The Importance of Questioning

As a college student I think that it is important for a teachers at all grade levels  to engage his/her students in a question and answer session. Because, in teaching lessons or lecturing, many students may not gain the full understanding of what is being taught. As I think back to many of my college courses, that were mainly taught through lecturing, I can only remember writing notes and never asking questions, unless they were asked after class . I believe that not only my grades would've been better but also other students in the class grades would have improved if the teacher engaged us in questioning sessions to determine if their teaching was detailed enough or if it was anything that needed to be retaught. Also, I think that questioning during class would've not only help me but any others who may have had the same question but didn't want to ask it.

The chapter informed me that some questions are better than others. This doesn't mean that they are "dumb" or  "unimportant" question as the statement goes, but they really challenge you to think about what you've learned. Some examples given by the chapter are the "HOT" questions. Before this reading I learned last year that HOT question require students to think more deeply about what is being asked. I think HOT questions should be used most often because, they really challenge a learner to think about what they don't understand and about areas that they need to improve. It can also help a teacher to know what they need to change about the information or to find a alternate way to teaching the subject, that will help students to understand.

In all I learned that questions help students to assess what they've learned, to know what they need to improve. Engaging students in questioning sessions requires them to think about what they've learned  in a more critical way to determine if their knowledge is correct or needs improvement. Questions help students to think beyond what they've learned and this help them to retain the information better.  Questioning helps to make students better equipped and can help them improve in there future learning.

Quote "Traditionally, teachers use questioning more than ay other method for developing comprehension".

Question: When engaging students in question session , Is is important to allow students to discuss amongst themselves or should the teacher answer the question immediately to avoid confusion?

chapter 7

Before reading chapter 7, I had no clue that there was a difference between note taking and note making. Furthermore, I had no idea that note making even existed. The chapter gave me great insight on determine the difference between the two, both of which I often use to learn things that I need to know.  What I found most insightful about the chapter was the section titled, “Why Teach Students How to Take Notes”.  This information stuck out to me, “Taking GOOD notes trains students not only to pay attention but what to pay attention to. It teaches them to evaluate the importance of information and the relationship between pieces of information as they read textbooks and articles. It also teaches them to organize that information into some format that serves their purpose.” Being a student, I never thought of note taking in that way. In my years of high school and my early years of college, I thought of being required to take notes by our teacher, as a form of busy work, so the teacher could ensure that we remained attentive in class. Also, many of my teachers and some professors would give grades for note taking. I believe this should never happen. The chapter teaches us that note taking is something that a GOOD teacher teaches their students how to do and show them the importance of having notes to use to guide their learning. The chapter also stresses the importance of providing students with signal words. This helps students to know that the information is important and they should spend more time cover that information. Many of my old professors would not use any signal words, they expected you to know every detail about every topic covered in class. I know that it is important to know everything however, I think it is important to stress to students when some things are more important than other. This will ultimately set students up for success not Failure. Lastly, and maybe the most important point that I learned is that there is a difference between note taking and note making. The difference comes in when in one you create notes that are placed in your own words. The other is when you copy notes from a book or PowerPoint or some other source. It is my opinion that a teacher should encourage students to use both note taking and note making to create the best types of learners. Using both makes students more rounded and better able to learn and retain information.

Question

Why is note taking not taught in younger grades such as elementary?

Should note taking and note making be taught interchangeably?