On Asking Questions and Giving Lectures

 

 

I find myself thinking about the fundamentals of learning and asking questions. To me, questions are powerful. Questions lead to thinking, probing, and searching for some sort of answer. I feel like in many senses, we want our students to ask questions. But yet when I was observing classes last class, I noticed that not enough students were asking questions. Instead, the teachers were which makes sense of course. Questions are a form of assessment, that’s why it’s important to focus on how we word our questions. Playing with Bloom’s Taxonomy and switching of the order in which we ask low level to high level questions is a key.  I feel like it’s not just can our students answer the questions, but can they take that answer and shoot a deeper, related question back out? To me, that’s more of an assessment than just an answer.

 

Looking at the second part of the class, I found the lecture on how to lecture really eye opening. The part that stands out to me the most is telling stories in our lectures. It opens up many different doors for our students. Not only is it in human nature to be drawn to stories, but its also a way to help them remember the content of the lesson. But more importantly it’s a way to build a relationship with students. By telling them a story from your life (an appropriate one) it’s a way to show them a side of you. It adds depth to who you are as a person. I can remember some of my favorite teachers from high school and one of the reasons I can is because I know something quirky about them that they told me one class. I know that lecturing is inevitable, but as long as you can keep it fun, productive, and human I feel as though it is a productive way to get information out.