Stop Asking Dumb Questions
Contrary to what many of us were told growing up, there are actually dumb questions. Asking better questions helps teachers improve their effectiveness in the classroom.
I have five children. I have bought a lot of lego sets in the past two decades. There was so much excitement and anticipation when my children opened each box and saw each cellophane package hit the table. They scrambled to find the right instruction booklet and follow the directions.
Lego sets are built bag by bag. With easy-to-follow instructions.
I also have a huge rubbermaid container of legos. It weighs like 50 pounds. This bin is where all the legos go to die. No one plays with these legos. There are no instructions for these legos. No pictures to follow and no sense of completion at the end.
Building Better Class Discussions
Answering questions in your class should feel like the first type of lego building to your students, not the latter. They should not feel like they come to class and you have dumped out a huge container of legos without instructions to follow. They should not feel like they have no idea what they are building or how to get there.
As adults and educators, we know that some of the texts we read with our students don’t really have a “finality” to them. We know that one should read a book like Consolation of Philosophy over and over again—that no one is ever done reading that book.
But our job in the classroom is to set some parameters around the ideas in these great books so that our students might catch a glimpse of the glory it contains, so that they might walk away a little bit more knowledgeable and a little closer to wisdom. These parameters are the equivalent of breaking the text you are teaching into its packages of legos and colorful instruction booklets.
Probe Students’ Thinking
Those packages and instructions are created when you have thought through the book in advance and prepared the questions you want to ask. They are also created when you have invested time and energy learning how to ask follow up questions that probe your students’ thinking.
Some of my favorite questions to ask:
Where do you see evidence in the text to support that?
What example can you think of?
Class, what do we think about what (classmate’s name) just said?
What do you mean when you say….?
Can you elaborate?
Charlotte Mason has said that teachers ought “to remove obstructions and to give stimulus and guidance to the child who is trying to get into touch with the universe of things and thoughts which belongs to him” (School Education, 185).
This is why the work of asking good questions becomes the serious and intentional work of the teacher. Because questions are the means by which we remove “obstructions” of confusion and misunderstanding. Questions “give stimulus” by awakening fresh thought. Questions “give guidance” acting as breadcrumbs students follow from the unknown to the known.
Repairing the Ruins, June 20-22
I will be presenting more on asking good questions at Repairing the Ruins in Atlanta. Please come say hi. I’d love to meet you and find out more about the work you are doing in classical education.
Summer Reading Book Clubs
Several opportunities are available this summer for your student to participate in thought provoking discussions about their summer reading. Find out more.