Blog Post #6

I have always suffered from anxierty with Public Speaking, it has gotten better with age, but it still affects me. I remember being in school and hoping the entire time the teacher was talking, that i would not get called on. If you asked me what the teacher was talking about, I would not know because I was too focused on being called on and giving an answer that was WRONG. As educators, we should stay away from this method. This helps with "burp-back education". It is not allowing the student to think for themselves, it just allows them to give an answer that is either right or wrong, even if it is one word. So, how can we avoid these types of questions?

In Joanne Chesley's video, She explains that opened ended questions are a lot more effective than closed ended questions. This allows the students to engage in discussion and better expand their mind on the material. A close-ended question allows the student to answer with a quick "yes" or "no", which can easily be a guess, so they are not learning as well. She has also mentioned that students are rather unresponsive in discussion without the open ended questions. Ben Johnson brings up a good point in his blog post: "as teachers, we really do not know everything", and he is correct! We need to let the students discuss their answer and their thoughts on how they came up with it. This creates a ripple effect which causes more students to get engaged in the material, and makes them more comfortable. So, when it comes down to asking questions in your classroom, I think it would be very wise to use the "three ways" provided by Martellen Weimer. Prepare Questions While creating or going over your lesson plans, think of ways to include all students in class discussion. Play with Questions. Leave your question unanswered for a while to see what your students come up with. Preserve good Questions Good questions can be kept, hold on to the ones that received great results. I believe that by using the tips and techniques listed above, we can steer away from the unwanted teaching style that many have encountered, and open a new way of teaching,that leads to better futures for our students!