Ways to Invite Students’ Real Thinking!!

Hello friends!

I am so excited to be a part of the Bright Ideas Blog Hop again this month!

So, have you ever thought…

 ‘I wonder if the questions I am asking are getting in the way of my students thinking?’


‘Are my questions distracting students from their own thinking?’

‘What genuine thinking am I missing from my students because I am distracting them with specific questions?’

Ways to Invite Students’ Real Thinking:

1. Give them time to turn and talk.  

During, and after reading, allow students time to turn and talk to a partner that is sitting next to them in class.  Instruct students to simply share their thinking about the text.  They may have questions or share a connection from their past experiences.  Because we all think differently and we all bring our unique past experiences to the text, every student will have their own thoughts about the text.

Turning and talking works in every subject, gets all students involved (not just the few that always raise their hands), and acts as an invaluable informal assessment.

2. Prompt students with open-ended questions like:

What are you thinking?
What questions do you have so far?
What are you wondering?
Tell me more.
Can you so more about that?
What made you think of that?
Why do you think…?

3. Let your students’ thinking guide your questions

Sometimes we plan our set of questions that we are going to ask, but they may not be the right questions that match our students’ thinking.

Be open to thinking of questions that will take your students’ thinking to a deeper level.  Use what they share with you as a baseline to ask deeper questions related to their initial thoughts.

In this way, we are teaching in response to our students’ thinking, not inserting or telling them what to think.

I hope these few tips have given you a new perspective into how we ask questions as teachers in class!

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