Change Your Questions, Not Your Plan
Written by: Carrie Rosebrock
Often when I work with schools, one of the key questions all are attempting to answer is: “What do I do if they don’t get it?” Dufour is perhaps the most famous for coining this question, but in reality, it’s simply the heart of what the entire education system is about (or should be, at least). Ultimately, we are in the job of checking for students’ understanding, not teachers’ delivery. What matters in this entire educational/learning/instruction process is what our students actually learn. So, tackling PLC Question 3 is a critical job for all teachers. But this is precisely where we get stuck. Teachers are good people who want to do their best. We spend countless hours researching and preparing lessons that we believe will help our students learn the content during the first go-round. And when we collect data that tells us our best was not in fact meeting the needs of each of our students, well, we can feel guilt, shame, overwhelm, and fatigue at the idea of creating an entirely new lesson, on a new day, for a new time. While reteaching with differentiated lessons is absolutely beneficial in many circumstances, there may also be an easier, more efficient way at responding to data in real-time: change our questions, not our plans.
While reteaching with differentiated lessons is absolutely beneficial in many circumstances, there may also be an easier, more efficient way at responding to data in real-time: change our questions, not our plans.
The research of John Hattie and his Visible Learning team is what I often draw upon as I’m working with districts or speaking to leaders. Questioning and discussion are highly effective acceleration strategies that we need to utilize, not neglect. Hattie’s team also takes a deep dive into certain content-areas to explore the most highly-impactful strategies in literacy and math, for example. While having the research is powerful, teachers need to see modeling and demonstrations (microteaching) for professional learning to have a strong impact. To check out several free OnDemand video resources that unpack which exact strategies create surface, deep, and transfer literacy skills, view these trainings for free on Keep Indiana Learning. Click the links below for specific strategies.
- Visible Learning for Literacy
- Visible Learning, Summarization
- Visible Learning, Jigsaw Method
- Visible Learning, Direct Instruction
- Visible Learning, Close Reading
- Visible Learning, Concept Mapping
Sometimes the answer to question three is a new strategy or lesson design, but sometimes it’s as simple as intentional response with our questions. The following video unpacks the pattern of Question-Prompt-Cue-Re-Teach, and how teachers (in any discipline) can apply this simple, zero-prep response to data in real time.
Rather than create a split class with various, differentiated tasks and lessons, my response, sometimes, is as simple as knowing a pattern to take with my follow-up questions. Teaching is hard, hard work. It’s our job as leaders to help simplify the path to success for students and our staff. When we provide easily applicable, research-based strategies, our teachers (and students!) benefit. Try out the Question/Prompt/Cue/Re-Teach and let’s chat about it on Twitter. Tag me (@CarrieRosebrock) and Keep Indiana Learning (@KeepINLearning).
Resources
Please login or register to claim PGPs.
Alternatively, you may use the PGP Request Form if you prefer to not register an account.
