In
many of the classrooms that I have observed in most of the questioning has been
very simple; a teacher asks a question and calls on students until one provides
the correct answer. This is similar to
some of the scenarios described in the reading for today. Unfortunately, because many students are “trained”
to expect this pattern of question and response, students do not know how to
respond to open-ended questions. How can
teachers encourage students to engage in divergent thinking without the fear of
being incorrect? What will help make
students comfortable enough to take risks with their involvement in the
classroom?
I
have noticed that my fourth graders have the habit of not taking risks during
whole group and small group discussions. Questions from myself such as, “What
makes you think that?” or “Why do you say that?” tend to frustrate my students
because they want to know if what they said is right or wrong. I think that, during my guided lead teaching,
I would like to start using the strategy of explaining to my students the
difference between an assessment question and an authentic question to make
them more comfortable with taking risks during class. Hopefully, this comfort will transfer to other
content areas and make group discussions more meaningful.
How do your students feel about answering questions
when they are not sure of their answers? What do you do to encourage your
students to share their thoughts or ideas?
