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Students are who we teach to ask the question!

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Students are who we teach to ask the question!

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Paideia Schools: Learning to Think through Socratic Seminar

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Rubric

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by Terry Heick

Questions can be extraordinary learning tools.

A good question can open minds, shift paradigms, and force the uncomfortable but transformational cognitive dissonance that can help create thinkers. In education, we tend to value a student's ability to answer our questions. But what might be more important is their ability to ask their own great questions-and more critically, their willingness to do so.

The latter is a topic for another day, but the former is why we're here. This is part 2 of a short series (can two articles be considered a series?) built around the idea about how to ask great questions as learning tools. Part 1 'An Updated Guide For Questioning In The Classroom.'

8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions
1. TeachThought Learning Taxonomy

The TeachThought Learning Taxonomy is a template for critical thinking that frames cognition across six categories.

It imagines any learning product, goal, or objective as a 'thing,' (i.e.g, a subject of some kind) then suggests different ways to think about said 'thing'-mitosis, a math formula, an historical figure, a poem, a poet, a computer coding language, a political concept, a literary device, etc. It's designed to promote 'whole' thinking about otherwise discrete or disconnected ideas.

1. Function-thinking critically about how a 'thing' works

2. Self-Making sense of how the thinker relates to the 'thing'

3. Abstraction-Thinking about the 'thing' creatively, or in non-traditional ways

4. Parts-Seeing the individual parts of the 'thing'

5. Interdependence-Examining how the 'thing' relates to other (similar and non-similar) things

6. Whole-See the 'thing' fully and within context

A literary device-a metaphor example, is usually studied in isolation. This writer uses this metaphor in this way to this effect. Using the TeachThought Learning Taxonomy, a learner would be forced to confront that metaphor in much more diverse cognitive terrain-to think about something in multiple ways for a more complete picture and advanced understanding.

Function -Communicate the metaphor's most ideal utility (how it can and should be used, and why).

Self--Identity what you do and don't understand about the metaphor

Abstraction -Design a 'sequel' of the metaphor (not a simile-an extended metaphor would be a good start)

This framework can be used not only as a planning or assessment tool, but to promote students in self-directed learning and self-created questioning and examination. In short, they can use this framework (or a simplified version of it) to create their own questions. Some examples?
Prompt: Parts-Give examples and non-examples Questions: What are 3 examples and non-examples of mammals? What are 5 examples of push-pull factors? What are 3 non-examples of mixed fractions? Prompt: Interdependence-Direct others in using it Questions: How do-or might-others use alternative fuel sources to help create fresh water sources?
Prompt: Explain it differently to a novice or an expert
Questions: How would explain the Pythagorean Theorem differently to a 2nd grader and a college freshman? What would the main difference be?
The downside to using the TeachThought Learning Taxonomy to help students ask their own questions is the relative complexity of the framework, and the extra step of converting prompts to questions. Therefore, it's better suited to late middle school-university settings.

The upside? It can be used in any content area to think deeply about almost anything.
2. Digital Taxonomy Power Verbs
'Power verbs' aren't exclusive to Bloom's Taxonomy (see below). In addition to our TeachThought Learning Taxonomy (see above), there are 'verbs' that describe cognitive 'actions.' Add some kind of framework or hierarchy, and you've got a full 'taxonomy.'

Enter the 'digital taxonomy' power verbs. You can download a ready-for-the-classroom curricula version of our power verbs here, but you can do plenty with digital taxonomy power verbs to help students ask great questions without spending a penny. From designing projects and refining assessments to classroom, discussions and digital citizenship lessons, the 'actions'of students are among the most critical components of any learning experience.
3. Socratic Discussion
A Socratic Discussion, which is also referred to as a Socratic Seminar, is a group learning strategy designed to support students in open-ended examination and extended critical thinking through dialogic terms. In short, students learn together by talking together in an open and student-centered format. These discussions are not teacher-led, but student-led-students talk to one another.

