You Must Ask The Right Questions

Take a lesson from Dr. Lanning of iRobot.
If student responses are limited,
you must ask the right questions!

Are you are getting little or no responses from your students about their learning? Do students ask, "Is this the right answer?"

If student responses are limited, then you may not be asking the right questions.


Give students the right answer. 

Then ask questions that guide deeper learning.

Mindshift Article

When asking students to complete a task that has a right answer you may actually be limiting creativity and deeper thinking.  Consider ways to shift the focus from finding the right answer to understanding why an answer is right or how a change would affect the right answer. When you decrease the quest for a 'right answer' you increase creativity and critical thinking.

Many times, math worksheets are a series a of problems for students to solve. Don't forget to show your work to earn all the points! With tools available today [like PhotoMath] students can simply take a picture of a problem and that answer and all the work are provided for them. Look for ways to have students explain, clarify or elaborate their thinking.


Instead of this

Complete the function table

Try this

Version 1 - Record yourself explaining how this rule works and how you know if these answers are right or wrong.
Version 2 - Create a new table where you increase or decrease one of the values in the function rule. 
What decisions did you make to create the new table?

In any subject, try giving students the right answer, then ask them to explain why it is the right answer or how a change would affect the answer. You can also ask them to use the information to innovate and design new ideas.

A science example: 

Go from this: Draw and label the parts of the plant that help it survive grow and meet its needs. 

To this:  Choose one of the parts of the plant that help it survive, grow, and meet it's needs.  Use it as an idea to design something that helps solve a human problem. [NGSS 1-LS1-1]

For more ideas about how to ask the right questions, check out this choice board for #NoWorksheetMonth.  April 2019 is #NoWorksheetMonth and educators all over the globe are going worksheet free and creating authentic learning experiences for their students. Join the movement to give your students a break from canned questions at noworksheetweek.com

Your students will never let you go back to worksheets.

Want to know more about how worksheets kill creativity? Check out this blog post, Autopsy of a Worksheet, by Matthew Weld.