a. reply (answer, counter-question, re-direct the question, re-forumlate the question);
b. non-reply

I think Dillon is saying that it is difficult for students to ask questions and that we must create the conditions that provide for student questions in our classroom. Crucial to this is the establishment of a cooperative classroom culture. Not easy to attain.

ANDREW CONNOLLY

PETA has published a PEN by Dr Christine Groves called "Explicit Teaching: Focusing Teacher Talk on Literacy". This work provides some structure for shifting the over-reliance on "question-answer-response" scaffolds.

Talking to Learn, edited by Pauline Jones (published by PETA), is a great resource for teachers in the area of oral language in the primary classroom. It provides a great framework for organising and understanding the kinds of talk that take place in the classroom from formal through to informal talk. It also provides a resource for analysing and understanding the grammatical structures of spoken language to help support student learning.

In relation to questioning around literature, Aiden Chambers has written a wonderfully practical book called Tell Me which is all about providing support for children to respond to reading through talk. To do so he provides some great basic questioning techniques and some specialised questioning frameworks. Another great book available from PETA!

JANE EVANS

The postings so far on questioning have been fantastic reminders to me, as someone not currently in the classroom, what a carefully constructed process teaching is. It has made me think of the questions used in critical literacy which can become a familiar framework to students to ask their own questions of texts. I appreciate the risks that reading against the grain can become formulaic; however, a student taught to ask critical questions has a powerful tool to engage with texts and to generate other questions.

NORAH

Jane you have hit the nail on the head! It is not easy to get students to ask productive questions. I like DILLON'S quote:

"TO CONCEIVE AN EDUCATIVE QUESTION REQUIRES THOUGHT,
To formulate it requires labour,
To pose it, tact.
None of this is mysterious
And all of it is within our reach."

Perhaps our students need training as questioners. I observed a teacher of Grade 4 students who uses the ReQuest procedure. After a story the students have to ask questions stating whether the question is:

I tried it with the students composing exam questions (3 questions "on, between and beyond the lines" - in a group of 4), then sharing them with the class who evaluated the questions. We hardly needed the test!!

Andrew, have you ever tried QUESCUSSION ? It works in class and at the dinner table cutting down on the monopoliser but allowing him/her to be part of the discussion.

MARION MEIERS

The DETYA Children's Literacy National Research project, "CLassroom Discourse" project (DETYA, 1998) includes transcripts of classroom talk which illustrate many aspects of questioning - very pertinent to this discussion. The Report can be accessed through Stephanie Gunn, National Coordinator for these projects at Griffith University. (S.Gunn@edn.gu.edu.au)

NORAH

Thanks, Marion, for information on this project. It sounds really interesting.

I would like to refer to my successful implementation of Steven Figg’s idea about students turning their comments into questions. I was able to use this strategy when I was sitting with some adults who were discussing poetry. One asked, "Why do I find poetry boring?" and someone replied (not me) that perhaps he was boring! A lively discussion followed and after I put my ideas as questions, they followed (mostly)!

Has anyone any ideas to help teachers who worry about letting students ask questions as they might not know the answer? Experience helps but that does not help the new teacher! One can occasionally compliment the student and admit that you do not know the answer but are willing to find out.

"Working Scientifically" is an excellent strategy to draw questions from students and safe for the teacher:

Conducting an inquiry-Working Scientifically
(from Asking Better Questions by Morgan and Saxton)

Procedure:
1. Choose a topic.
2. Make board lists under the headings:

3. Students conduct research to answer questions in response to "What do we need to know?" as individual, pairs and small groups.
4. Students share their knowledge as the teacher writes the answers on the board a new version of "What do we know about the topic?".
5. The teacher asks, "What new questions do we have?" (a new version of "What do we need to know?")
And so the process goes on.

I worked with a groups discussing the Kosova War as topic, the character of Prospero in The Tempest and my students have used letters, speeches, news articles, diary entries, pictures, photographs, Maths and Science problems and so on as sources for learning through questions. ALL DECLARE IT IS A WINNER!