It is a dialectal method of learning inspired by Socrates' iconic teaching methods that depend on a pattern of theory formation, revision, and elimination to arrive at loosely-held "truths." Used strategically, this approach should promote inquiry as learning and the close examination of one's own beliefs as primary catalysts for learning.
4. Paideia Seminar
A Paideia Seminar is similar to the Socratic Seminar-in fact, it uses Socratic Discussions on the part of the students, combined with a minor but clear role for teachers, to facilitate verbal and critical examination of ideas. From the (a?) Paideia Seminar website, "The Paideia Seminar is an integrated literacy event built around formal whole-class dialogue. The purpose for doing Paideia Seminar is to support students' ability to think conceptually and communicate collaboratively."

One of the key differences between a Paideia Seminar and a Socratic Seminar is that within the Paideia format, teachers are "allowed" a role, provided that that role doesn't exceed 10% of the total discussion. You can see a video here to learn more.
5. The Question Game

The Question Game focuses on "teaching children a kind of thinking which is particularly useful in creative problem-solving-a focused approach to get from a problem to the most effective solution. It is most effective when combined with regular repetition, which solidifies the thought pattern, and with groups, which encourages contributory exploration of alternative responses and creativity."

Its dice-form not only offers a whiz-bang manipulative, but also introduces a level of gamification and playful uncertainty into the process, and its open-ended and universal stems make it practical for a wide variety of classroom applications.
6. Bloom's Taxonomy
Similar to the TeachThought Taxonomy, Bloom's Taxonomy can act as a framework or pattern to funnel content, inquiry, or other learning processes. These use of the taxonomy to create universal stems is one approach as modeled in the following graphic from flickr user enokson.

7. Question Formulation Technique
We'll have more on this soon but in short, the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a kind of question brainstorming process based around a topic as a kind of kernel.

In their words of the Right Question Institute, QFT is "straightforward, rigorous process that helps all students learn how to produce their own questions, improve their questions, and strategize on how to use their questions. In the process, they develop divergent, convergent and metacognitive thinking abilities."

For now, you can read more about the QFT here.
8. Question Stems
As seen in the Bloom's graphic, sentence stems and question stems are wonderful tools that can empower students to ask questions by giving them a head-start in doing so.

By using a 'stem,' a teacher has set the ball on the proverbial tee for the student to smash. Yes, ideally the student asks their own great questions, but what if they can't-or don't think they can? What if they don't? What if they're still learning how? What if they lack the background knowledge in some narrow sect of science or math or whatever, and need a push in the back? Stems can help.

See also 26 Sentence Stems For Higher-Level Conversation In The Classroom

Question stems are a more elementary questioning strategy than the Question Formation Technique (see above), but not necessarily less effective. They can be used for younger students, students struggling with a concept, or even "advanced learners" (not a huge fan of this term) as they narrow an open-ended learning experience, or to be used as 'bread crumbs' in the case that the teacher is trying to help them arrive at a pre-determined destination. Some examples?

8 Basic Question Stem Examples

Which differences between ____ and ____ stand out to you?

Why does____never seem to____?

How does_____impact____?

How does _____ work?

What's most important about?

What's most simple/complex about ______?

How could you classify____? (And 'Why would you classify____?')

When____, why does____?
8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions; image attribution flickr user enokson

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8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions

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A good question can open minds, shift paradigms, and force the uncomfortable. Here are strategies to help students ask great questions.

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What is Evidence Based Practice and how do I select one?

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What is Evidence Based Practice and how do I select one?

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The world's largest evidence base on what works best in schools to accelerate student learning

John Hattie of the University of Melbourne, Australia, has long researched performance indicators and evaluation in education. His research, Visible Learning, is the culmination of more than 25 years of examining and synthesizing more than 1,600 meta-analyses comprising more than 95,000 studies involving 300 million students around the world.

Hattie wanted to understand which variables were the most important. Although "almost everything we do improves learning," why not prioritize the ones that will have the greatest effect?

Hattie set about calculating a score or "effect size" for each, according to its bearing on student learning and taking into account such aspects as its cost to implement. The average effect size was 0.4, a marker that represented a year's growth per year of schooling for a student. Anything above 0.4 would have a greater positive effect on student learning.

Together with John Hattie, Corwin's Visible Learning+ professional learning enables schools and districts around the world to effectively implement the core findings of John Hattie's research.

