Why Ask? Well... Let's find Out!

When I began to read this chapter, I thought, "Well, duhh, questioning of course can improve comprehension." However, I was quite surprised to find out that the book talks about high order thinking questions and even gave bloom's six levels of questions. I've always known to utilize questions to probe students and activate prior knowledge, but it was interesting to see different levels of questions that can be utilized. I especially liked the QUILT framework because it breaks down what a teacher should be thinking about before, during, and after asking a probing question to ensure that it is a high order thinking question.

My favorite strategy would have to be the Question-answer relationship chart. This chart helps the students to first analyze the text and search. then it begins to tie in the student in by having the students do thinking on their own. This not only helps students to understand the material, it also helps the students to think beyond just the subject and relate the topic to themselves. I would definitely utilize this strategy in either social studies or language arts because these questions help the student think about text that they've already read.

I also thought the SQ3R strategy was very reliable and valid way to have students begin to evaluate text on their own. SQ3R would be very useful in reading narrative or expository text. This would be a fabulous way to have students to not only learn a strategy to comprehend reading, it also shows students a way to decipher a text and make notes of important events because the students are utilizing the headings as questions, then finding the answers to them.

Overall, i find the quote "By maintaining a balance between asking and answering questions, the teacher returns responsibility for critical thinking to the students." very powerful for the simple fact that text books today give the students step by step instructions on how to find the answer, that the students no longer need to think. By utilizing high order thinking questions, the teacher is not only helping the students learn, but also creating a way for the students to learn to do it on their own without help.

I now know that using questions to help the students critically think is important. However, when the questions are too hard and the students are looking back at me with a blank stare, then do I give them questions that are straight forward in order for the students to follow along? When is it appropriate and inappropriate for simple questions that do not require critical thinking?

Note Taking: Getting it Down

As I began to read this chapter, the first headline I read was "Why teach students how to take notes?". This instantly lead me to try to remember how I learned to take notes and realized that no one's ever taught  me how to take notes. I've had to learn on my own, which makes going through school harder than it should have been. This makes the debate on whether to teach taking notes or not a yes, hands down.

I especially liked the "general note taking procedures" they've listed in the book. Although it is now easier for me to take notes, I've never actually thought about the steps to note taking. This can become very helpful to students who are just beginning to take lecture classes.

Mr. Williams's note taking technique for mathematics, I believe, is a different way of taking notes, but it is also very effective. While traditional note taking is in linear form, labeled with numbers, letters, bolded fonts, etc., Mr. Williams's note taking is in chart form. This helps the students to clearly see what detail or definition is for which word.

My favorite note taking in this chapter would also be in chart form. It is the note taking chart utilized in Ms. Butler's science class. This matrix for research helps the students to clearly see what they should be researching on while also keeping their resources organized, along with the information they found categorized into the separated topics.

My favorite quote from the text is "Many adolescent readers who struggle with reading possess inadequate organizational skills to store and retrieve information." This quote is very significant to me as a future teacher because I will be graduating with an endorsement area in reading. This quote is very critical to early readers in that without the necessary skills to take notes and pinpoint important information, these students may have a hard time during the comprehensions stage of reading.

While reading this chapter, I think about my third grade clinical classroom. How do I help students to learn to take notes if they're writing skills haven't fully developed? Is there a certain grade level note taking should be taught?