The students do much of the work, although the teacher also researches the topic, but holds the information until an appropriate time. I rarely offer my findings unless it is vital for the students to have them.

JENNY MORGAN

I would like to share a strategy used by teachers of Philosophy for Children. I use this strategy when working with students on narrative texts. Before reading the text, I explain that I will be looking beyond the text for big ideas or unanswerable questions. As I read the text to students, I suggest that they jot down any questions that come to their minds for sharing with others at the end.

After reading, I ask for questions and write them on the board. I always write the name of the questioner beside the question - this gives ownership and provides self esteem. Kids love this. I include all questions - it is sometimes surprising to see how some of the most basic questions can be quite meaningful. I find questions that may have a common thread and link them on the board. I begin discussion on the most popular question first. Not all questions will be answered, though most are often addressed incidentally. Where possible, I address unanswered questions. I invite the contributor of each question to discuss if they are happy about dropping the question or whether they think it needs further discussion. Questions can also be addressed during the next session, but sometimes this can be a bit of a drag. It is often better to explore another text on a similar theme. (For an example of using philosophical questions with texts, have a look at the beaut ideas prepared by Jenny.

NORAH

Jenny, you certainly answered the question I asked. If the question is on the board, the student is still owning the question. Of course you are asking questions where there is no one right answer.

MIKE McCAUSLAND

Hello from Mike in Launceston. I teach in the Faculty of Education at the University here. There's been a lot to react to, so I'll choose just one at the moment - prompted by you, Norah and your comments on 'working scientifically'.

It places English within the context of important learning generally. We want kids to be inquiring, not merely recipients of information, don't we.

In Science it's "Why is it so?" (to quote Sumner Miller of a-glass-and-a-half-of-milk Cadbury Milk Chocolate fame); in English it's more like "How do I see it?" and "Why do I feel it so?" etc. I suppose. The four questions you suggest, Norah, start out like the key questions I'd been thinking of when I read the earlier contributions about encouraging students to ask questions. They are the four kinds of questions Jon Cook saw as central to classroom negotiation (in Negotiating the Curriculum: educating for the Twenty-First Century 1992, p.21):

These are framing a vital shift in who asks the questions - although I'm sure they're worded in ways that Jon would acknowledge are teachers' terms to explain classroom interaction. (I haven't come across a lot of 'whoms' of the 'whom will we show?' variety in students' mouths!) So it's not teachers, and it's not learners either, exactly, who ask the questions.

It's the classroom context of inquiry that takes more of the burden — and nobody has to feel particularly vulnerable about not knowing. It's a co-operative enterprise for a start. It's not a test. It strives for relevance, and it's about taking a long-term, self-directed view of learning, not just bits of information others think are important. If the curriculum is constructed around kids (and teachers) being clearer about what they think they know and don't know, and together working out what to do as a result, it opens up the classroom to genuine questions (which is much more like everyday use of questions, where to ask something when you know the answer is just a trick to catch someone out, or being polite and bland for the sake of chat).

Ooops. Got carried away. So - a plug for negotiated learning, and putting questions into a different frame. Anyone agree?

NORAH

Thank you Mike: you have taken what I had written and have flown with it showing the value of English within the context of all learning. I stress the importance of allowing the students to share what they have discovered but without pressure, just encouragement and acceptance.

Once again, I have new material to add to my collection for my next lecture, thanks to "English Classroom forum"!

MIKE McCAUSLAND

A discovery I made about classroom questioning came from sitting in on a (younger) colleague's class. She handled questioning superbly, I thought. She did all the right things in terms of the basics of teaching technique: well phrased question, pause, acknowledgment, response, sequencing of questions, distributing them around the class etc. But there was something which lifted the interaction out of the effective, capably-handled into something quite exciting - felt by the whole group. And one of the key elements, I decided, was the pause AFTER the answer given by the student. It was a period when everybody, but she and the student answering especially, savoured and thought about the implications of the answer. The significant message was one of respecting the student's answer, and really LISTENING to what was said as the student intended it. The difference between questioning to find out what someone thought and felt, compared with asking a question as a matter of form or as a way of advancing the lesson content, was brought home to me.