Research at your fingertips

The power of the Visible Learning research lies in helping educators understand, measure, and evaluate the impact they can have on student growth and achievement.

Visible Learning Meta offers unparalleled access to the most up-to-date Visible Learning research, interpretations, and analyses - making it possible to understand the research and adapt it to your particular context. Powered by John Hattie's groundbreaking Visible Learning research, Meta aims to help close the gap between the research of what works best for student achievement.

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John Hattie of the University of Melbourne, Australia, has long researched performance indicators and evaluation in education. His research, Visible Learning, is the culmination of more than 25 years of examining and synthesizing more than 1,600 meta-analyses comprising more than 95,000 studies involving 300 million students around the world.

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Teaching students to ask effective questions.

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Teaching students to ask effective questions.

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Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions

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Article "Lets Switch Questioning Around"

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Article "Lets Switch Questioning Around"

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Jig Saw Presentation - Drive Results Collaboratively

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Jig Saw Presentation - Understand what motivates each person on your team

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Jig Saw Presentation - Get, Give, and Encourage Guidance

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Jig Saw Presentation - Radically Candid Relationships

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Kim Scott "Radical Candor" INBOUND Bold Talks

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Jigsaw with Three Levels of Text Protocol

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Title

Three Levels of Text Protocol

Attribution

Adapted by the Southern Maine Partnership from Camilla Greene's Rule of 3 Protocol, November, 2003.

Description

This protocol is designed to deepen the understanding of a text and explore implications for participants' work. It asks participants to respond to 3 levels of the text: literal (level 1), interpretation (level 2), and implications (level 3)

Last Updated

March 30, 2017

[acf_ProtocolInfo_Related Tools]

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Title Three Levels of Text Protocol Attribution Adapted by the Southern Maine Partnership from Camilla Greene's Rule of 3 Protocol, November, 2003. Description This protocol is designed to deepen the understanding of a text and explore implications for participants' work.

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Our discussion around scaffolding was enlightening and helps me think about work teachers are already doing in regards to scaffolding. When I'm in classrooms teachers are scaffolding lessons and may not even realize that their methods (i.e. modeling, providing strategies for writing about reading) are scaffolding strategies. I feel there can be more work around students providing their own scaffolds and looking at the CIF rubric and having conversations can help that process. 

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Our discussion around scaffolding was enlightening and helps me think about work teachers are already doing in regards to scaffolding. When I'm in classrooms teachers are scaffolding lessons and may not even realize that their methods (i.e. modeling, providing strategies for writing about reading) are scaffolding strategies. I feel there can be more work around students providing their own scaffolds and looking at the CIF rubric and having conversations can help that process. 

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The structure of workshop is a rich environment for scaffolding.  Students get a vision of grade level work in the minilesson, they are able to practice during independent work time and receive feedback and coaching from the teacher and/or peers.  The learning progressions and checklists are a good way to understand the component parts to grade level work, so that students can understand what is needed next, and be held accountable for growth over time.  I think it would be good work for this group to sit with the CIF rubric and our learning progressions and checklists and have a think tank about the intersection of these resources, and how to use either/or/and/all in a way that creates coherence, not a feeling over overwhelmed paralysis in the classroom.

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Scaffolding for Increased Confidence in Learning

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marcy.raymond@escco.org
cell: 614-586-6546

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Please read "Part 1" of Radical Candor before our next meeting.  Feel free to annotate your book, it is yours.

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Please read "Part 1" of Radical Candor before our next meeting.  Feel free to annotate your book, it is yours.

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6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students

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Support every student by breaking learning up into chunks and providing a concrete structure for each.

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Use this to get the ideas out and then find consensus about the areas of affinity (similarity).

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An Affinity Diagram is an analytical tool used to organize many ideas into subgroups with common themes or common relationships. The method is reported to have been developed by Jiro Kawakita and so is sometimes referred to as the K-J method.

Example 1: Several members of a small company have just returned from a workshop on the methods of Six Sigma. On the trip back from the seminar, the group engaged in a vigorous discussion of the challenges they would confront if they attempted to implement the Six Sigma approach. One person quickly jotted down the list of challenges they generated. The list of brainstormed challenges is given below.

