Effective Teaching Techniques

Recently I was having a casual conversation with a newly appointed teacher in my school. We exchanged few details about the classes we handle and the subjects we taught. We shared some things about our families too. She asked me, “How many kids do you have?” With lightning speed I answered, “I think I have 23.Last year I had 20.”

She was startled for a second, gave a blank look at me. I tried to recollect, what was her question? (Did I answer it right?) After a momentary pause we both burst out into laughter. She was asking me about my own children whereas I mapped it to the children in my class.  I realized it once again like any other day, ‘the moment we enter the school premises, we forget our own world that is outside the school compound and school becomes our family’.

I am sure most of you must have had or shared lighter moments with a peer that makes your day. Like many of you, I have always believed in having a cordial relationship with teachers at school, irrespective of whether they teach primary or high school. There is always some thing we have in common that we figure out in due course of time, it may be about our teaching methods or classroom management techniques.

Informal discussions and talking more openly about the issues we face in class, will fetch us solutions very easily. But there has to be a genuine thought- process and concern in all these discussions, else it may unknowingly turn out to be ‘branding a child with specific issue’ kind of a talk.

In these years of classroom transactions, I have experienced being an assistant teacher in my initial years of service. Apart from those learning, I have picked a few cues and nuances in handling students by observing many of my peer sessions and through visits to other schools.

I realized, just as how every child is unique, every teacher is unique. But there needs to be a constant supply of ideas and resources shared so as to avoid stagnation of thoughts and teaching techniques. This vests purely in a teacher’s hand.

In this article I would like to share some of the practices, which I think were effective classroom techniques and teaching methods that made ‘learners to learn’.

1. Science session on ‘light’

The teacher wanted to make her students realize the importance of ‘light’ in their life using senses. Instead of just beginning the session by defining light or asking questions, ‘do you know what is light?’, she darkened the room to an extent and gave every student a sealed carton box (something like a cereal box) with ‘small hole’ on top. She asked them to peep in through the pin hole and to share if they could see any thing. As expected, students replied there is nothing in the box. Then she gave them torch light and asked them to repeat the same procedure. Students were excited to see a strip of paper inside that closed box. The paper had words written on it “I can see with the light”. This experiment took 20 mins of her session but the realization of importance of light and the conceptual learning of light was amazing. They were easily able to define what is light and absence of light is called darkness.

A concept can be introduced in anyway orally/writing the definition on the board or even reading it out from the book as simple as it sounds. If it’s planned with much care then the session continues to sail smoothly and effectively with utmost engagement.

I started believing more in kinaesthetic learning than ‘chalk and talk’ method

2. Reciting poems loudly

This was an English teacher who had cultivated the habit of reciting poems just for fun and rhythm. But she made use of it wisely for student engagement in such a way that whenever students know that it is English session, they start reciting the poem one after the other (whatever they have learnt so far). By the time teacher reaches the classroom, the whole class would settle and get ready for English class with books and note books while reciting the poems simultaneously. There was complete focus when teacher arrives. The loud recitation created a good vibration in class atmosphere and that was pleasant for their ears as well. The teacher would seamlessly continue her sessions as planned. This happened every day without fail and I never saw that teacher spend time in settling them after she came in.

I realized how music and rhythm enhances student focus and engagement

3. SWBAT –Students Will Be Able To_________________________

Few years ago, I had a chance to visit one of the elementary school in USA. I went around the school and entered few classrooms and dining area as well. One thing that impressed me was, the teachers there always had the habit of sharing the objective of every session with their students. They had mentioned it on the white board as an acronym ‘SWBAT’.

For instance, she wrote Students will be able to …solve the addition problem worksheet independently. She tells it orally as well.Students are clear of what their aim is and what they need to do that day. This was written in Grade 2 classroom.

After implementing the same practice in my sessions I found them to be more engaged.It prepares the students to be present in the class mentally.

