Eclectic Technology

Check out this new version of the KWL chart by Silvia Rosenthal Tomlison. What we once called KWL is now the KWHLAQ.

* K stands for  'What do you KNOW?'

* W stands for 'What do you WANT to know?'

* H stands for 'HOW will you find out?'

* L stands for 'What have your LEARNED?'

* A stands for 'What ACTION will you take?'

* Q stands for 'What further QUESTIONS do you have?'

This new visual also includes suggestions under each category to help students make their "thinking and learning visible." For more information click through to the post.

How do you teach students to write good questions (or how to ask good questions)? This post suggests that good questions have to be at the right level of difficulty and provides three tips that will help you and your students learn how to write good questions (and I suspect how to ask them as well).

What are the three tips?

1. Shore up the students' prior knowledge

2. Lighten students' cognitive load

3. Un-situate students' learning

Each of these tips is described in more detail int he post and some additional links are also provided.

Teaching students how to question, either in writing or verbally, is a critical skill and this post provides some great ideas on ways to help students with the cognitive load so they are supported in the process. You might also want to check out the post Socrative Smackdown which has students learn discussion strategies, some of which are helpful with questions (and that is geared to students in grades 6 - 12).

How do students learn to ask questions? Today many schools are driven by test taking, but lacking in teaching students how to ask questions. We ask student to be critical thinkers, but do not necessarily provide the tools. This post will help you with some of the tools.

Learn about  different types of questions:

* Display questions

* Referential questions

* Open-ended/divergent questions

* Closed/convergent questions

* Low risk questions

Consider the purposes of questions

Effective questions vs ineffective questions

How to design effective questions

And last (but not least) find 30 thought-provoking questions to ask your students.

This resource is rich with material that may help you move your students in their skills in asking questions.

Teaching students how to ask good questions is important. Great quotes about questions may help them learn. This page provides quotes about questioning, quotes from a diverse group, including George Carlin, Frank Llyod Wright, Anne Frank, Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein and many more.

The images may be saved and you could print them out and use them as small posters in your classroom. Challenge your students to come up with a quote about questioning, curiousity and inquiry and consider making an infographic to share.

Have you thought about what the characteristics of a highly effective learning environment are? This post may provide many ideas for you. Several of the characteristics are listed below. You will find many more in the post as well as some detailed descriptions.

* The students ask the questions—good questions. Do your students know how to ask good questions?  Do you know how to teach them to ask good questions? Are they supported when they ask questions?

* Ideas come from a divergent sources. Are we asking students to use multiple sources and to see more than one view of an issue?

* Criteria for success is balanced and transparent. This is a tougher one to meet (based on the post). Do your students understand the criteria for success?

As we come to the end of this school year this is a great time to reflect and think about what we might change next year. Looking through these 10 characteristics may lead you to some changes in your classroom next year.

Not too long ago I posted an article that suggested we move from the KWL chart to the KWHL chart...and here is another post that suggests we make it more in-depth by adding the letters A and Q.

What do all these letters stand for?

K - What do I know?

W - What do I want to know?

H - How do I find out?

L - What have I learned?

A - What action will I take?

Q - What new questions do I have?

More in-depth discussions of these new letters are included in the post.

Can teachers teach the Common Core standards and provide authentic learning so students are engaged? This post explores this issue and provides eight strategies for teaching in authentic ways. Below are four of the strategies.

* Make the standards fit into student interests.

* Teach students to question.

* Emulate effective risk taking.

* Be open to many answers.

For additional information the four strategies above and for four more click through to the post.

What types of assessments are best to use, that allow students to demonstrate what they know? Five suggestions are provided (and more depth may be found in the post).

* Option 1: Open-Book & Take-Home Tests - but this is not the type of open book test you might think of at first. You want your students to "synthesize disparate facts and perspectives to construct new knowledge."

* Option 2: Student-Made Tests -  have students submit questions and rewrite/rephrase to have students show higher order thinking skills. This suggestion also includes a section on How My Students Create And Study For Their Own Exams.

* Option 3: The Complexity & Diversity Of Project-Based Learning -Think about projects that will let students show mastery of new knowledge.

* Option 4: Written Response–Or Rather, The Pre-Writing -This may seem like an odd choice but read the description in the post to understand the reasoning.

* Option 5: Ask A Question - Not just any question but one that will require students to think beyond the book. This section moves you from a question that is topic based to one that will show understanding.

What can you do to help extend the learning process, to keep it going in your classroom? This post provides "six strategies to help keep the learning going in your classroom." Below are two.

* At the end of an activity, project, lesson, or unit ask simple questions: So? So what? What now? What have you learned? Why is that important? What makes sense to do next in light of this progression?

* Promote self-directed learning using frameworks that teach students to access, evaluate, and use information in real-time, rather than simply “doing assignments.”

Click through to the post to read four more strategies.

The Inquiry Process requires that students ask questions. This visualization provides  five questions in the following four categories.

* How do you pose real questions?

* How do you find and validate resources?

* How to you interpret information?

* How do you write your report?

From my experience students often struggle with inquiry based learning. In classrooms it is often the teacher asking the question and the students responding. What would happen if you provided your students with a  copy of this infographic and used it as a tool to help them scaffold their thinking and better understand what the inquiry process is?

