Classroom Management Strategies: A Questioning Technique
Classroom management strategies: a Questioning Technique to Grab Your Students" Attention and Get Them Involved
Before I present a near fool-proof way of getting a challenging group of students involved at the start of the lesson let"s look at something you should try to avoid: asking the wrong type of questions. It"s the most effective way to lose their interest.
Many teachers will start a lesson with a question relating to the topic focus. For example, in a lesson on the circulatory system, the opening question might be: "How many of you can explain what a blood vessel is?"
Questions like this may generate some participation but for every hand that goes up there will be ten more that don"t. Most of the students, particularly in a low ability or challenging group, will simply ignore this question because it demands something they don"t like to (or cannot) display "" evidence of prior knowledge about the subject. Let"s face it, in a challenging group it"s not always cool to know the answers.
A reliable way to get more of your students involved at the start of the lesson "" particularly the non-volunteers who don"t seem to want to learn - is simply to change the type of questions you ask them.
Let"s return to the circulatory system to illustrate what I mean. The average challenging student doesn"t even care what a blood vessel is, so asking them about it will be in vain. If we"re going to grab their attention we need to ask them something they can relate to.
See if you can spot the difference in the following questions:
A) Who can tell me how blood gets round the body?
B) Who knows what a blood vessel is?
C) Can anyone tell me what a blood capillary is?
D) Have you ever cut yourself?
Or:
A) Give me five differences between Macbeth"s character before and after he kills Duncan.
B) How does Macbeth change after he kills Duncan?
C) What words would you use to describe Macbeth at the start of the play?
D) When was the last time you did something really terrible that you later regretted?
Can you see why a group of disengaged students would be most likely to respond to "D" in both cases? Those questions hook them in by giving them opportunity to think about events that are relevant to them or have had a direct effect on them. They appeal to the students because they present an opportunity to share their experiences.
Once you have them hooked, once they are animated and actively taking part "" by now no doubt sharing tales of bleeding limbs - then you can lead them into the lesson content. From there, going back to our lesson on circulation, we could go on to ask:
How long did it bleed for?
How did you stop the bleeding?
Do you think it would it have stopped if you had just left it?
And then finally, to
lead the students in to the main content of the lesson:
Where does the blood come from and how does it get to the cut?
I hope you liked that and can see the value of trying to adapt lesson content so that it is relevant to your students.
Related articles:
Classroom Management Strategies to Get Attention at the Beginning of the Lesson
Classroom Management Strategies to Deal With Students Who Have No Interest In The Lesson
Positive Classroom Management Strategies to Motivate Challenging Students
by: behaviourneeds01
Proven Strategies To Make A Relationship Work Day Trading Strategies For Beginners Coping Strategies For Recovering Addicts 5 Strategies To Damage Your Dream Of Being A Star In 2011! 4 Logic Behind Why Using Swing Trading Strategies Is Beneficial Phuket Holiday Aspirations - Simple Strategies For The Smart Visitor Classroom Management Strategies To Deal With Low-level Disruption Classroom Management Strategies To Deal With Angry, Defiant Students Grow Taller Right After Puberty - Discover This Secret Strategies That May Help You To Improve Heigh Four Strategies To Rent The Perfect Car For The Least Money Seven Strategies For Managing A Wholesale Nursery Classroom Management Strategies: How To Get Any Class Quiet In 5 Seconds Or Less 4 Strategies For Career Change Cover Letters