E.g. SWBAT: Students will be to -read the passage and find answers for given questions.

SWBAT- Students will be able to recite the poem from the book loudly with rhyme and rhythm

SWBAT-Students will be ableto write adjectives to describe the given scenery

I understood that students need to be aware of the objectives at the beginning of every session

4. In Art class

You must be wondering what I would have observed from art classes. It is the place where all their senses are involved. After PE class, the most sought destination could be the art room in every school. What I had learnt from the teacher was the effective time management besides following routines. I observed that though there was enough work planned for the day, the teacher ensured enough time was allocated to train the students to put all stationery back to places wherever it belonged. At the end of sessions, the classroom appears as neat as it was before the students entered. She would also ask children to tell the name of painting technique they had learnt that day before they exit the room. Again, I observed that this practice is done in every session of hers so that the system is well established and students get tuned to their teacher’s expectation.

I learnt, by using time wisely, a teacher can teach the content and skills simultaneously

5. A worksheet with difference

As teachers of this decade most of us are aware of using worksheet based on the topic taught. This is done for revising or for more practice .Now a days it is done with ease with so many free resources available online. But in this process, we need to be careful to customize it for our learners.

 A math teacher( middle school USA) had designed it in such a way that student’s arrive at the correct answer by eliminating all the wrong answers. They were expected to evaluate all the choices and justify why they were wrong. This way the teacher ensured students are clear with the concepts in totality.She had also given some tips and formulas in a box separately as support. Even though there were only four or five problems given in the sheet, I found students were working out more to find the right option .Though they were taught the right way of solving such problems the approach expected from the students were to validate all options before arriving at the result.  Since then, whenever I discuss with my co-teacher on worksheet for math, I have emphasized this method of ‘Eliminating wrong’ as one effective way for student engagement.

I make use of this method even in my English class by writing sentences that are grammatically wrong and ask students to identify errors. While they were at this task, I was able to identify some of their misconceptions too. Based on their responses, I have even altered my sessions to revisit the concepts again.

Even a standard method like using worksheet as teaching aids/tool can be made interesting if a teacher plans carefully.

6. Extensive and appropriate usage of walls in classroom

Once a science teacher was asking her students to write the aim, procedure, materials to be used and their guess/prediction on what will happen in the experiment on small chart paper. She put them carefully on pin up boards of classroom in the same order. The next session she made use of those data and their predictions. I found that this was her practice and all soft boards /notice board in class showcased every bit of students learning and their progress every day. It was helpful for students to recall what happened the previous day and make connections to further learning.

This practice of gathering their thoughts on soft boards has helped students to recall and remember concepts taught in math and science session.

 From all these observation sessions, one major take away for me was, “Connect with kids and adapt to make your session lively and to enthuse students”

Few other things that impressed me…

• Playing music in the back ground to create an ambiance, relevant to the topic taught. This I learnt from a social science teacher.( I am sure that teacher is reading this blog!)
• Plan to invite a group of older students to teach the younger students for a change. Believe me, it works wonderfully. There is so much of excitement and fun involved in this method. The session becomes a memorable one, for both the younger and the older students. I also observed that older students are so careful and organised when they teach younger ones.

It is proven that we learn the maximum only when we teach. So why not employ this strategy often in our classrooms?

I agree that all these takes effort and careful planning but it’s definitely worth a try!

 Please share your experiences, if you can map any of these techniques in your classrooms.

Teaching style,Learning style and student attainment

Multiple intelligence and it’s influence

As I started writing this post, a thought loomed…will the readers be hooked on to reading this article till the end?

May be few of you will look for images associated to the topic, while others might look for some video link related to my post and a few might look for catchy phrases highlighted in bold words to obtain the main idea of this article. Some of you may scroll down to see if I have included any activity that would interest your students. I think, I should even explore the idea of including an audio version of this content.

Why should I consider all these possibilities? Well, this explains the theory of multiple intelligence and the learning style of every reader who reads this article.