This visual on Inquiry Based Learning provides four questions in four areas:

* Pose real and valid questions

* Find the resources

* Interpret the information

* Report your findings

If you provide opportunities for learners to use inquiry based approaches this visual may be helpful for students to have as they work through the process.

Why would we want to use next gen tools in our classroom? One reason is they provide a richer experience for our students, richer content, potentially richer discussions, and more as well as the fact that these tools are often multi-disciplinary and multi-sensory.

The 25 tools listed here address large parts of the curriculum as well as grade levels. Five are listed below. Click through to the post to learn more about them and twenty more.

* PBS for Educators has many resources available. This post highlights three specifically: Point of View (which is geared to older students); SCI Girls (think STEM); and Daily News Story (as you probably guessed we are talking current events).

* Big History Project goal is to develop a full curriculum for high school. At this point they have four key areas: the universe, or solar system and Earth, Life and Humans, with a total of seven "threshholds."

* Do you want your students to publish work online? Consider checking out EduBlog, KidBlog and Blogger?

Have fun exploring and teach your students (and yourself) some next gen tools!

This lengthy infographic explores the The Art of Asking Questions. Areas of the infographic include:

* Wrong Question, Right Answer

* Good Questions Beget Good Answers

* The Golden Rule = No Closed Questions

* Rules were made to be Broken

   - Probe

   - Funneling

   - Specific to Broad OR Broad to Specific

* Leading Questions

There are also four images of "Thinkers on Asking Questions." You roll over the image and see what they have to say about asking questions

This is an infographic that could lead to a great classroom discussion on questioning.

Learning to ask good questions is a topic that is often discussed today..but how do we teach students to ask questions, questions that will help them use their higher order thinking skills. This post provides questions you may use with your students to help challenge their thinking. It is split into categories, but many of the questions could be across curriculum areas. The categories listed are:

* Logical questions that focus on mathematics and are split into two categories: collaborative questions for the class and self-reliance questions for individual students.

* Reasoning questions

* Analysis questions

* Connections questions

* Literary questions

* Science and social studies questions.

Below are three of the fifty questions. Click through to the post to find which may work with your students.

* An analysis question - What patterns might lead you to an alternative answer?
* A science and social studies question - What are some of the complexities we should consider?

* A reasoning question  - Why do you think this works? Does it always, why?

The complete title of this post is Why It's Imperative to Teach Students to Question as the Ultimate Survival Skill? Do you believe this is important? If so, how do you go about teaching your students to ask good questions?

This post begins by looking at the importance of questioning, and notes that many leaders in the high-tech world began with a Montessori education, a system that encourages curiousity from a young age.

The ability to ask insightful questions is something that may be more critical as we move forward. The question is how to we do this. The post notes that many teachers do not feel like they have time for students to ask questions. If this is true what should we do? It suggests that we make it both "safe" and "cool" to ask questions, and also suggests looking at resources available from

The Right Question Institute and from Question Day 2014.

The Common Core require that we get students engaged with reading on a deeper level. This infographic on Close Reading is designed for students and provides suggestions for students to follow: Look for Clues, Ask Questions, Make Your Case, and Prove It. . There is also a version available for teachers that has additional details. Both may be downloaded. To find the one for teachers go to http://www.weareteachers.com/hot-topics/topics-in-education/understanding-close-reading-download-our-infographic-now

Check out this infographic which focuses on scaffolding for deeper understanding. Mia MacMeekin has provided a nine step process.

1. Ask a question.

2. Present a mystery for students to solve.

3. Ask students to draw what they know.

4. Give students ample time to research the mystery.

5. Ask students to draw the mystery and the solution again.

6. Ask students to share their drawings with other students.

7. Ask students to pull their ideas together in one drawing.

8. Teacher patiently asks what if questions.

9. If students needs more information, send them back to step #4, and start over again until the outcome or objective is reached.

MacMeekin notes that her students were engaged in the drawing/scaffolding phase of this and reached a deeper understanding than other classes had. It is also important to note that the ant is actually an analogy. To learn more click through to the post.

This indepth post explores inquiry-based learning. The four phases are:

1. Interaction - Big Idea: Dive into engaging, relevant, and credible media forms to identify a “need” or opportunity for inquiry

2. Clarification - Big Idea: Summarizing, paraphrasing, and categorizing learning with teacher or expert support

3. Questioning - Big Idea: Asking questions to drive continued, self-directed inquiry

4. Design - Big Idea: Designing an accessible, relevant, and curiosity-driven action or product to culminate and justify inquiry

Each of the four phases also includes information on tones, student indicators, teacher indicators, appropriate questions and apps.

There are also 4 questions for student-based reflection and ten adjustments you may make as a teacher to adjust to teaching inquiry-based learning.

There are many forms of teaching that incorporate inquiry-based learning including project-based learning, blended learning, and challenge-based learning. You may find your students more engaged in the learning process if you include some components of inquiry-based learning in your classroom.

This infographic provides a great visual for students learn the Socratic method of questioning"

* Clarification

* Probing Assumptions

* Probing Rationals

* Questioning Viewpoints

* Probing Consequences

* Questions on the Question

Each section includes a number of questions that might be asked.