It reminded me of an earlier experience when a local youth worker called Fuzz Kitto (and the name was well earned; his face was surrounded by a wiry mass of hair and beard that stuck out about five centimetres all round). He came in to do a guest session about troubled kids in schools. He began by 'telling his story'- an account of what he'd done in his life, a few of the things that really mattered to him and why he held the beliefs he acted on in his life. The atmosphere was transformed. When he invited people to talk of their experiences - his goal was to explain that in order to work with kids with problems you had to be honest and open, and to build a relationship of trust - everybody in the class wanted to share something of themselves. Although they'd been in the same class for over three years, they volunteered things that even their friends had been unaware of. I learned a lot about the group too, things that really mattered and changed the way I saw them and worked with them afterwards. Again it was a matter of honesty, and of wanting to listen to what people said, that made the critical difference. (Fuzz was of course non-judgmental about the replies he received, and that was part of his professional expertise in questioning in social work.)

The inference I made from the two sessions was that in asking a question it was what you learned from it that was important. And that made 'classroom' questions more like 'ordinary' questions in everyday life - not such a bad thing if the other principles of good classroom questioning are acknowledged.

NORAH

Mike, it is so true that we often do not give enough time for students not only to answer our productive questions but also not time to absorb the answers of their peers and we rush in with another question. Is it because we are afraid of silence? I said earlier that it takes time to accustom the students to know that you are giving them time to think. Fuzz is a true educator in that he shared his experiences with the students who then contributed their experiences as he drew them out with questions and comments. In a recent television interview Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) told the interviewer that he encouraged his students to "force" memory. They in turn forced him-hence the best seller!! Thanks Mike-another piece to add to my collection.

RICKI BLACKHALL

Questions! Aren't they the best? It's really what education is all about isn't it?

I believe one of our main purposes as educators is to stimulate the desire to learn and one of the fundamental ways I have found for this to work with primary school students is to value the contributions they make. It's about SELF-ESTEEM. The self-esteem of students is noticeably raised when they are (apparently) the ones in control. I believe there is a place for both teacher and student generated questions, for example....

LEADING QUESTIONS such as 'What is English?' A great starting point (in any subject area). The responses can be both written and oral. This can lead to great discussion which naturally includes more questions from the students themselves. Other students seek to clarify the topics until we're left with deeper understanding and/or further questions to explore...possibly by consulting with an 'expert' from another class, another adult, parent, teacher, expert in the field, ....and possibly what technology has to offer us through the computer. A lot of time is spent in my classroom with 'talk'. If further exciting questions are raised these are noted on the whiteboard for follow-up at some other time.

Another exciting way I use questions from the students is in the PROCESS of the exploration of a NEGOTIATED TOPIC for individual, group or class work. I encourage them to begin with several questions (the number of questions is directly related to the age of the students) specifically related to the topic. An essential part of this process is negotiating the ASSESSMENT process:

What criteria are we looking for? Who is going to mark the work? Self? A peer? The teacher? My parents? Against which criteria? What sort of rating? SO WHAT?... The so what is an internal question to myself...

After so much hard work from the students where a such a huge learning process has taken place I believe celebration of some form is essential, whether it be the students becoming experts on their work and acting as consultants to another group or having a public expo or sharing in assembly...

I think the WHAT IF? question has been discussed already. It's a beauty and again best followed up when actually generated by the students... which could be after a viewing session. The list is endless... Hmmm a bit like this contribution...

HOMEWORK, too, has been mentioned as a place for generating questions. This has actually led to some of my absolute best teaching, more often than not stimulated from the class novel.

CLASS MEETINGS are a brilliant place for the generation of questions and the associated philosophical discussions, listening skills, questioning skills are honed.

I could go on... however, coping with my son's black keyboard, fending off my Burmese cats, the fact I have a year three/four class of 30 eager kidlets awaiting me and out of consideration for the reader, I'll stop.

NORAH

Ricki — some interesting suggestions here promoting questions from students. Do you keep your own questions in reserve at Class Meetings to guide them into relevant discussion?