I would like to begin this week’s article with a virtual handshake to each and every teacher out there in the field. I look up on teachers’ as …

Talented,

Enthusiastic,

Ambitious,

Charismatic,

Holistic,

Energetic and a

 Resourceful person who makes a difference in students’ life

With all these qualities inbuilt in them, over a period of time through experiences and knowledge gain, there is always a vacuum some where in the heart and mind that doesn’t  allow them to completely take the credit of the value add they do through teaching.

If only I knew how to make him understand that multiplication is just repeated addition!

If only I knew how to make that girl focus during this video session?

If only I knew how to help her in learning to balance that chemical equation?

Often a teacher feels guilty of not being able to figure out, why some children can’t attain maximum potential. When will these children reach the threshold of self- learning?

Let me digress to another scene which is just like our own class room the only difference being we listen and some one else conducts that session. Yes, it’s nothing but the teacher training workshop that we attend as a part of professional development programme.

(Anna university teachers at ‘dealing with stress’ workshop)

Have you ever wondered when we attend an in-service workshop conducted at school or elsewhere, there is a standard flow of events during the course of the workshop.

• A talk by renowned personality
• PPT with visual clips and /or audio
• There is a group discussion and presentation, it could be a group presentation or individual the choice is given to the attendees,
• Finally, there is feedback or brainstorming on how this could be applicable in our classrooms

An adult workshop is planned so carefully keeping in mind that, in a huge crowd of teachers there could be people with different learning styles. Some will verbally read and learn newer things, some pick cues from visual aids, a few who will participate only during group discussions( and are not comfortable to speak in the crowd) and last but not the least there are individuals who may take away the crux only towards the end of workshop during the summation.

It is apparent that “Each of us do learn, in one way or the other”. “Each of us possess one or more intelligence as innate quality”

Well I am sure you can link this with our own student group too!

To represent this pictorially,

As teachers, we need do a bit of self analyzing of our own learning style first to maximize the learning outcome of students.There is a valid reason behind this. It is obvious that the way we are comfortable in learning, influences to a greater extent in our lesson planning too.If you can associate yourself to any one of these styles given above, you know how most of your sessions are going to be.You could even share the lesson plan you make with your colleague to check if there are variety in approaches and in testing.

Some tips that can help you maximize your learner’s learning is to work in collaboration with other teachers. It can be planned as,teachers who handle other subject areas for same grade or teachers who handle same subject area in other sections. By allowing other teacher of same subject expertise to take few of your sessions, students will benefit from different teaching styles.This idea of exchanging sessions can be done either at the introduction stage of the new topic or towards the end while revisiting(revising) the topic . In my experiences I have seen students come up with some points that you may not have taught them.They even mention how and when they learnt it.This implies there was another method from where the student learnt it.

You could be an expert in content delivery (linguistic/verbal intelligence), well your peer could be excellent in conducting a quiz or a game based on the concept(kinesthetic or logical intelligence).An art teacher who has the artistic intelligence can motivate a child to illustrate their understanding based on the academic topic where as an English teacher who has linguistic intelligence may help with framing sentences for definitions or give a better choice of words for explanations. An art teacher can even motivate children to include comic strips and cartoons in a creative writing session.This might interest student to write. I am only suggesting few changes here and there which we tend to over look or even assume its not our zone of teaching.

It’s a community of students, so we too must attend to them as community of teachers and not as an individual who is solely responsible for his/her growth.

When we as an individual possess one or more intelligence by nature, it is inevitable in an organisation like school where there are thousands of children, with different intelligence pooled together, I suggest that we initiate a different learning process for that child, tapping the right intelligence.

It is true that children blossom at different pace and to go by the saying,’ One Size Doesn’t Fit All’, let there be enough scope for various approaches in our teaching style.

Too much of play-way method will not satisfy a logic-smart student and repetitive problem solving methods  may not interest an art-smart student.

