Taking the Time to Ask and Listen

 

Walking into Gentrie's room exhausts me as she always finds a way to make a much larger mess than what one would expect possible in such a short amount of time! Today I came into a view even worse than the usual situation; I saw every blanket we have in the entire house covering every inch of her bedroom floor. On top, more play kitchen utensils then you have seen in your life! Although, "AHHH! Why do you always have to make such a mess, Gentrie?!" is what first came into my mind, I paused to breathe. Instead of yelling, getting upset, being annoyed or even asking her to start cleaning up that instant (these would be my gut reactions)...I decided to ask her a question, calmly. "Gentrie, what are you doing?" That's when her precious blue eyes, and jelly covered face looked up at me and said "Surprise!!! I made a picnic for you mommy! I love you!" Boy was I glad I didn't scream because I would have ruined it, while crushing the sweet heart of my baby girl. This was such a precious moment that I would have missed out on if I wouldn't have taken the time to ask and listen.

  It's SO hard to make the time to ask questions and really listen to kids, both at home and at school. At school, we feel pressured to "teach" them everything on the IFD, get grades, develop relationships, fill holes and gaps they have, prepare them for tests, and the list goes on and on. These things are like the "mess" that is so hard to look past!
    Many educators and administrators have been talking about the importance of higher-level questions. This got me thinking about how questioning correlates to formative assessment, specifically during the learning application. I had read an article last year that gave some really great open-ended questions to ask students. I wrote them on a little piece of paper and stuck them in my badge. This little "cheat sheet" has come in handy as I am discussing things with kids (any grade, any subject), particularly during the learning application. So often we talk about the "closure" as formative, which is a huge piece and highly important. But, I have come to realize that using these questions during the "we do" (learning application) part and really listening to the kids thinking is also a very important type of formative assessment. It often allows us to address misconceptions, teach it a different way and sometimes even extend it based upon their level of understanding. It's a BIG piece that helps us see why it's so important to have that part of the lesson be the longest (which is always a challenge for me!). And as an added bonus, we get to create those moments with our kids that help us develop relationships that truly make a difference in their lives. I hope I can make a habit of looking past the mess to ask and listen more often!

Here are the questions I wrote that day, along with a few more I "stole" from Ervin Knezek:

What do you think?

Why do you think that?

How do you know?

Can you tell me more?

How many ways can we…?

What if we…?

What happens if we change…?

I will stick a "cheat sheet" of these questions for you in your box!  I hope it's as helpful to you as it has been for me!
Happy Friday!