Who? What? When? Where? How?

Questions in the classroom…. Something I am not use to. When I think back to my years of school, I do not remember many HOT questions. I think they are very important in the classroom. I like for students to figure things out for themselves. Questioning helps students to use their own knowledge of a subject rather than relying on the teacher to give tem the answer. The book mentions that the lowest level questioning make up 70% of all questioning in classrooms, and the HOT questions make up only 30%. This is not what should be going on. We as teachers need to be asking more higher order thinking question and make students think for themselves.

            Pathos, Logos, and Ethos, are things I never thought about until I read the chapter as far as questioning is concerned. After reading them and applying them to questioning in the classroom, it made sense. Using them help the students to question what is being said and analyze what the speaker is talking about.

            Several of the strategies mentioned in the book, were a little ridiculously named to me though, for example, the SQRQCQ. That is a little ridiculous in my opinion well at least the name. The SQRQCQ stands for survey, question, reread, question, compute, and question strategy. The strategy is a good one though, I must say. It will be good to use in the classroom. It will help the students in understanding and give them an opportunity to talk about what is being talked about.

Question: I know this is not a good thing but, I have the hardest time coming up with HOT questions to ask just like we do on this very blog. How do I come up with better questions?

Just-a-note-a-takin and a-note-a-makin

Thinking back on my years of school, I recall one way of note taking that was taught to me. I believe I was in fifth grade when I was taught the two column note taking technique. That technique however, does not work for me. I have no organization to my notes usually but I know what I am talking about. I do wish I could have been taught several ways to take notes though because sometimes I feel like I am not writing correct things down or I am trying to write so much that I get behind on what I am suppose to be writing and then my notes get all messed up. I was glad to learn more about note taking because I feel that note taking is very important for students to learn. I had no idea that there are so many different way to take notes. I have found that I sort of incorporate all sorts of note taking into my own. I find it very helpful to put big stars beside what I “think” is important. (I am sometimes wrong though about what “I” think is important though.) If students can be organized with their note taking, then it will help them to be better organized and maybe not have to worry about small things that have little relevance to the lesson. I want to know how, as a student, I am supposed to know what is important though. I think that teachers need to be clear on important facts and not add so much fluff to their lesson. If teachers are giving free information, they need to make that clear. It is important for all students know several different types of note taking so they can figure out which way are best for them. Matrix, concept maps, and charts are all good ways to show to students. The main focus is to get the students focused and organized.
SOOOOO.....
My questions are:
How do I know what is important when taking my own personal notes? Should I all ready know this? (Is this sad that I am asking?)
Also, This may be a dumb question but..... Some of the note taking concepts in the book were a little confusing to me... Am I suppose to teach those to my students?