There is so much of thinking that happens and effort that goes in to every teacher’s session plans. A teacher must be conscious while making lesson plans, toprovide scope for teaching the same concept in different styles to maximize that ZPD.

Though the underlying principle is same when it comes to MI and different learning styles there is a difference conceptually.

Please check the following link to get more insight in to Multiple intelligence Vs Learning style.

http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-research

All these research, established hypothesis are to support the teachers to be more successful in her/his aim of reaching students with ease.

My suggestion to teachers would be to plan their  formative assessment and every day task providing scope for MI concept. This will enable teachers to actually get proof of their student’s learning on whether they actually got the idea behind the lesson.

• Are they good in concept ?
• Is it only their ‘writing/presentation’ problem?
• Can they represent it in flow chart or an illustration?
• Will they explain it verbally in an organised fashion?
• Can they depict their learning in a chart?
• Will they be able to use concrete objects to express their understanding?
• Will he remember the math tables if I encourage him/her to recite it?

Also think about collaborating with other teachers to share the sessions so that the different teaching & learning styles are considered.

Above all, “A teacher who teaches the student is preferred than a teacher who teaches the curriculum”.

Be smart. Be efficient. Be a continuous learner.

Teaching Math Using Technology

January 29, 2016 Sudha Mahesh 

Often people ask me, “How did you end up teaching English, despite being a graduate in Mathematics?” Well to share the truth, it was the choice made by me. Post my graduation,I equipped myself with the skills required to become a capable and efficient English teacher through training and workshops.

The fact is, though I like to teach any of the core subjects of primary school, I realized that many students in primary classes were struggling to learn, apply and solve math. You might think being passionate about teaching, I could have been a math teacher to help them directly!

But, I figured out through my experiences and classroom transaction, that students often lack comprehension skill. They are unable to read a word problem or a printed question at good pace so that they first enjoy reading and understanding it, then connecting the concept and applying it appropriately. They are unable read between lines in any given math problem.

I personally feel the need to gain mastery in English, in such a way that, they process it  and are able to communicate their understanding by speaking math with ease. Then, it becomes an enjoyable experience for students to involve in learning with more purpose.

Maintaining a democratic atmosphere in class and planning a question list before hand for a math class are two vital things to ensure that students will be engaged in the session.

As Math is abstract science involving numbers, shapes, quantities and their relationships, it becomes essential for a student to be given enough time for absorbing the logic and connecting every topic to the real world  for application.

I remember a good humoured person who was a math teacher, his presence and way of communication created an air of confidence and motivated every learner to consider mistakes done while solving, in a positive stride.

Can’t this be done( in a lighter note) …just to make them accountable for their learning.A teacher says,”Do 3/4 th of your homework today.”

As teachers are role models to children, besides parents, teachers can create a high impact on some of their values like perseverance, growth mindset, courage to face, ability to accept consequences and finally, arrive at a practical strategy to solve them as well.

In a math class there is scope for all of these values to be instilled in students. To my knowledge, if a teacher can successfully communicate to students in the first few sessions,  that she/he is a teacher who gives importance to the process and not the result,there are higher chances of maximizing the students’ potential.In Math the journey of learning should be emphasized.This will create a sense of achievement and enhance self esteem.

Digressing to the crux of this article, today’s world has started looking at math in a different way altogether.

Researchers feel that there is wide gap between classroom math and real life math. I would like to share this TED talk. Though it directly deals with math and use of computer technology to make it a more meaningful subject, as teachers we can advance our current methods,to minimize our efforts while maximizing students engagement in class.

http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers?language=en

About the speaker:-Conrad Wolfram runs the worldwide arm of Wolfram Research, the mathematical lab behind the cutting-edge knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha.

If you want to make your country’s future citizens who are more practical people and  successful critical thinkers, then feel the urge for it now!