An affinity diagram organizes this list based upon common themes or relationships. For example, an affinity diagram for this example might look as follows.

By organizing the ideas into "affinity groups," it is much easier to visualize the commonality and plan for and address the challenges to the Six Sigma approach.
Example 2:
Step 1: First, write down the problem. Then quietly put ideas, data, etc. on cards, pieces of paper, or Post-it notes. The operative word is quietly. This is not like a typical brainstorming session where people are very vocal about their ideas. We want this to be a quiet exercise so that no one person(s) biases the other team member's ideas.

Step 2: Quietly put into homogeneous groupings.

Step 3: Affinity Heading
Develop affinity heading cards. For example, there is a homogeneous grouping for human resources related items. There is another grouping for the training department. Another grouping deals with general processing. One grouping has to do with billing. And, the last grouping addresses employee empowerment. The heading cards will be placed on top of each of the homogeneous groupings.

Step 4: Put the groupings into the order of the process. For instance, when employees get hired, they first start off with human resources. The human resources department deals with employee empowerment. And you have the process itself - that goes in the middle. Billing usually comes late in the game. And finally, training is something that involves all employees on an ongoing basis so the team chose to put it in last position.

So what? Now that the team has finished the Affinity Diagram, it is easy to visualize the homogeneous groupings and therefore might help to guide the team towards a viable project.

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An Affinity Diagram is an analytical tool used to organize many ideas into subgroups with common themes or common relationships. The method is reported to have been developed by Jiro Kawakita and so is sometimes referred to as the K-J method.

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This is a tool to help to find the causal factors in a group setting. It helps to turn barriers into positive actions.

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What is an Interrelationship Diagram?

An interrelationship diagram (ID) shows how different issues are related to one another. It helps identify which issues are causing problems and which are an outcome of other actions. It also shows the strength of each influence.

An interrelationship diagram consists of a set of boxes, one representing each issue to be considered. It is organized in a radial pattern on the page. Connecting lines between the boxes indicates their relationship. Arrows show direct relationships and distinguish causes from effects.

Interrelationship diagrams can be extremely useful when trying to sort out possible causes of a specific problem. Although they do not identify detailed reasons for the problem, they do allow one to analyze broader issues as causes and effects of one another.

How to Create an Interrelationship Diagram

Identify the problem. Decide what problem to solve by analyzing its various factors. Place it in a box at the top of the paper.

Identify issues. Brainstorm to produce any key issues, ideas, reasons, causes, etc., for the problem. Place each in a rectangle on the page.

Connect the issues. Choose any item to start with and compare it to any other. Decide if the two are related to each other in any way. If they are, identify which is a cause and which is an effect. Use an arrow pointing from cause to effect to show the relationship.

Identify intensity. If one item has a particularly strong influence on another make the arrow darker. If it is a weak relationship, use a dotted line.

Analyze. Any item with a large number of outgoing arrows is a key cause of the problem. Any item with many arrows pointing to it is a main outcome.

Solve the issue. Discuss a way to solve the issue by focusing on the main cause.

Interrelationship Diagram Examples

The best way to understand interrelationship diagrams is to look at some examples of interrelationship diagrams.

Click on any of these interrelationship diagrams included in SmartDraw and edit them:
Browse SmartDraw's entire collection of flowchart examples and templates

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An interrelationship diagram (ID) shows how different issues are related to one another. It helps identify which issues are causing problems and which are an outcome of other actions. It also shows the strength of each influence. An interrelationship diagram consists of a set of boxes, one representing each issue to be considered.

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Other Collaborative Group Work Protocols.

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Other Collaborative Group Work Protocols.

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StartSOLE isn't just an app... it's also a vibrant community of educators around the world.

Teachers in all 50 US states

Global presence in 100+ countries

Connect with 9.5k Twitter followers

Collaborate with teachers around the world

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StartSOLE - Self Organized Learning Environments in your Classroom

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StartSOLE isn't just an app... it's also a vibrant community of educators around the world. Teachers in all 50 US states Global presence in 100+ countries Connect with 9.5k Twitter followers Collaborate with teachers around the world