The 6 Purposes of Asking Questions

I recently worked on a PD session with a wonderful colleague from the Religion Department on Academic Conversations.  One of the main points I wanted to talk about when trying to improve the academic conversations in our classrooms is the reason behind the questions we ask.

I believe our questions should have a purpose - and not just for recalling facts!  
The six purposes for asking questions I will let you know about came from the book Essential Questions by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins.  I was given their book at the best professional development program I've been a part of ITP: Innovative Teacher Partnership offered by my school board.  You can find more info from the authors here. 

A wonderful book!  Get it for yourself or your student teachers!  No, I'm not getting paid to say that :P

Below you'll see some posters I made for my school to refer to.  They provide the 6 purposes for asking questions, some sample question starters and some key verbs for asking those types of questions.  

It was so nice working with this particular teacher because our purposes for asking questions are so different.  I'm all about explaining, interpreting and applying in Science and she is all about shifting perspective, empathizing and self-assessing in Religion.  We both know we need to include more of the other types of questions and these posters help us remember to do that.

Follow me on bloglovin' because there will be more about academic conversations soon!