There is a need to modify the curriculum. When I say curriculum do not assume that we are expected to do away with all the math topics.To define a curriculum it is nothing but “All the learning which is planned and guided by the school”.

Courtesy: http://www.ted.com/speakers/conrad_wolfram

Student Engagement-How to achieve it?

As teachers we are aware that any group activity done in class room creates interest in learning and keeps the students engaged throughout.They need teachers as facilitators in that process.Where as, our challenge is to be keep them focused in learning in a normal classroom scenario.

Try these ten strategies that keep students engaged in class

• Be a good speaker. Keep a check on your audibility, posture and visibility to students.

• Do not do a slow paced teaching assuming it’s effective.

There is a lot of evidence that shows that when teaching is at a brisk instructional pace, students have more opportunities to engage, respond, and move on to the next concept (Carnine & Fink, 1978; Williams, 1993; Ernsbarger et al., 2001).

•  Write down what is the goal for today’s lesson (This has worked out brilliantly with my students). They get mentally prepared for the tasks. The student output is maximized.

• After 10 min of teaching give two minute break for students to ask you questions or process it in their mind.

• Give constructive feedback, acknowledge good thoughts or sharing. If need be, note that catalyzing thought on the board for others to hover on it.

• Ask them to quickly note down three things they remember,2 interesting things and one question from the content that was delivered this is called 3-2-1(courtesy: Reading horizons)

• Ensure student movement for some reason. Use pop-corn style for reading out lessons, or answering questions ( From my experiences pop corn style has always keeps students engaged in listening to others carefully)

• Try peer to peer reading activity for 5 to 10 minutes if it’s a lengthy session.

• Give choices in representing what they understood in that day’s session either in writing/verbally summarize or through illustration.

• “Use black board wisely”. Fill it up with important words, new spellings, new concept they have learnt or any thing you feel is the crux of that session. Try to represent the concepts in flowcharts for enhanced grasping. Teachers who do not use the black board are missing out on utilizing one of the most important teaching tools!

                                  Blackboards are communication tool for visual learners!

Now getting to the depth of one strategy that I personally consider is crucial for student engagement in the session…

“Sharing the goal of a session”

A usual instruction in some of the kindergarten classes, “You are going to color the house picture on the worksheet now. Use the crayons provided to you”.

Share as why are we coloring ?

• Where will they use this in future?
• Is the picture going to look colorful?
•  Will it match to the real world around them ?
• Don’t their houses have colors on wall?
• What skill is developed?

Add more value to the time they spend on coloring. Instead of just saying, “Color and complete it”.

• Why are we learning phonic sounds?
• How it is going to be used by them?
• Why are we reading this three lettered words every day?

In Upper primary classes during history lessons, why should you know about the invention of wheel?

Why are we learning grid on Globe?  

Go beyond what the definition says. The text will define the term, as teachers add more flavor to that aspect.

Instead of commencing a session saying, as we have already learnt LCM in previous grade let’s move on to HCF today ? A student might think why did I ever learn that LCM?

How many times a student would have wondered? “If only I knew the usage of number names in life!”

Do share a simple instance –It is going to be used in filling out a bank cheque while drawing money out of the bank. Don’t you think the learning will extend beyond the four walls of classroom?

Always share the purpose of learning things. It could be a nursery rhyme or the measure of angle in a building. Our ancient kings were so good at angle and measurement that they were able to build that beautiful structure, ‘Thanjavur Brihadeeshwara  temple’ or quote the importance of angles and beauty of construction in an Eiffel tower, Paris.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihadeeswarar_Temple)

When a student knows its application we can expect student engagement, else it is going to a combination of alphabets and numerals as understanding!

Make students’ accountable for what they learn by sharing the objective to them.

Student engagement is 80% possible and successful if and only if a student gets to know at least 20 % of what he is going to learn in a session. There is a reason behind this 80-20 rule.