MARTINA CRERAR

Hello from the University of Tasmania. I'm a final year Education student in Launceston, specialising in secondary English and Drama. With Mike's reassurance I am taking the plunge and offering up my experiences of attempting to ask better questions.

On my last two practical programs, as a student teacher, I have tried and tested many different strategies for working with individuals, small groups and whole classes, including how to ask better questions. I have often found it difficult, after posing a question, to leave enough time for the students to respond - the thinking time. Silence can be very confronting. I remember finding it very uncomfortable, and often would try to rephrase the question, thinking I had not put it the right way for the students to have a go at it. As a pre-service teacher, giving students enough time to respond, making myself hold back, is a skill I need to work on.

However, as a Drama teacher, I have found a wonderful strategy, in terms of asking questions. When using the strategy "teacher-in-role", whether in Drama or English, it is often easier to tackle such moments as a 'thinking pause' after a question has been asked. In terms of confidence, playing a character, such as a grumpy old mayor, helps to remove my lack of confidence in asking the right question. It's not you asking the closed, narrow question, or harping for people to pipe up when they don't reply - it's the grumpy old mayor. I found on my internship this year that using this strategy encourages students to respond quickly, spontaneously with little inhibition. I was not 'the teacher' as such, and they were not trying hard to think of 'the right answer'. The secure and removed world we had created within the drama offered the students and the teacher the space in which to explore questions and the issues they raise without the constraints or formalities that 'testing knowledge' type questions can have.

Hope this helps.

NORAH

Martina you have brought up an interesting problem regarding "thinking time". Students and teachers have to be comfortable with silence! Until they are I often preface my question with, "This question is a thinking one so we must all have time to think before we answer" or words to that effect!

As a drama specialist I agree that teacher and students in role is a wonderful way to teach. The role the teacher takes is important and I tend to be second in command, eg the grumpy mayor's assistant needing their ideas as to how to tackle authority. I can go on for hours if anyone needs ideas but you have all no doubt have had drama training at your Faculties of Education.

We seem to have exhausted the problem of drawing questions out of our students and perhaps should be looking at our own questions and how we deal with the answers.

Why do we ask questions? (Apart from the fact that we need to know what the students already know, understand, need to know and understand and to find out how to lead them into new understanding).

What questions shall I ask which will:

Sounds complicated but it is worth thinking about, otherwise we are just providers of information and not true educators.

MANDY PASKE

I feel I've been surrounded by questions lately. I have been administering the Year 3 and Year 5 Literacy Monitoring Program, the National English and Maths Competitions and this week is our first week implementing the structures and strategies of the PASS program. Surrounded by questions and not always answers. I suppose it's like listening and speaking though. They're not always a couple; just because we speak doesn't mean someone is listening. Anyone out there? And just because we question doesn't mean we expect, or are going to receive, AN answer. I know we're all aware that students and teachers need sufficient TIME to talk and question their ways into understanding. It's this time element I need to keep reminding myself of. When thinking of balance, I still find the English Profile organisers a valuable way of planning for and looking at student's performance as a listener, speaker, questioner!. That is - what the student is doing with what kinds of questions, the understanding about socio-cultural and stituational contexts that the student brings to bear when composing and comprehending questions, the structures and features of questions and how students go about composing and comprehending questions. There are a couple of resources I don't think have been mentioned in the forum yet that people might find valuable. The First Steps Oral Language material is great! Talking with Confidence by Molly Travers (Cambridge, 1995) contains classroom activities in speaking and listening in pair, small and larger groups. A publication from The English Club titled Speaking and Listening; A Guide to Teaching and Assessing for the English Classroom by Robert McGregor and Marion Meiers also offers valuable material for teachers.

JANE EVANS

Norah's redirection urging us to perhaps consider our own questions, and why we ask questions has coalesced nicely with a lecture I have just attended by Simon Longstaff for the St James Ethics Centre, entitled "Ethical frameworks for the 21st century". It has got me thinking about the kind of questions we ask to encourage students to be reflective people capable of asking the big questions:" What ought one to do?" and, "What is a good society?"

