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As a teacher, I didn't know how to ask questions well! I had basically no training. But I asked hundreds each day. Now, I'm renovating my embarrassingly bad old questions!



Featured Articles

Question Renovation Techniques

A few techniques I found myself using as I renovated old questions from my classroom.

Ask Sequences, Never One-Off Questions

Beware one-off questions. Any question that we prepare should have a natural follow-up question. And those follow-ups should push students up Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Sharpening Questions

With some small changes, we can turn fluffy opinion questions into thought-provoking evaluation questions.

I didn’t proofread my questions.

When I look back at the questions I asked students, one thing really pops out. I did not try answering my own questions. As a result, my students got untested rough drafts.

Other Question Renovation Articles

Taking Flashcards Up To “Analyze”

We had a pack of animal flashcards. But my kid can already read. So here’s how we took these low-level cards up to Analyze – in three different ways.

Help my students remember these confusing terms!

If you want students to memorize, you can’t aim for memorize. You have to aim higher – and then memorization comes along for free.

When A Math Puzzle Isn’t Very Puzzling

It looks like a fun puzzle. But it’s actually just a low-level worksheet in disguise!

Over-Scaffolding Writing

Here’s what happens when we make a scaffold the final product.

How *Not* To Ask Questions About A Novel

These “discussion questions” highlight so many of the problems we’ve been looking at.

Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote

Let’s do more than ask, “What did this person mean?”

What Makes An Antagonist Effective?

It’s really fun to take an already good sequence, tweak it, and get something even better!

Going Beyond “Define These Terms In Your Own Words”

“Define these terms in your own words” may contain depth and complexity… but it’s neither deep nor complex!

Beyond “Describe How This Changed Over Time”

I want to go beyond just listing how a character changed. Let’s get students thinking about that change!

Going Beyond “Identify a Story’s Problem”

My students were stuck telling me a story’s problem and solution. Let’s get thinking!

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