In 1906, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto found that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. When applied more broadly, others noticed that roughly 80% of the effects came from 20% of the causes. It has become a popular principle in management and business. Ask any dean of students, 80% of the discipline problems come from roughly 20% of the student body. The Pareto Principle suggests that a few things produce the majority of results. Find out what is vital, ignore what is trivial, and you can maximize results.

• Student engagement is an authentic process and it cannot be attained unless the student is aware of the goal behind every session.
• Student engagement should be a culture at school and I feel all educators working at the institution should follow the measures uniformly for best results. It shouldn’t be a stand alone practice followed by pockets of teachers here and there, but as a language unanimously spoken by the all the educators of that organisation.

Reading Habit- A Chore To Do?

Over these years as a teacher and as mother of two kids, I have observed that many children who do well in academics (may it be a  writing skills or oral participation) seldom read books!!!

It’s a point to ponder,How and from Where ……..they share those information to the whole class?

It’s true that reading books makes any one achieve more. Then why are some kids reluctant to choose and read it.And mostly, I find that children who are responsible enough and do well in school are the ones who think ‘Reading is Boring’.They just do it as a chore-to-do.

Well there could be many reasons behind it. I would like to share a few here that I learnt from my own personal experience and through few sources.

1.Firstly it could be gender specific. As it is proven that they have different style towards learning,possibly their reading habits are also different.Boys may not prefer doing any task that requires sitting for a longer duration.Boys may not be interested to read  short stories like Red Riding hood except for the part where wolf enters.Girls may find it easy to just pick a book looking at its cover and patiently go through it.Girls may not choose the book at sight if it has ‘screw and bolts’ on the cover page while a boy may like to pick that.Boys may like to read books in a bright garden/out doors as against the library room with four walls around. So next time, try out different options keeping in mind that they are wired differently according to Neurosciences.

2. Reading habit could be a herculean task if the level of the book is too high for them to read and understand .At the same time if its too low it could be a waste of time.

3.Vision play an important role which parents/ teachers some times fail to notice.Getting their eyes checked up may solve the problem once for all.

4.It’s not necessary that if parents or siblings are voracious readers then the child also needs to be a good reader.Yet he/she could be doing very well at school.Many times they pick information from different sources.It could from a discussion between parents,listening to their peers,from a video they watch,magazines/pamphlets and news papers too.It is very important that books and knowledge based material should not be kept confined to one spot at home or inside the class.It needs to be spread over such that it attracts their attention.

According to  The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac. Some of those rights are the right of the reader not to read; the right not to finish; the right to skip; and the right to read anything. 

It is also suggested that if the child has enjoyed a film recently, she/he may be interested in reading a book about it.Forcing someone to read is completely counterproductive (courtesy-the guardian)

15 Reasons Why You Should Have The Habit of Reading Books from Printsasia

Well, this applies to teachers as well.If not a book try to choose some reading material which interests you ! Happy reading.

Do you have any personal experiences that made a child ‘pick a book to read’? then leave it in comments for others to read and benefit.

Questioning ,A Skill To Be Acquired

In my last blog I had discussed about the important skill a student needs to develop which is reading.Here I am going to share my thoughts on one of the effective strategy in teaching that is ‘Questioning’.

The art of questioning and powerful questioning methods dates back to Vedic ages, probably Mughal period and medieval periods too in the East, and to ages of Socrates in western culture. Socrates asked questions to his fellow Athenians in a dialectic method (the Socratic Method) which compelled the audience to think through a problem to a logical conclusion. Wherever used, questioning skills always leads a scholar to win over their opponents and to spread their ideologies and philosophies on a particular concept.

Their questioning patterns brought out the insight and deep knowledge they had. It also showcased the vast knowledge they had gained in their life time through education and experiences.

Questioning -Is it an art?  Does questioning involve a bit of science?

I think it has both in the process. I believe ‘Questioning’ has lead to clarity and wisdom. It has challenged assumptions, exposed contradictions, has paved path for new knowledge and theories.

