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Welcome to week 9 of our Fall 2025 16 Week Teaching Challenge!
Week 9: Oct. 13 - Learn About Using Questions to Promote Student Learning
When you think of asking questions in a lesson, what comes to mind? Kids' hands in the air, eagerly wanting to answer? Bloom's taxonomy and a variety of questions? Getting feedback about questioning and immediately thinking you simply need to ask more?
I'd like to propose something different.
What if we thought of questions as a way to promote student learning. Not assess learning. Promote it.
How does that change this idea in your mind?
This week, we'll explore that together. So ...
- Begin by reading (or reading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for Using Questions to Promote - Not Just Assess - Student Learning. Ask yourself: How is this different than the way I've thought about questions?
- Read this article by Tim Shanahan on the role of questioning in comprehension instruction. According to Tim, what is and is not the role of questioning?
- Consider this quote from Teach Like a Champion: "The purpose is not to ask questions; the purpose is to use questions to elicit different types of thinking." (p. 271). In EL, rarely do the materials call on teachers to pose a question and call on a volunteer to answer it; rather, the materials call for the use of total participation techniques to ensure all students are doing the thinking of the lesson. How does this shift your thinking?
- Consider this quote from Steven Goldman: "The picture of students eagerly raising their hands to answer a question is so ingrained in our mental images of what a good classroom looks like. But eliminating this practice is one of the most important changes we could make." What is your reaction to that?
- Read this blog post from Doug Lemov on phrasing fundamentals for questions.
Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 9 Teaching Challenge. Check back next week - October 20 - for week 10.
Here's to simply teaching well,
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