generally require
teachers to have planned
questions leading to few
spontaneous discussion
opportunities,

15. ALL-STUDENT RESPONSE SYSTEMS
• Mini Whiteboards
• Modern version of writing slated used in 19th century classroom.
• Allows teachers to quickly frame a question and get an answer from the whole
class.
Tip:
Can use page
protectors. This low-cost
alternative allows
teachers to different
preprinted images
lesson specific.

16. ALL-STUDENT RESPONSE SYSTEMS
• Exit Passes
• Work best when there is a natural break in the instruction; the teacher then has
time to read through the students’ responses and decide what to do next.

17. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC
QUESTIONS
• Discussion questions are good when the teacher needs to hear the reasons for
the choices.
• Diagnostic questions are based in a fundamental rule of thought – it is better to
assume that students do not know something when they do rather than to
assume they know something when they don’t.

18. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC
QUESTIONS
Would this be a good discussion question or diagnostic question?
Look at the following sequence:
3,7,11,15,19,…..
Which is the best rule to describe the sequence?
A. n + 4
B. 3+ n
C. 4n - 1
D. 4n + 3

19. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC
QUESTIONS
Because there can be more than one possible answer and the teacher needs to hear
reasons for their choice, this is a good discussion question and not a good
diagnostic question.

20. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC
QUESTIONS
Would this be a good discussion question or diagnostic question?
Why are historians concerned with bias when analyzing sources?
A. People can never be trusted to tell the truth.
B. People deliberately leave out important details.
C. People are only able to provide meaningful information if they experience an
event firsthand.
D. People interpret the same event in different ways, according to their
experience.
E. People are unaware of the motivations for their actions.
F. People get confused about sequences of events.
This a multiple-
choice question
generated by using
the most incorrect
responses from an
exit pass.

21. WOULD THIS BE A GOOD DISCUSSION
QUESTION OR DIAGNOSTIC QUESTION?
Discussion is not necessary because the teacher can judge whether the students
have understood the main point and therefore this is a more diagnostic question.
• Students who chose D is probably ready to move on.

22. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC
QUESTIONS
Diagnostic Questions:
Find out what
students already
know about a topic
before beginning the
instruction,
Range-finding
Hinge
A point at which the teacher
checks for understanding in
the middle of the lesson.
The direction of the lesson
hinges on students level of
understanding.

23. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND DIAGNOSTIC
QUESTIONS
Hinge point questions:
• Should take no longer than 2 minutes for all students to respond.
• Must be possible for the teacher to view and interpret the responses from the
class in 30 seconds.
• Any longer could be a risk of students getting off task.
• Multiple-choice questions are good hinge-point questions.

24. • Unfortunately, there is not enough time to treat each student individually in the
classroom in a typical classroom; however, with careful planning, teachers can
make the classroom and more engaging place for students and allowing for
effective instructional adjustments when needed.
Once the teacher knows where learners are in their learning, she is in a position to
provide feedback to the learners about what to do next. (p.105)
Final Thought