Weekly Teaching and Learning Email - Developing student understanding of questioning courtesy of Miss Faye

20th March 2015

Dear Colleagues,

Please find some excellent ideas on ways of developing questions in our classrooms from Faye.

Developing student understanding of questioning

The grid above is not my own design but I have found it very useful in my teaching. I have used it in two different ways; one in key stage 3 and one in key stage 4. 

Key Stage 4

• Students read through an exam paper and identify the above question words in each question. I got my students to keep a tally in the boxes of each time the word was used to try to get them to think about the level of questions used throughout the paper.
• As they read through, note the number of marks available for each question associated with one of the question words – for the Biology papers it is generally 1 mark for the low order questions and around 5 for the higher order questions.
• Then get the students to write their own exam questions and allocate and appropriate number of marks depending on the question word used. I set the requirement of one from each column/row.
• The students must also produce a corresponding mark scheme for the questions they write.
• Swap the questions over and attempt each other’s. There is then the opportunity for a discussion based on the questions and level of difficulty.

I have found this a useful strategy for developing the students understanding of the different level of demand from exam questions and the amount of detail they need to put into their responses.

Key Stage 3

I combine the question grid with a game of naught and crosses to form a plenary activity.

• Students are spilt into groups and asked to write nine questions on to post-it notes. The basic requirement I have set is they can use any of the question words but they must include one from each row.
• Students then place their post it- note into a square on the naughts and crosses board. (As two teams will be playing against each other there will be two in each box) They can get very tactical at this point!

In the example below the pink and blue post-it notes represent two different teams.

The students then play noughts and crosses – but to claim a square they must correctly answer the opposing teams question for that square.

This game has worked great with every class I have tried it with but it’s difficult to explain fully in writing! If you aren’t sure please ask, comment below with any ideas or questions or come and see it in action.

Have a nice weekend,
Faye