Chapter 5- Why Ask? Questioning Strategies in the Classroom

I never really understood higher level thinking questions until college. I honestly spent most of my life missing the big picture. I went to school because I had to. I turned in the work because it was due that day. It was not until college that I actually cared to learn anything from school. This is when I began to ask myself the types of questions that help me apply the content to my life. I really like the ReQuest technique because it can be used in a variety of situations. I also liked it because its not labeling students to make them feel like they are in the “smart group” or “slow group.” The lower level students have the opportunity to be taught by their classmates. I personally seem to learn better when a classmates teaches me than I do by following the teacher.

A quote that I liked from the book was on page 81 and it said, “Unfortunately many students have little practice in answering implicit questions and may be ill-equipped to formulate and respond to questions requiring critical thinking.” This hit home with me because it is so true. It sadens me that so many teachers teach to a test. I want my students to learn more than reading and writing in my classroom. I want them to think outside of the box unafraid of getting the answer wrong. I want them to learn about real life situations and how they might approach them.

One day after class I was talking to my college algebra teacher. He asked me, “why do you think so many students are afraid of math?” After thinking for a minute I could not think of a logical answer. He then said, “because so many of their teachers presented math to them in a negative way. Even if you hate math, never let your students know that because they will in turn feel like it is okay for them to hate the subject as well.” Though I find it easy to come up with higher level questions in science and language arts, I find it hard to come up them in math. How can I come up with questions that challenge my students when honestly I find it hard to answer them myself? Also, what are things that I could do that might possibly help change my outlook on the subject?

Chapter 7: Note taking or note making?

I have a tendency to be obsessive compulsive when it comes to note taking. But I wasn't always this way. I remember the specific day that I realized the power of properly taking notes. I was in Mrs. Davis' eighth grade science class at Alexander Junior High school. Up until that point I had never thought of categorizing what the teacher was saying by grouping them together by main topics. Due to my lack of note taking knowledge, I never did very well on tests. I had honestly never even realized that there were sub-categories to the main topic. All of the information was just sort of jumbled in my head with no order to it at all. The two days prior to my note taking revolution I was out sick. I asked one of my friends if I could borrow their notes. She could have majored in note taking! Everything was so orderly and clear to read. I was in shock that the information could be so easy to learn when the proper techniques were implemented to categorize the information. From that day forward I made it my business to take clear notes in all of my classes.

I really liked reading about the different strategies because one of my favorite things to do is organize things. This showed me that there are several ways to make notes your own. I especially liked the part about the importance of these skills for ELL students. I think that so many students are set up for failure because teachers never actually teach them how to take notes!! They are forced to jump straight into figuring it out on their own. For some students, notes are a great way of chunking information so they are not overwhelmed by the big picture when studying for a test. Without a strong foundation, how are students supposed to digest large amounts of information? Was I the only one who was never taught by a teacher how to properly take notes? ...because I feel that it should be one of the focal points of teaching. Most children are not born knowing how to seperate the information given to them into categories.