How do I make pupils, especially more able and talented ...

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How do I make pupils, especially more able and talented pupils, more confident to ask questions, in order to take ownership of their learning?

Emma Whitney

Summary

In this research, how Foundation children can gain confidence in asking questions is examined. A range of techniques are used to enhance the questioning skills of pupils and to build confidence in asking questions using a range of question stems.

The Situation

This action research project has been a culmination of several areas of professional development that have been ongoing over the last two years at Oaklands School., as we have looked to improve, ‘tweak’ [as Hughes [2006] calls it] and refine our practices. I teach a year 1 class in a Valleys’ primary school where I work alongside one classroom assistant. There are 9 girls and 18 boys in my class, with 8 of those pupils in receipt of IEPs. There is a wide range of ability and I have a MAT group of pupils who are currently working at Outcome 5. I was fortunate to be allocated a PGCE student this year which provided me with a valuable opportunity to make observations, be filmed teaching and work with small groups to gather evidence for my research. That student was able to act as a critical friend and sounding board.

Sagor’s [2011] comment that:

‘Action Research is s a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining his or her actions.’

Having worked in Key Stage 2 for twelve years, there was an initial culture shock on taking on pupils from the Foundation Phase. Action research encourages researchers to find ‘real’

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problems which teachers need to find ways to approach and solve. The emphasis on relevant research questions is important as Brigley [2016] pointed out:

Action research gets teachers to confront problems in their own classrooms and is effective as a method of in-service training, enabling teachers to have control of self-development.’ I was aware that the pupils in my class were unable to ask questions confidently. Asking questions is an essential skill for developing learning and enables pupils to set their own learning agenda, as Claxton [] has pointed out, ‘Good learning starts with questions not answers.’ I wanted to find ways to stop my pupils struggling with questions and make improvements to this. I felt that this needed to be improved in two ways:

1. firstly developing pupils’ use of question stems and vocabulary

2. helping pupils develop the verbalising of their “wondering” or “curiosity” in a way that could lead their learning.

Influences I did some initial research online for activities to encourage pupils to ask questions and found some interesting articles, which gave ideas for small practical tasks that could be used to encourage curiosity and questioning. I read an article written by Curwin and felt that his statement embodied what I wanted to achieve:

“They (pupils) spend most of class time providing information and then ask questions in the form of a quiz, test, or discussion. This is backward. Too many students never learn this way. It is simply too hard to understand, organise, interpret, or make sense out of information -- or even to care about it -- unless it answers a question that students care about.”

This seemed close to my sense of how many in my class were approaching learning. I had the opportunity to work with Mike Hughes who provided ideas regarding my own questioning techniques and allowing pupils more opportunity to talk and ask their own questions. Hughes is particularly helpful in getting teachers to recognise the reality of their classroom and through reflection set goals. This is very similar to the process of action research:

‘REFLECTING on the information, teachers quickly concluded that there was a gap between What they wanted to see happening....challenge.[GOAL]..and what was actually taking place In the lessons [REALITY]’ This is similar to McNiff’s idea of practitioners as ‘living contradictions’ who need to stop and think about how practices can be changed in order to live by our ideals such as helping children develop questioning minds. McNiff acted as a mentor and suggested sketching our teaching dilemma and then its imagined solution. This was very useful for focusing how I saw my classroom and where I wanted it to be. On reflection, having worked with Read, Write Inc strategies across the

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curriculum to develop partner talk, developing sentence structures and vocabulary, the majority of questions in my class were still being posed by the teacher. My vision was that the children would be the ones asking the questions and engaging with their learning by taking ownership.

Teacher led questions, pupil talk. Pupil and teacher led questions, pupil talk.

Although the questioning of all pupils needed to come under scrutiny, the most able

were a particular cause of concern and I decided from the start to focus on my MAT pupils and to include them in my research question. Following this session and in conjunction with my other experiences, I began to formulate my question to address the issue I had noted. The pupils in my class were unable to ask questions confidently and I needed to address this. I was unsure if I was aiming too high for my pupils as I had limited experience of working in Foundation Phase. I had established a Critical Friend who was over-seeing the project who now reassured me that high expectations of our pupils is acceptable and that providing challenge for MAT pupils was essential.

Base-lining

Having a student teacher allowed me to observe the class in a way which is difficult while participating. It enabled me to analyse how the class asked questions by being an observer of my own pupils. The student-teacher produced a mind map of the topic ‘People who help us’ with the pupils’ input. It struck me that the pupils were engaging in the new topic for the term, but were only contributing known facts.

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They had difficulties in following the instruction, ‘What questions would you like to ask?’ Instead, they gave the teacher facts and information. During another session, in preparation for a trip to the historical house, Llancaiach Fawr, the student teacher was aiming to introduce some of the characters we would meet and get pupils thinking about “sensible” and “related” questions they could ask during the visit and tour of the manor house. Initially, pupils were keen to share observations about the pictures and almost all the pupil responses were declaratives, for example, he’s wearing a hat; that one has a gun; she is dressed funny; that one has a feathery ink pen etc. Many of the comments were linked to previous learning but only BT and JD were able to form a question using a question word. These observations confirmed my ‘hunch’ that the pupils did not have a clear idea of questions or how and when to use them.