It would seem that we do a great deal of moral and normative literacy work in the personal growth models of reading. This happens in the choices we make regarding texts and the questions we ask to produce particular responses, frequently associated with specific social norms or expectations. I guess where my interest in critical literacy and supporting students to read against the grain (prompted by our class questioning) and ethics connect, is that it is a way for students to really question the received view of the world. They can engage for themselves, in this post-modern world with ethical questions at a time when our institutions are grappling to remember their ethical beginnings. I guess this is a plug for democratic classrooms, along the lines Mike was talking of, but with ethical or moral purpose. In Eva Cox's terms through asking reflective questions we can build social capital in the community of the classroom.

Cripes, this is what happens when you write fresh from an ethics lecture. Some might say it would read differently fresh from a classroom.

MANDY PASKE

Jane, I thought it might be worth mentioning a critical questioning framework developed by Deirdre Travers and other South Australian educators and used quite extensively in our English work. The framework addresses the question, WHAT IS THIS TEXT ABOUT?

ANNETTE MOULT

For the last few weeks I've been reading with interest the wide variety of contributions to your discussion starters. It certainly has been a stimulating time as in our busy routines we don't often have the opportunity to rise above the mundane.

At the recent TATE Conference in Ulverstone, Peter Freebody conducted a workshop about classroom practice and here he raised some very relevant points about pedagogy- I think that this is the essence of the whole issue of questioning in the classroom. Peter said that our current literacy practices may be adding to the disadvantage of students from a disadvantaged background. He asked us to consider our questions and whether we relied heavily on "traditional questioning"- teacher question- student response- teacher feedback - both as a means of extracting responses from our students and sometimes, as a method of classroom management. Peter suggested that we tape the talk in one of our lessons and use this to review our classroom talk. This process can be a rather painful one but does reveal both our strengths and weaknesses in regard to questioning. It also allows us to move away from relying on traditional questioning to including varied opportunities for informal talk in a supportive environment. One of my favourite books which presents a wide range of talking activities is Working Together: The Cooperative English Classroom by Robert McGregor.

NORAH

Annette, I agree that taping yourself can be really useful, if a bit frightening.

There are many classifications of questions which have served us all well. Most identify categories by type. ( knowledge, comprehension and so on) I prefer to ask myself "What do I want this question to do. I thought you might find it interesting to look at a classification of questions by function. This classification is elaborated in Asking Better Questions.

Questions by Function (What do I want this question to do?)

CATEGORY A: Eliciting information — questions that draw out what is already known of both information and experience and those which establish the appropriate procedures for the conduct of the work (ON THE LINE QUESTIONS)

CATEGORY B: Shaping understanding — questions that fill in what lies between the facts and sorting out and expressing what is thought and felt (BETWEEN THE LINES QUESTIONS)

CATEGORY C: Reflecting — questions that challenge the student to think creatively and critically (BEYOND THE LINES QUESTIONS)

BRIDGET PARKER

Thanks, Norah, for outlining this classification. I will use it in my future planning. I am a student from Launceston, completing my final year in Education, specialising in secondary English and Drama. I would like to share a particular strategy to do with asking better questions. I have discovered while on practical placements, as a student teacher, that when it comes to questions there are two distinct groups of students - those who love to answer questions and those who loathe it. While the students who love to offer ideas and answers in class are not a problem, they can stop other students from actively participating. I believe that the students who often answer questions should be recognised for their willingness to engage in the discussion, but not at the expense of other students.

A useful strategy that I have used with success to encourage all students to participate is "think-pair-share". This strategy gives the students a chance to:

This works well as it gives students the opportunity to discuss their answers with another before they are asked to share them with a large group, which can be very intimidating for some. It also lets the students with plenty to say voice their opinions to another, giving them the chance to be heard.

I have found that you can complement this strategy by giving the students a chance to write their ideas on the board. This not only leads to a large collection of thoughts and ideas but it gives the students a sense of ownership and control. I hope that this can help in the development of better questions!!

