Questioning Resources

I've had a couple of requests for some resources and strategies to help develop the questioning skills of our students - a focus for some of our teacher inquiries. Here are a few links that will hopefully give you some things to try. Are there any links you know of that you can add? Post them in the comments below.

1. Question Skills Wikispaces

This is a great wikispace with resources and links to explore. It has information that defines what effective questions are with a framework to work in. The 'questioning links' page has some more sites to visit.

2. The questioning toolkit

This site encourages classrooms to create their own 'questioning toolkit' based around the different types of questions you can ask.

I've used an actual toolbox with resources in it to help us in class. A teacher could make some laminated cutout shapes of tools with the description of the types of questions to ask. The students could (after learning the different types) chose the questioning tool that could help them at any time.

3. Socratic Questioning

This is a 'disciplined' form of questioning that's really powerful for students to dig deep into an issue. This site has a good example of what Socratic questions are and some examples under each of the 6 types. Here is a link to a 'taxonomy' of socratic questioning, too.

4. Posters - thick or thin questions

Here are some resources you can download and print for classroom displays