On our second day at Annieville we rotated through five different classrooms throughout the day. The classes ranged from a 1/2 split through a 5/6 split. I really enjoyed all of my classroom visits. It’s so interesting to see how different teachers organize their classrooms and the different strategies each teacher uses.

On Questions

Each questions asked by the different teachers had a purpose. They were looking for a certain kind of answer.

Questions as a Management Strategy:

• Are you ready to walk into the gym calmly?
• Can you get it together?
• What does the bell mean? Does it mean bad behaviour?
• These questions clearly had one right answer and were being asked to remind the student of appropriate behaviour. I

Recall Questions:

• Can you remember five things to do with adventure stories?
• What do we do with garbage that is not recycling or organics?
• These questions were asked by teachers to check students memories of previously covered material. The students answered the questions with the desired response.

Clarifying Questions:

• What if the person did X?
• Are we supposed to X?
• These questions were often asked by students after instructions had been given and they were still unsure of some details.

Identifying Questions:

• Who knows where New Foundland Is? Can you show me on the map?
  • This was another type of recall question but more specific than the ones above. The question required movement and active participation from the answerer.

Creative Thinking Questions:

• What can we do with garbage when the pile gets too big?
  • The goal of this question was to generate a list of a possible solutions to an overfull landfill. The students came up with a wide range of answers. Some of their answers were predictable, bury it or burn it. Others were quite creative, building a rocket out of recycled materials and shooting the garbage into space. This open ended question allowed the students to generate unique ideas.
• Why would there be a dog on the cover [of this book]?
  • The teacher wanted the students to think creatively and make some predictions about the story. The students did not disappoint. They had all kinds of creative ideas. They made connections to their lives. They used previous knowledge to predict things. They used other picture clues to make guesses. This question generated a lot of creative thinking and discussion. They were true book detectives.

The most question intensive time I observed was the grade four teacher doing a guided reading. She asked many questions before and during the reading. She asked the student to make predictions. She asked about the meaning of certain words. She asked the students how to describe things in the story. She asked students to make connections to real life. She asked the students to extend their thinking about the book by accessing their funds of knowledge about the content. She asked comprehension questions by asking the students to look for clues in the stories. She asked students to identify and classify things in the book.