With the quote, “Question things that have gone unquestioned” I turned the board into a question board. I wanted students to start thinking deeply, having questions of their own. This did not start out a success. At first, we started this when we were learning about the economy. I tried modeling good questions to students and talking about what a good question is. As I said, not an instant success. I allowed them to put up sticky notes on the board of their questions, no matter the question. I felt a bit defeated at the start of this. As I looked on the board, I didn’t see any questions that would promote higher order thinking. Many were questions over the actual assignment they were doing. I kept the question board up, tearing down the sticky notes as we moved past that unit. We then began working on the NE region and then Ellis Island. I found many opportunities to tell students how great their question was and they should go write it down on the board. Students started to get excited as I pointed out questions during whole group instruction. I noticed how a good question would turn into many good questions, as students began seeing their classmates write down their questions on the board. We even spent a whole class looking up the questions they had. They LOVED this, and I loved it too. I had to steer many in the right direction with their questions research, but they were so very excited to go do research on their question. They found their answers and shared out with the class. When I asked who wanted to share, every person in the class raised their hand. Talk about a cool moment. I was so excited that they wanted to learn and share what they had learned. Although they are not asking higher order thinking questions just yet, they are beginning to see how important it is to be a questioner and how much goes unquestioned unless YOU (every student) think deeply about what is going on and question it. This process has shown me that ideas that have meaning take time. No implemented idea will have instant success. But rather, trust the process and it will prove successful in time.
learn, wonder, explore 