Wonder Wall!

    Students are asked questions in class everyday. These questions may range from “what is 2+2?” to “who is the main character in the story?”. Teachers ask these types of lower end questions as a method of assessment for learning (Drake et al., 2014). This is an easy technique for teachers to evaluate where the students are in their learning. While it is important for teachers to form these questions to make sure students are on track with the curriculum, I think it is also important to give students opportunity to ask their fellow classmates questions about different topics in order to create a student-directed learning environment.

Wonder Wall. Retrieved form http://mrsbrights
class.blogspot.ca/2014/01/the-beginning-genius
-hour.html?m=1

    Last year I volunteered in a grade 3 classroom where the teacher encouraged her students to ask all different types of questions. She had a “Wonder Wall” (see right) at the front of the classroom where students posted different questions at anytime throughout the day. Sometimes the questions were related to what they were learning in school and other times they were based on their personal interests. Every morning the teacher gave the students 20 minutes to ask and answer each other’s questions. The students took turns taking their questions off of the wall and reading it to the class. If any of the students had information on the topic they would have the opportunity to answer. However, if no one could answer the question there was a designated “researcher” who would type the question into Google (which was connected to the smart board) and the class would find the answer together.  Once the question was answered, it would come down off the “Wonder Wall” and the class would move on to the next question.
    I really enjoyed watching the students’ interactions during this time. Their was a wide range of questions like, “what is a baby dolphin called?”, “who invented Minecraft?” and “how old was Sydney Crosby when he started playing hockey?”. I was surprised to see how much the students knew about the different topics before goggling the question when I didn’t even know the answers to their questions. I was also surprised to see that the teacher was completely removed from the discussion and it was 100% lead by the students. This represents a very strong form of student-directed management, meaning that the students have are self-directed, take responsibility for their behaviour and know how to make appropriate choices (Levin et al., 2016). I expected for the children to begin to talk over each other as they became excited with the conversation but they were extremely mature and politely took turns speaking.

Filled Wonder Wall. Retrieved from http://mrsbrightsclass.blogs
pot.ca/2014/01/the-beginning-genius-hour.html?m=1

    I volunteered in this class a couple of months into the school year so I am sure that the teacher took a lot of time training the students on how to effectively have student guided discussions but from what I saw she was extremely successful. I think this is a effective teaching technique on the teachers part. First of all, the students learn how to work collaboratively with each other which is an important skill they will use throughout their whole life. It also gives the students agency in their education. They get to choose topics they are interested in to learn about and help direct the conversation. By looking at the overflowing “Wonder Wall” (see above) it is clear that this is an effective way to increase intrinsic motivation. Lastly, it is an easy way for the teacher to learn about the students’ interests which she can incorporate into other lessons.

    This is definitely a technique I would like to use in my future classroom. However, I would like to guide my students to ask higher-level questions that will create more critical discussions. Drake et al. (2014), advises that teachers post some question stems in the classroom that will encourage higher-level thinking. These could include, “why is … important?” or “Do you agree with… and why?” (Drake et al., 2014). In the video below, a teacher explains how she uses this technique to guide her students to ask higher-level thinking questions.

    Although I think it is important to start with lower end questions to help students build on important collaborative discussion skills, over time I think it would be great to use question stems to help stimulate collaborative critical thinking in the classroom.

References 

Abdullah, M. H. (2007). Self-directed learning. Educational Resource Centre. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Self_Directed/.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21^st-ceturey learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

Levin, J., et al. (2016). Principles of classroom management (4^th ed.). Don Mills, ON: Pearson Canada Inc..