Just ask the Essentials...

As a future teacher, one of my main concerns is being able to connect with my students, and ask the right questions to not only connect with them but to help them understand what I'm teaching.

I believe that two of the best parts of our reading were from "Effective Questioning Techniques" by James E. Dyer. that dealt with Maximizing Student Participation and with Responses to Student Questions.

Maximizing Student Participation

I really liked this section because it got to the meat of the article "How do I use questions to increase student participation. I thought one good point it made was too include the tip of not reciting student answers. I know I've been in classes where I would specifically wait for the teacher to repeat the answer instead of listen to my fellow classmate, so it made perfect sense to me.

Another interesting tip that the article demonstrated was to not always ask for questions, but to let students ask for themselves. I think recently education majors have been taught to always check for student understanding, and a really common, easy way to do that is to ask if there are any questions. So for Dyer to make the point that this is not the only way to check for student understanding, kind of turns things on it's head. I found this blog on edutopia that gives some examples for how to check for understanding. I think my personal favorite is think-pair-share. I've heard (and even used) this tactic many times before, but, it's still one of those classroom tools that can make the difference in a lesson.
Now that we posed the questions though, it's time for the response.

Responses to Student Questions

Ill be completely honest, one of the hardest things I find for myself is answering student's questions I don't know. As a teacher, I always feel guilty not being able to answer a student's question. But I need to remember that as a person, I don't know all the answers and their are other ways I can handle the question when I'm not sure of the answer.

Honestly these readings have been a huge help, and I have enjoyed the topics so far, and can't wait to read the rest.