Mark has shared the following reflections from his PDC work:
As part of Group One’s focus on questioning, many of us have been observing each other and feeding back on good practice and areas for improvement. I observed Kath with her year 11 maths class and her focus was ensuring that all students took part.
Kath definitely succeeded with this focus and asked sufficient questions to enable all 12 students to provide answers. The class already appear to be well-trained in ‘No hands up’ and patiently waited their turn whilst Kath prompted them with a range of open and closed questions.
In addition, I noticed that she had prepared a range of extended questions and prompts that stretched the students and encouraged them to think of alternative responses. Although some students found this difficult, I could see the benefits of encouraging them to think of additional answers if Kath changed one or two parameters. Another strength was her reluctance to accept a correct answer without asking “Why?”, “What’s the difference?” or “Could you improve on that?” immediately after the student response. This style of questioning encouraged the students to consider how or why they had reached the correct answer.
Overall, Kath’s questioning was energetic, inclusive and relentless which prevented students from switching-off and waiting for the next part of the lesson. Her new focus now will be to ensure that all students in a larger class take part.
MAY
Group 1 has also been working on pre-planning questions and Mark has produced the following resource for his group to help them with that process:
Learning and Teaching at Abbot Beyne 