Effective Questioning in the Classroom

PUSH or PAUSE

I recently had the pleasure of joining district supervisors and building administrators on some instructional walk-throughs in each of the elementary schools in my district – it was wonderful to see all the good instruction and relationship-building happening in the learning environments across the district. In one particular classroom, I was acutely aware of just how skilled the teacher was at facilitating student thinking by making in-the-moment-decisions about when to PUSH and when to PAUSE. 

Teaching is often (and accurately) described as both a science and an art – and when the two work together seamlessly, well, that is when the magic happens! But it's not really magic, is it? It's a skilled teacher who understands the important balance between effective Questioning and effective Wait Time. It doesn't matter if the teacher has 3 years or 30 years behind them – this is something we can all learn to do when we work to be purposeful about our craft. As I spent time in this classroom, I couldn't help but notice how this teacher had found that perfect balance. I found myself trying to figure out how to bottle it and share it with others, knowing then that it would be the topic of my next post – this post.

So what does it mean to strike a balance between PUSH and PAUSE? And what does this balance look like in the classroom? We should probably begin by defining the terms PUSH and PAUSE, so we have a shared understanding of what those words mean as it relates to this post. 

PUSH is when you question students and push them beyond their initial answers. Through effective questioning, you encourage them to analyze their own thinking and then push them to say more, explain more clearly, provide more detail, and articulate their thinking clearly for others to understand those thoughts they have swimming around in their heads.  A previous MathSnack post highlights specific push moves to encourage deeper student-thinking. 

PAUSE happens when you simply give students a bit more time and space to analyze their own thinking and find the ideas and words to articulate that thinking. They don't need another question – they don't need a push – they just need time to process the ideas already firing the synapses in their brains and trying to find their way out into the room. 

Though I can't do justice to the actual lesson, perhaps a short snippet from the lesson will help explain PUSH and PAUSE a bit more clearly:

During this class period, these young 2nd graders were learning about line plots. This was their introduction to seeing data represented on a line plot. The students discussed measurement the week prior and were now learning how to graph measurement data on a line plot. The teacher asked, "Why does this line plot end at 52?" She then provided PAUSE for students to consider her question. She was not expecting an immediate response, nor did she want one. After a few seconds, she prompted students to talk about their ideas with their Turn-n-Talk partner – clearly an established routine in her classroom. Students began talking about why the line plot ended at 52 with their partners; they even went further to discuss why it began at 48 instead of zero.

As students talked to each other, the teacher circulated the room just to listen to conversations and gauge her students' initial understanding of line plots. She waited just long enough for the conversations to generate ideas, but not enough time for the conversations to lag or wane. She then directed students' attention back to the data on the screen, calling on a few students she had noted had meaningful contributions to add to the discussion. The first student she called on replied, "It's the greatest."  The teacher PUSHED and asked the student, "What do you mean by that?" How easy it would have been to just affirm the student's response by saying, "Yes, 52 is the greatest value of length in inches from the data we have." Many teachers would have given the student credit for words he did not actually say, but this teacher PUSHED, required the student to find his own words, and expected him to articulate his own ideas so others would also understand. The student thought briefly and then responded with a deeper, more thoughtful response that enriched the discussion. 

The teacher's flow was natural, comfortable, and produced great results. She asked her students to consider a question (e.g., "What do you notice about the line plot?"). After she posed each question, her students knew she would leave room for PAUSE so they could consider the question and their initial ideas about it. She then asked them to talk through their ideas with their Turn-n-Talk partner, giving everyone in the room an opportunity to develop and share their thoughts rather than just one or two students who would have typically been called upon to answer (see more about the critical importance of Practice Turns and Feedback here). Once students had an opportunity to talk with a peer, she opened the discussion to the whole class and encouraged students to compare their ideas to others being presented in the room. Many students used silent hand signals to indicate that they had a similar idea to the one being shared. When needed, the teacher PUSHED students' responses with questions that challenged them to connect the mathematics and fully articulate their ideas. The conversations were meaningful, the questions promoted deeper thinking, and the students rose to each challenge given to them. It would have been easy to forget that this was a class of 7- and 8-year-olds in a 2nd grade classroom. But instead, I left wondering how I would be able to explain this beautiful balance of PUSH and PAUSE – I am still wondering how I can bottle it up and share the experience with others.