WEBVTT 00:00:00.506 --> 00:00:11.926 [Music] 00:00:12.426 --> 00:00:15.536 Jill Levine, Principal: In order for teachers to be able to ask good questions 00:00:15.536 --> 00:00:20.766 in the classroom and ask in-depth questions, they need time to plan and time to think. 00:00:21.106 --> 00:00:25.916 So, as an administrator, I find that it's very important to program in that planning time. 00:00:25.916 --> 00:00:30.246 We have a full day before we do every new learning module for teachers to work 00:00:30.246 --> 00:00:34.976 as grade level teams and to really think about: What is the depth in this content 00:00:34.976 --> 00:00:37.176 and how do I gear students in that direction? 00:00:37.176 --> 00:00:38.846 What questions should I ask? 00:00:39.126 --> 00:00:43.256 Without that type of planning and that time for teachers to really think, 00:00:43.256 --> 00:00:45.236 it would be hard to make this happen. 00:00:45.236 --> 00:00:48.196 Joyce Tatum, Magnet Coordinator: We design student work very carefully. 00:00:49.106 --> 00:00:52.406 We design understandings and essential questions. 00:00:52.406 --> 00:00:59.076 Traditionally in schools, teachers plan activities-especially at the elementary grades. 00:00:59.556 --> 00:01:05.275 Later on, they make out a test and hope it matches what they are teaching. 00:01:05.596 --> 00:01:06.406 That's not a good way. 00:01:06.496 --> 00:01:10.806 It would be like driving to Chattanooga and not knowing how to get here. 00:01:11.436 --> 00:01:18.386 So what we do is decide where we are headed first, and that work was designed by Grant Wiggins 00:01:18.386 --> 00:01:21.556 and Jay McTighe in Understanding by Design. 00:01:21.906 --> 00:01:27.116 So, our first thing is to design where we are headed, then how we are going to assess, 00:01:27.686 --> 00:01:31.946 then what are we going to do to help our students get there. 00:01:32.436 --> 00:01:35.526 Levine: To get teachers to understand the value of higher-order questions, 00:01:35.526 --> 00:01:39.086 they need to immerse themselves in learning using that method. 00:01:39.356 --> 00:01:43.546 So from time to time we have faculty seminars where we all sit in a circle; 00:01:43.546 --> 00:01:48.946 we bring in a piece of literature or a piece of art, and we have a discussion. 00:01:48.946 --> 00:01:52.326 People agree with each other; people ask other questions, 00:01:52.326 --> 00:01:55.856 but the teachers are involved in that type of critical thinking. 00:01:56.146 --> 00:01:59.116 Tatum: One of the ways we get students to provide us 00:01:59.116 --> 00:02:02.756 with rich answers is through rich questions. 00:02:03.076 --> 00:02:08.746 A lot of people think that young children can't give information like that. 00:02:08.996 --> 00:02:13.676 For example in our kindergarten, they are studying animals in the next nine weeks. 00:02:14.306 --> 00:02:19.016 They will be able to compare different kinds of animals. 00:02:19.366 --> 00:02:23.906 That shows up because the teachers have taught the information, 00:02:24.346 --> 00:02:29.736 but then they have moved to the next level and asked them to apply or explain. 00:02:30.226 --> 00:02:35.766 In our fifth grade class, they have just finished a module on World War II. 00:02:36.196 --> 00:02:39.406 That requires a lot of empathy on the part of students. 00:02:39.406 --> 00:02:46.126 We want them to understand that nobody is all right or all wrong and that we cannot live 00:02:46.366 --> 00:02:51.056 through those years, but we can be empathetic to what they went through. 00:02:51.426 --> 00:02:56.166 So by aiming the questions at higher-level thinking skills, 00:02:56.496 --> 00:02:59.136 we can get a product that's justifiable. 00:02:59.536 --> 00:03:04.936 Levine: A big focus here is sort of fostering this idea in children that they need 00:03:04.936 --> 00:03:06.896 to be wide-awake to the world around them. 00:03:06.896 --> 00:03:11.036 So, they need to be constantly thinking and questioning what's happening 00:03:11.036 --> 00:03:13.796 and not just sort of soaking it in like a sponge. 00:03:14.056 --> 00:03:17.956 And I think it's important for a new teacher-or any teacher who is going to start 00:03:17.956 --> 00:03:21.916 to ask richer questions-to think in terms of asking one question 00:03:21.916 --> 00:03:24.756 and then asking another and another and another. 00:03:25.026 --> 00:03:30.656 So for example, where does a Tucan live when you are talking about the rain forest? 00:03:30.956 --> 00:03:33.386 The student may say which layer in the rain forest. 00:03:33.696 --> 00:03:34.666 How do you know? 00:03:34.986 --> 00:03:38.576 What's different about that layer than the forest floor? 00:03:38.986 --> 00:03:43.006 Why is that animal specially designed to live in that layer? 00:03:43.296 --> 00:03:47.296 So asking question upon question to get a deeper 00:03:47.516 --> 00:03:51.846 and more in-depth answer-when students are asked those type of questions, 00:03:51.846 --> 00:03:55.326 eventually they will start to give the answer on the front end so as 00:03:55.326 --> 00:03:57.876 to avoid all the follow up questions. 00:03:58.196 --> 00:04:03.506 But it's never enough to let just the first answer that comes out of a student's mouth sit. 00:04:03.756 --> 00:04:09.776 We should always be sort of probing and asking more to get more depth and more detail. 00:04:09.776 --> 00:04:12.136 Tatum: In the third grade study of Australia, 00:04:12.136 --> 00:04:17.745 I was walking down the hall on exhibit night and a young man went, "Psst. 00:04:18.255 --> 00:04:21.906 Do you want to know how the earth has changed over time?" 00:04:22.476 --> 00:04:24.776 I went, "Yes, I would like to know that." 00:04:25.416 --> 00:04:33.416 So he explained how volcanoes and wind and deserts and earthquakes changed. 00:04:33.696 --> 00:04:35.556 It was fabulous. 00:04:36.076 --> 00:04:41.216 And this little kid, if you knew him, you would go like, "Oh, he can never do that." 00:04:41.456 --> 00:04:46.516 He can. And another child in the third grade talked about the cloud; 00:04:46.516 --> 00:04:50.836 we have a cloud display upstairs that's become a permanent exhibit. 00:04:50.836 --> 00:04:53.766 And how long did it take him? 00:04:53.846 --> 00:04:58.796 Thirty minutes to explain to the governor's wife about all the clouds. 00:04:59.396 --> 00:05:02.046 So our kids have that depth of knowledge 00:05:02.556 --> 00:05:06.916 of them being able to-on the spot-to put their thoughts together 00:05:07.126 --> 00:05:10.956 and to give a very coherent, persuasive answer. 00:05:11.516 --> 00:05:17.560 [Music]