Day 33, Tuesday, October 23, 2007

ONE YEAR WITH AN ENGLISH TEACHER

Day 33

In the 8th grade classes, we started working today on asking good questions of each other in discussions. I introduced them to two questions that we will be asking each other throughout the year: What do you mean? and How do you know? I found these questions in one of the books on teaching I read this summer, and they immediately seemed to be fundamental questions that should be woven through any intelligent conversation. They are questions that invite a classmate to continue talking because we are interested in what he or she is saying. When these questions (or paraphrases of them) are used regularly, a discussion has a chance to be more than just a podium for one student after another to voice a personal opinion. With questions like these, there's an opportunity for the students to build something together during a discussion. Instead of each going down his or her own private trail, the group, through intelligent listening and questioning, can move together up a single trail toward the truth.