Exploring further

I developed a questionnaire which asked specific things about the use of questions in the classroom and what pupils’ understanding of questions. I had an informal conversation with the target group of 8 pupils, asking them to talk about the questions and video-ed this using the iPad.

The answers to my questions were interesting and supported the observations from the student teacher sessions and my initial sketches. The results of my questionnaire showed that:

• some of the pupils understood that a question was something spoken.

• over half of the class had an understanding that questions demand an answer.

• pupils were unsure how they knew it was a question at this point but understood the idea that it was an exchange between people.

Pupils were unanimous in asserting that I asked all the questions in class and they were the ones who answered. They perceived that when we used the “turn to your partner” strategy it was the opportunity to answer a question or talk about what they had been learning and the majority of pupils were able to acknowledge that they do use questions when they are unsure or when they want to check something with their partner. One pupil understood that a question can also be written down. From these initial findings it soon became clear that I needed to:

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• make their implicit knowledge about questions more explicit

• give opportunities to ask more questions

• to tap into curiosity and wonder

• teach various forms that questions can take

My action research question became:

How do I make pupils, especially more able and talented pupils, more confident to ask questions, in order to take ownership of their learning?

Methods

Actions

1. Observations of PGCE student – mind mapping and questioning session

2. Questionnaires with the pupils.

3. Class based activities: including Guess Who? Games, Question grids, Make Whitney Wonder and what’s in my bag?

4. Repeat mind mapping for Pirate topic planning and questioning session

Class activities:

From observing these sessions and undertaking the questionnaires, I decided that class activities needed to develop the following:

• Pupils understanding of the use/purpose of questions

• The vocabulary of question words

• How to form a question from a “wondering”

• Practise the purpose and structure of question

In order to develop real contexts for asking questions I decided to introduce a few question-based activities to my enhanced provision. (See appendix) I provided the children with some ‘guess who’ games, a Whitney Wonders writing task and a ‘what’s in my bag’ game.

Guess who?

It was evident that the pupils did not have experience of playing guess who, so in the first instance I modelled a game and the pupils followed me in their pairs. We also talked about the types of questions we could ask to eliminate groups of people from the board, for example, is it a girl? I gave the pupils opportunities to observe and talk about the features of the characters on the board for them to choose common features to group.

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After introducing these games I realised that there was another issue afoot and that the pupils needed experience of categorising questions too in order to complete both the games, so this was tackled during teaching sessions.

What’s in the bag?

The same was true for the ‘what’s in my bag’ game. I chose twenty items to place in the bag game but before I put them in the bag, we looked at them all as a class and talked about how we could group them. The children had then decided which groups/categories each item belonged to and were able to start asking more specific questions to guess the object. Pupils enjoyed the competitive element of attempting to guess the chosen object in fifteen guesses or fewer and became more proficient after more practice. This activity was then placed in the language corner and BT and CW were observed on more than one occasion trying to “beat” one another’s score.

Both these games encouraged simple questions, but were limiting as they only gave the opportunity for many “is it” questions.

Question Grids’ Game

At this point (as was clear from my questionnaires) the children lacked an awareness of question language and so I introduced the question grids game as a way of promoting the use of question stems. (See appendix: question grid) The pupils worked together in a group asking the questions from the grid to find out about one another and record their answers with a simple yes or no, number or a tick. Pupils enjoyed finding out new things about one another and were keen to compete to finish. We stopped the task at times, to talk about waiting your turn or not talking over another person to reinforce the etiquette of working in a group. I used the hold a sentence technique from Read, Write Inc where pupils were using the correct model of a sentence, repeatedly so they would internalise the pattern of a question. My Critical friend observed this lesson and commented that:

‘What started as an exercise whereby practice stems could be used and reiterated soon became an engrossing activity as the group realised that they could sate their genuine curiosity by asking questions.’ I modelled how to inflect the voice so that when spoken a question could be recognised but on the page the question mark did the same job.

Whitney Wonders

Pupils particularly enjoyed the ‘Make Whitney Wonder’ activity, which was introduced as a concept to come up with a question that I unable to answer. The pupils could post-it a question on the wonder board and then I would answer the questions at the end of the day. I modelled how to read the questions and how I would research an answer using Google or a book. The children were pleased to receive prompt feedback and answers at the end of the day. This motivated them to write further questions.

