Some notes about warm ups and questions...

This week I had my last meeting with a school -the poor things have had me for almost four years! We were chatting about a couple of topics and I thought that maybe other teachers might like to see what was written. Now these weren't written by me, I've just tweaked them a wee bit... thanks Robyn and Susan!

Warm Up Activities

Warm up activities could be either the context or the thinking that will be in the lesson, for example, if the lesson is about change, the warm up could reflect this. The warm up should only be 5 to 10 minutes or so. Warm ups should involve all the talking- don’t stop the chat! I like to start warm ups with a question for the children to hang their thinking on... I wonder if M&Ms' coatings have a flavour, I wonder why all the blossoms are coming out now?

Can be an object, pictures, a rock, a shell, lichen on a sign, or a branch You could read to the students a science-themed reading like a Stuff article, a letter to the editor or article from the local newspaper, a video (play at least twice, possibly without sound) eg peacock spider, purple orb video, etc. After watching the video ask the students about what questions they asked, what they noticed and inferred...

You could use Microsoft Word - paste an image, create a table over the top and fill in the cells. Students choose a cell to be 'unfilled' and we discuss what we notice, infer and possibly predict. When students choose a cell, ask them to justify why they want that cell revealed. I have seen teachers using a very busy image and zooming right in. As the children talk about the picture, it zooms out step by step.

I use Microsoft Word although Publisher is much easier -my laptop hates the program though!

Sometimes I might use one of my activities but as an 'up front' activity. All children are a part of the discussion, but only one or two actually do the activity. Remember to have lots of opportunities for children to talk to their partner, or record an idea online, etc.

Another idea is to introduce the learning intention and challenge the students to come up with the success criteria. Some of their ideas may be wrong but leave them! Let the children critique them at the end of the lesson! For example, "What are we doing when we are acting like scientists?"

Wrap up should take as long as the warm up -and this is the hardest part... time always escapes on me!

Prompt for information rather than an answer for example, lists of species etc. Can you ask a question that doesn’t have a yes or no answer?

If you are doing a science inquiry, teachers (or the students) could read an article, watch a video, give children the opportunity to find out information before they pose questions for inquiry. Make the “finding out” your reading/writing time. Note-taking constitutes ‘writing’. You could do an experiment on the Monday and then use Tuesday and Wednesday to write a procedure, or an explanation, or even a recount.

  

Effective Questioning

Questioning dice: 5 ‘w’ and ‘h’. Other dice has could, should, would, might on. Get kids critiquing questions: put up a few good ones and and a few not so good ones. What makes them good or not? Collect good examples (and poor ones!) from texts used in reading time. Analyse questions to see if they are good... What kind of answers are we wanting?

What student voice is there? Why do they want to know? What relevance does this inquiry question have for you? Model curiosity.

The purpose of questions is to get more questions, not to find an answer. Sometimes you might get an answer but that should lead to further questions.These are not specifically science questions -good questioning is needed in every area!

Try to encourage students to ask a question they don’t already know the answer to.

Well there we are... I'd be curious as to whether this is helpful to others... and my thanks to the school who hosted me for the meeting.