Blog Post #4

                                                                         Questions!

Everyone has questions. The important part of this is what kind of question we are asking as teachers. What are we trying to accomplish through questions? There are many times where the questions we ask are trying to reinforce a previous idea. This is when multiple choice questions are okay. Yet, think of questions that there is no one answer, something that will push the students to dive further into the idea or subject to come up with a strong argument. With history, I had a professor simply put up a topographical map of the United States. There are no roads and no state divisions shown, he simply posed the thought how we became the United States we know today.

Simply stated, this question takes our knowledge of the history of the United States and making us think about how our geography shaped how we branched out. Even where humans were able to thrive and why it took so long to populate the western United States. This is the type of question we should be seeking as teachers. Not a question that can be answered by a simple yes or no, nor one that has just one answer. It should be one that is requiring students to voice their ideas and allow other students to use their peer's ideas to develop another possible solution. In this question about shaping our development, you must look at the mountain ranges, where the major rivers were, even which countries were in certain areas.

A question, in my opinion, should force students to think more deeply on the idea or subject. There does not necessarily have to be a right or wrong answer. Just simply that there is a deeper train of thought then that of yes or no.