NORAH

Thanks, Bridget, for your strategy about respecting those who want to be involved and at the same time encouraging slower or non responders. Sharing with a partner after working alone is one of the best ways of getting responses from the reluctants. To add to your list their responses must be put in the form of a question. It stops the "one who has all the answers" from dominating the discussion. A simple example:

Teacher: I wonder why Jack and Jill went up the hill to get the water? Isn't water usually in valleys?

Student A gives a scientific answer--end of discussion. Had he/she put it in the form of a question, the topic is open to all and students have to think of how to express their contributions in the form of a question. e.g. Student B: Is it not possible that the well lower down might be polluted? And so on. That is "QUESCUSSION".

DAVID HOLT

I teacher at a district high school. I have a very bright group of Grade 8 boys and have managed to stimulate and motivate them for the past 4-5 months but am now running dry! Any ideas/suggestions to keep me going for the remainder of the year? I am particularly keen to develop approaches in poetry, small drama projects and other cooperative/ group activities.

NORAH

I find that low-key drama works well with middle school students where they do not have to move from their seats until they are comfortable with what they are doing.

I take a small fragment of prose or a poem with lots of unanswered questions. For example, "In the year AD2020 Mary Ellery, daughter of William and Elizabeth Ellery, left her home in Townsville to travel to the planet Osiris. She was a member of the group 'Venture' led by Doctor James Harvey. Mary never returned though she had left earth with the group. The team does not speak of her. There is no mention of her in the records and her name does not appear in the medal citation which honours the work of Dr. Harvey and his group."

There is a detailed account of this strategy, which is based on the work of Jonothan Neelands, in Asking Better Questions .

IRINI MCMASTER

David, as a teacher of Grade 8 boys at New Town High I feel that I have a number of suggestions up my sleeve. I am taking a group of Grade 7 and 8 boys to the Salamanca Readers' & Writers' Festival as part of Book Week and our Gifted program. I run a camp for talented writers every year and invite local authors to speak. We have had great success with poetry workshops run by Smokey Robinson and Peter Jerrim.

One method I have used for all students with wonderful success ;
1. Select a topic, theme, object
2. Brainstorm all of the words and phrases which come to mind
3. Link the words in some way.
Remember Show, don't tell!

I also think that we underestimate the ability of some of our brighter students. What about a formal appreciation of a poem? I recently did "Stopping by Snowy Woods" by Robert Frost with grade 7 and 8 classes with interesting success. Have you seen English Elements (7-10) by Jacaranda? They have some excellent units of work full of good questions which we have found to be very successful with boys. I'm pretty sure that there is a drama unit in one of them, there is one on public speaking. You should also have a look at some wonderful teaching materials from South Australia in a resource entitled Texts: The heart of the English Curriculum. The resource is for students from Junior Primary to Grade 10 and is available from Curriculum Resources Australia. Excellent value!

NORAH

Irini, Your suggestions for David were helpful, exciting and of great interest to Grade 8 students as they will feel that they 'own' their work. It might help if you gave examples of " Link the words" in some way. I trust that I am on the right track when a group of teachers at a workshop (in the middle of their summer holiday) were exposed to your idea for which I gave you and the forum credit. Our topic was WATER and the results were poems, articles, stories, dance, and in the case of a science teacher an experiment. We used only the words from brainstorming apart from definite and indefinite articles, prepositions and conjunctives for coherency. The dance used only movement suggested by the original words. Grade 8 would not have used the word dance but movement. They and I had a great time!

IRINI

Norah, thanks for your feedback. I have kept my English staff up to date with hard copies of many of the suggestions and comments. I felt it was another way to get people talking and thinking even though they are not members of the forum as yet.

The poetry method I mentioned has enabled every student toexperience success. This is no mean feat in a class where four of the students are operating at a very low level. I have used it to inspire a poetic response to a novel or a character. Often students come up with a list of adjectives which fit well. I used this method to get students towrite poetry for the Dorothea MacKellar poetry competition. The theme was Heroes and Heroines - I found that to my surprise and excitement that the students whom I had not considered to be able to write brilliant poetry did so and I had a great deal of trouble only selecting 20 from the school to send.

Thanks for your response.

NORAH

Irini, you have made my day!

