Blog Post #6!

In her YouTube video Asking Better Questions in the Classroom Dr. Joanne Chesley explains the difference between a close-ended and open-ended question. Close-ended questions are questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no, or a short phrase. An open-ended question is one in which the student must think deeper and answer in more detail. I think that as educators it is our job to know the difference and to be able to pose open-ended questions to our students. In the 21st century classroom teachers are seen as guides. We are supposed to guide our students in the direction of knowledge and a deeper understanding of the world around them. How can we encourage and educate children when we can not ask them questions that require a working knowledge, or more research in order to give an answer? Posing open-ended questions to your students can be done in many ways. You could ask it after a reading of a chapter or during a class discussion about a topic. You could even pose it as a homework/project assignment in which the students have to do more research and seek out the information needed to answer the question. This is where project based learning comes into the picture. Asking open-ended questions and having your class participate in project based learning seem to go hand in hand. Students would need time to research and an opportunity to present the answer they have found for the open-ended question asked of them. Dr. Chesley uses the question "What if Rosa Parks had given up her seat to the white man on the bus in 1955? How would our country be different? How would have the civil rights movement been different?". Students could think about and discuss this question as a group then have the options to preform a skit in front of the class depicting how things would be different, or they could video themselves.

To be an effective teacher we must know how to pose questions in a way that allows our students to think outside the box. Questions that make them want to learn, that engage their minds and their imaginations. We have to inspire our students to make a difference and to hunger for knowledge outside of a textbook or a simple worksheet. A knowledge they can only get through investigation and imagination. This is what I believe we need to know as educators about asking effective questions.