Does it matter to ask well articulated questions?
If yes, how does one know whether the questions are effective and are in the best interest of our students?
These were the questions that had popped in my mind at the time when I was struggling in the class to get my students to understand and bring them closer to the objectives that I wanted them to achieve. This failing attempt made me see the huge gap between the way I was conducting my class and the understanding that I want my students to achieve. Hence the research to find that bridge to fill the gap started.
After lots of reading and research, I came across an eye opening phenomenon which I call, “ The Magic of well articulated leading questions.”
Does this sound odd? It will, because in my opinion, we are so obsessed with the answers that we unconsciously overlook the effectiveness of questions. In a way, we underestimate the art of framing questions.
The reason why I call it “Magic of articulated leading questions” was because I myself have seen the magic unfold in my class when I used this as one of the teaching
strategies with my grade 8th students while doing a poem named, A time to Believe by B. J. Morbitzer.
As I started my class with the questions as seen in the image below, I was surprised. To my wonder, I found students were getting my points and this also gave me an opportunity to get glimpses of my students’ point of view and nature:eg, When I asked this question, Do you believe magic happens because of Divine intervention or Human efforts?
This was the response given by the majority of them, Because of Human efforts and this is when I found most of my students are realistic and of rational belief by nature.
This session with the students was full of surprises as I happened to capture a small Aha! Moment during the session. This happened when students saw the connection between the ideas given in the text and their answers. I believe this was possible because of articulated questions.
This is how we started ;
This is what the text says;
Summary by one of the students.
Having said this, I would like to add that, I am not undermining the importance of answers all together. This is my small humble attempt to highlight how important it is to have an equilibrium between questions and answers.
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Last but not least I would like to put forth some of the findings that I have managed to infer as a result of my readings and research:
Benefits of articulated questions:
- Leads students in the direction of conscious thinking.
- Provides them with an opportunity to think critically, considering their personal experience as a base.
- Helps them to bring about a connection between what is stated in the text and their own real life experiences.
This experience made me realize that answers are waiting to be found, it is the accurate questions that we have to look for.
Ms. Vinita V. Pal
English and Social Studies Teacher