Just a word about Role Playing as it relates to questioning in the English classroom as it can offer an infinite number of opportunities to deepen, enrich and extend language experience by inviting students to explore situations as if they were someone else. The way in which senior students interpret a report and question a standing committee on the environment will be quite different if they are in role as environmentalists, as opposed to being in role as industrialists or as the unemployed workers. Junior students, given the opportunity to work in role as parents called into the school to discuss bullying, will ask different kinds of questions from those they would ask as if they were school officials called into investigate student absenteeism. The work here is about a task-oriented situation. All that is required is that the task be done seriously and responsibly as any professional would do it. It is this attention to the task that protects the students from worrying about what they sound or look like.

Grouping for Role-Playing:
In role play students can work one-on-one, one on a small group, a small group on one, one on the whole group, the whole group on one, and so on.

For example, the class is studying the Opening of the Australian Outback. The whole group as potential immigrants question the government land agent (teacher). A reporter (student) can question the group about why they want to go to the Outback and what they hope to find when they get there. In pairs, the one who has decided to go can be questioned by one who is still undecided. In small groups a grandchild can question the elders of the family about the journey they took so many years ago.

Some roles that promote questioning:
The Learner: questioner wants to know
The Absentee: questioner is filling in gaps
The Researcher: questioner wants to find out something specific
The Interviewer: questioner is building a picture of the one being interviewed
The Policeman: questioner is looking for facts; questions are direct
The Detective: questioner is looking for clues; questions are indirect and divergent as incongruencies are sought out.
The Devil's Advocate: questioner is challenging the argument, statements or the story by taking the opposite point of view.

Hope this helps a bit for those who have not been involved in Drama.

IAN JOHNSTON

Sort of an extension of the role playing idea -

Set up an interview/conversation situation between two people (characters from book, parent/teacher, real life situations, whataver) and behind each of the characters have a second person who acts as their "thought bubble". As the interview proceeds these 'thoughts' are aired - often highlighting the differences between what people say and what they think. Can be great fun where there is tension between the characters but social graces prevent them from saying what they really think. Imagine the "thoughts" an industrialist might have as she/he interviews a conservationist! A great way of exploring issues beyond the superficial and still have fun!

NORAH

Ian, what a splendid idea. It certainly goes beyond the superficial and might make students think how to ask the questions to avoid banality. I shall certainly try this out.

As the Questioning Forum is about to end, Charles has suggested that I sum up the experience. I can only do it for myself so:

It has been a most informative experience where I have learned a lot from contributers and enjoyed sharing my own experiences with others. We 'talked' about :Teacher Questions and the need to model productive ones; giving students time to think about the question time to formulate an answer and to speak the answer. It was also revealed how we often forget to give students time to think about the answers of their peers. Emphasis has also been placed on the importance of listening by both teachers and students. We exchanged ideas about promoting student questions and many different strategies were shared to promote discourse in the classroom by both experienced teachers and teachers-in-training. There are still lots of ideas out there and I trust that we can still keep in touch if we have something vital to share. I would truly like to hear from anyone of you who has something to share at: nmorgan@dewey.ed.brocku.ca

I assure you that I learned as much from this experience as I shared, if not more!

I have some questions we should from time to time ask ourselves:

(Taken from Convocation address, 'Taking Risks' June 7, 1999 by Norah Morgan)

Thank you all!!

CHARLES MORGAN

Norah has just sent her final message to the forum. She finishes by posing a number of questions that we, as teachers, should ask ourselves from time to time. I think these questions are fundamental to our work as teachers and well worth exploring at an English staff meeting.

I would like to thank Norah for leading such a dynamic discussion and thank forum members for their wonderful contributions. I am more enthusiastic than ever about the potential of the internet as a vehicle to support professional discourse and professional learning. I have asked Norah to stay enrolled as a member of the forum and to respond to discussion about questioning as it arises. Therefore, please feel free to share experiences, ask questions and discuss concerns. I have plans in mind to involve Norah formally again in the future!

May I finish by saying how privileged I feel to be a member of such a committed, professional community of learners.