QUESTION:

I love the question suggestions in the DWS book, but like the author said, it’s a skill that takes practice. I usually need a lot of practice and that means I’ll need the questions nearby to refer to often. I just don’t understand how teachers remember everything!

RESPONSE:

The questions in Dr. Marshall’s book are meant to be examples only––they’re not meant to be memorized––so you don’t have to worry about that. However, I can understand what you mean about having a lot to remember!

At first, it does seem as if you have to remember everything, but as you practice, it gradually becomes second nature to follow the Teaching Model. That’s why I encourage people to think of learning to implement the DWS approach as a journey.

Each part of the Teaching Model requires first, understanding, and then practice on the part of the teacher.  Remember, since it’s impossible to control other people, you’re changing yourself––in order to better influence students in a positive direction.  Changing oneself can often be challenging!

Asking reflective questions is now easy for me but in the beginning it wasn’t. My teaching partner actually wrote two large charts displaying the questions in Dr. Marshall book (from pp. 19-21,) and put them up on the wall for us to refer to when we needed them. Of course, we teach grade one; the kids couldn’t read the questions in the beginning of the year so it worked well for us to have these prompts right up on the wall!  I do know of other teachers on the DWS mailring who simply xeroxed off the list of questions from the book and carried them with them as they were teaching.

It doesn’t hurt for there to be a pause (as you think of what to ask,) when you’re dealing with a child in a discipline situation. During that pause (while you are thinking,) the child is naturally already thinking about their behavior too!

Another thing my partner did was to challenge herself  to spend one entire day responding to almost anything a child said, with a question.  She found that this successfully helped her to develop the habit of asking instead of telling.  Whenever a child said anything, she would try to find a way to respond with a reflective question.

For example:

  • If a child said (as they often do in Grade One,) “I found a staple on the carpet,” she would say, “What do you think would be the best thing to do with it?”  Of course they knew!
  • If a child said, “Which math questions do I need to do?” she would respond with “Where could you find that information on the board?”
  • If a child didn’t know what to do next (because they weren’t listening for directions,) she would ask, “Who, in the class might know what to do? How could looking at that person help you?”
  • If a child left their coat on the floor, she would ask them, “Do you see anything in the coatroom that you need to do something about?”
  • If a child said, “Can I be finished my work now?”  she would ask, “Would you say you’ve done a complete job on this assignment, or would you say that you need to do more to make it complete?”

This constant practice got her in the swing of making it a habit to ask questions more often. From there she found it became easier to ask questions in discipline situations too.

It’s really a case of learning to “bite our teacher tongues!” As teachers––so accustomed to teaching and telling––it’s hard to get in the habit of not blurting out whatever we think of saying. We often try to tell kids the answers to all their problems. But once you see how effective it is for kids to think of their own solutions, you’ll find it easier to ask questions that get them thinking for themselves!

A related posting:

Can you give me some examples of reflective questions?

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Posted In: Reflection
posted On: July 17, 2010: 10:09 am: By Kerry Weisner
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