CUES, QUESTIONS, ANDADVANCEORGANIZERS
Generalizations from Classroom Instruction That Works
Classroom Instruction That Works provides four generalizations from the research when using cues and questions.
1. Cues and questions should focus on what is important rather than what is unusual. Teachers often structure cues or questions around something they perceive as interesting or unique, under the mistaken assumption that it will motivate students by piquing their interest. However, ELLs need to focus on what is important rather than on what is unusual, and they need to be able to filter out unnecessary information in order to grasp the critical content. For example, to introduce a unit on the solar system, a teacher might ask students what they know about UFOs. Although students might find this topic interesting, it does not activate any prior knowledge about the solar system. Having students—particularly ELLs—focus on superfluous material will take them off track, away from the primary learning objective.
2. Higher-level questions produce deeper learning than lower-level questions. Adapting questions for ELLs will be a new technique for many classroom teachers. You will need to understand the stages of language acquisition in order to appropriately adapt questions.
3. Waiting at least three seconds before accepting responses from students increases the depth of answers. A brief pause after asking a question is known as “wait time.” When students are given more time to formulate their responses, they are likely to participate more in classroom discussions about the content. As noted earlier, wait time is particularly valuable for ELLs because it allows them time to think about not only what they are going to say, but also how they are going to say it in English.
4. Questions are effective even before a lesson begins. You may think that you should only ask questions after a learning experience. Research shows, however, that using questions before a learning experience can serve to activate and access prior knowledge.