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These activities were repeated on a daily basis over a term and a half, sometimes as a whole class and other times during enhanced provision. Almost all of the pupils in the target group were engaging with these activities in enhanced provision and pupils became competitive, in particular with the ‘what’s in my bag’ game. We played the game many times, with the children just randomly guessing every object under the sun, until they saw that there were ways of eliminating many of the objects by asking a grouping question. The first time pupils guessed the object in fewer than fifteen guesses caused excitement in the class and when this was reduced to five attempts LC and JD were observed punching the air and saying, “Yes! We did that in five goes!” I was pleased with the fact that the children had grasped the idea of using questions to categorise the objects and that they were engaged and motivated to continue practising questioning within the context of the game. They were using questions to engage in higher order thinking. This is experiential learning as defined by Brigley [2016]

‘Kolb’s model is the one most widely acknowledged and sees learning as a cycle which starts with concrete experience. This is followed by observing reflectively, conceptualising and experimenting to test hypotheses.’

Pupils engaged with the ‘Make Whitney Wonders’ activity and initially post-it notes ranged from comments, pictures and some questions. As we worked through class activities, their written questions became more focused and clear. MP returned to school the day after learning about the great fire of London asking “How many people died in the fire?” and LH, after overhearing his mother saying “my head’s going to explode” asked “How do you make your head explode?” The

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children were becoming indent questioners, asking themselves questions and understanding how curiosity was expressed through a question.

Findings

Questionnaires

I repeated the initial questionnaire with the same group of pupils in May 2016 and the responses showed that the pupils had made progress with their understanding of questions and the reason for them.

• Pupils were clear that a question was a way to find out something that you did not know and that if you “wonder about something, you can find out if you ask a question”.

• Children had a clearer understanding that a question was a different type of sentence and that you can use a different voice.

• They understood that key words “ like where or when’ signal a question.

• Pupils had also noticed that there had been a shift in the balance of who asked the most questions and pupils were now aware that they asked more questions as much as the teacher, both to their partner and to the teacher.

• The children still felt that they answered many of the questions but they had engaged with the idea that they used the questions “to find out what we want to learn.”

• In final response when asked could they ask a question, the pupils were able to fire a barrage of questions ending with “Can we play in the sand now?” and they all laughed!

Pirate mind-mapping

I repeated the mind mapping session with the children at the beginning of the new Spring Term [2016] topic. I showed the pupils a picture and reminded them of question words we had been using to formulate things we wanted to find out.

Pupils used partner talk to discuss the picture and practised asking their partner a question about something they could see in the picture, or even something the picture did not tell them (a ‘wonder’). We then shared our questions with the whole class and made a class list of the questions we wanted to find out about pirates. We then talked about which category each questions belonged with and grouped the questions into themes for our topic. Finally, with partner talk the pupils

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contributed to a class list to suggest ways in which they could learn or find out the answers to their questions.

This session successfully showed how my pupils have developed their ability to recognise question words, verbalise their ‘wonders’ and group their questions into categories. I used this work to plan the termly theme as closely to their categories as possible so that the pupils have had the opportunity to take ownership of their learning and engage at the crucial planning stage.

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Results and Conclusions

I have been pleased with the way that the focus on questioning has improved the levels of engagement in my class. This has been reflected in the conversations we have had and the observations we have made when pupils have been working in enhanced provision. They have been much more self-motivated this term and instances of pupils bringing examples of work in from home (3/4 examples a month to 1/2 examples a week) have been far higher, especially so when they are proud to show off a new fact they have discovered or mastered a skill we have been practising in class. I feel that the activities I chose were quite informal and games were a good choice for pupils to practise their questioning skills without even realising and in an enjoyable way.

Undertaking this action research project, has given me the opportunity to focus on an important area of literacy within a new age group with whom I am still gaining experience. By developing a key literacy skill of questioning, it has given pupils the skills and opportunities to verbalise their thinking and therefore be able to ask questions to support their understanding of the world around them. In using these questioning skills, they have been able to make valuable contributions to the planning process of this term’s topic and consequentially are more engaged and motivated to learn as we find out the answers to their questions together. When we have referred to the questions they asked at the beginning of their topic, there have been smiles on their faces and little “light bulb” moments as they realise they have discovered the answers to their “wonderings.”

Furthermore, I can now say that I have been able to move forward and have developed the class and my teaching by moving questioning forward from teacher only, to pupils being engaged and taking ownership of the learning. In this process, I have been a learner for as Macbeath suggests:

‘Learning and teaching improve when teachers have the tools and grasp the value of being learners in their own classrooms.’

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Bibliography

Judebrigley.co.uk/blog

Brigley, J [2016] Zone 1

https://www.edutopia.org/users/dr-richard-curwin Accessed October 2015 Hughes, M. [2005] And the main thing is learning, Cheltenham: ETS. Sagor, R.D. [2011] The action research guidebook, London: ASCD.

Macbeath, J. [1999] Schools must speak for themselves, {London: Routledge.

http://jeanmcniff.com/ar-booklet.asp Accessed November 2015 McNiff, J. [2013] Action Research: principles and practice, London: Routledge.

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Appendix 1: Question Grid example

All about Grwp Coch

BT

LH

LC

ZG

AE

JD

CW

MP

What is your favourite colour?

Which is your favourite food, chips or pasta?

How many brothers or sisters do you have?

Have you got a pet?

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