As teachers,licensed person who gets the authority to spread knowledge and expel darkness from young minds, don’t they need to train themselves to use this powerful tool efficiently?

For instance if I were to ask you at the end of this article,

Did you understand what is questioning skill?(I may get these replies )

Yes I understood,

Some what I understood

 May be its important skill but still not clear.

There could be no response from few of you. You may not want to extend your replies more than the yes/no or just keep mum and wait for others to reply that.

Instead if I were to ask you…

Given that there are many ways to question students in class such as verbal/written/multiple choices or a subjective question, which questioning method would you prefer for your students and why?  

The moment you read the above question…

• You will start processing in your mind and try to answer this by considering the age group of your learners, recalling your experiences in class, connect it with your peers experiences if they had shared it with you and many others factors.
• You will also think of your recent classes where you had tried any of these and you will start justifying which worked better for you.
• Your brain makes connections spontaneously without any external motivation to answer.
• You are self motivated to answer this because you link it to yourself and your experience.

The way I inquire should make you recall/Identify/classify/justify your replies.It should make you speak few more words than a simple chorus yes/no

This was just an example for close ended and open ended questioning.

There has to be methodical approach in questioning too. This technique can be arrived based on Bloom’s taxonomy verbs. Renowned educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom’s had researched in 20th century on the classification of learning objectives and created purposeful verbs that a teacher can use while making her lesson plans. These verbs would guide her to be clear and specific about the objective of a particular session.

The complexity of questions should move from lower order questions to higher order questions.Here is why I consider ‘Questioning skill’ also involves scientific approach.

Of course there needs to be questions like…

What is the name of author? Who wrote this book? What book you read yesterday?

A good teacher should slowly shift this to divergent questions that will make them think and answer. Here we can make use of Bloom’s taxonomy verbs to make the shift from Lower order to Higher order thinking through questions.

It is imperative that a teacher must give importance to lower order questions and then move on to higher order.No where in studies and researches it is mentioned that teacher needs to rule out lower order questions.

Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a structure for developing questions that encourage students to think on different levels.  In order, from lower to higher the levels are:

• Knowledge (facts, recall, recognition)
• Comprehension (translation, interpretation, extrapolation)
• Application (to new or unfamiliar situations)
• Analysis (break into parts)
• Synthesis (combine elements into a new pattern)
• Evaluation (apply criteria to defend the conclusion)

Check out this link for more insights in to Bloom’s https://tlc.iitm.ac.in/PDF/Blooms%20Tax.pdf

It is essential that a teacher enters the classroom with planned questions and possible replies. At the same time, as she plans to ask open ended questions she also needs to have an in-depth knowledge on the topic to be discussed in the class. Many a times I have observed that if a teacher fails to sustain that interest of ‘probing by questioning’ method from a student’s end then the students slowly lose interest in the topic.

Here are few questions that can be asked to invite multiple replies and delve on discussions for enriched experience in a class room

1. Is the boy happy or sad? Instead you can ask…

What kind of expression do you see on the boy’s face?

2. Can you sort these objects in to big and small? Instead you can ask…

In what all ways you think these objects can be sorted?

3. What is the name of our national bird? Instead you can ask…

A bird that can sense rain seeing dark clouds and can dance beautifully is our national bird. Can you guess the name?

 Any indirect clues that will make students imagine, relate to their learning, make connections, in turn even ask you back a question to verify and answer…

Training students to ask value added questions in a class  empowers them and makes them accountable for their own learning.Reward a student and acknowledge them if their question provokes a thought process in class discussion.

 Isn’t questioning skill a must for a teacher?

This is a close ended question. From here I should move on to higher order thinking questions…

Create few questions for your next session and classify them as closed ones and open ended ones.

Frame questions in such a way that brings out the best from a child. Plan your questions! Do expect a surprise and an ‘Aaha’ moment in your class.

(courtesy-wikipedia About bloom’s and classification of bloom’s)

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