Increase Student Engagement & Improve Classroom Management with Questioning Strategies

The longer I teach middle school students, the more I am convinced that student engagement and classroom management connect back to this one thing: how we ask students questions throughout a class period as we’re teaching content.

Questioning strategies are simply how we ask students to respond to questions. Questioning strategies correlate to student engagement, classroom management, supporting struggling learners, and challenging higher level learners.

Let’s first start with what I refer to as “teacher default mode” when it comes to questioning strategies. Teacher default mode is when the teacher asks the whole class a question, allows students to raise their hand if they’d like to respond to the question, and then calls on students one-by-one. Whole group questioning is our first instinct as teachers, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of this being the only way students respond to questions in our classroom. However, whole group questioning has several downsides. The most obvious downside is usually the same students answer the questions. Another disadvantage is only a few student voices are heard with each question. One negative that we might not realize though is how this questioning strategy impacts student engagement and classroom management. If students know this is the way their teachers are going to ask questions, they can easily check out of the lesson, or even blurt or become impatient with sitting through this questioning strategy over and over and over again until they become a behavior issue.

So what should we do instead of whole group questioning? First of all, it is my belief that teachers just ask way too many questions. Not everything has to be a question, so before even asking a question, I would encourage teachers to think through these two filters:

1. Should this be a question or can I just tell/explicitly teach what I am about to ask?
2. Do my students know the routines/expectations for this questioning strategy? (We often go back to teacher default mode with whole group questioning because we haven’t taught students how to use new questioning strategies.)

Here are areas we should strive for in each class period with our questioning strategies:

1. Use a variety of questioning strategies. There is no magical questioning strategy, but we should have 5-6 go-to strategies that we use across a class period.
2. Use strategies we have time for. Some strategies take longer, some are shorter. We have to select what will fit with the time we have with students.
3. Every time we ask a question, most students should respond to the question in some way. This keeps student learning at the forefront and engagement high.

Now that we have the foundation for why whole group questioning should move to the back burner, let’s dive in and examine 20 questioning strategies we can use instead.

1. Turn & Talk: The teacher poses a question, students turn and talk with a partner seated right next to them in response to the question.
   • Example in action: You’re in a realistic fiction reading unit. While reading Touching Spirit Bear aloud, pause after Cole realizes he can’t swim to escape the island and ask students, “Do you think Cole regrets burning his shelter and supplies down now that he realizes he can’t swim to escape the island?”
2. Turn & Talk + Whole Class Share: The teacher poses a question, students turn and talk with a partner seated right next to them in response to the question. After students have had time to share with a partner, the teacher then asks for a few students to share responses to the question with the whole class.
   • Example in action: Students have just completed their daily Sentence Stalking questions to dig deeper into vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. You select the most difficult question that was assigned out of the five questions and ask students to turn and talk about the answer they wrote down. After students have had a chance to share with a partner, ask a student to share the answer to that question with the whole class.
3. Individual Think Time + Turn & Talk: The teacher poses a question, students get individual think time to formulate an answer in their heads, and then students turn and talk with a partner seated right next to them.
   • Example in action: You’re starting the Memoir Vignettes Narrative Writing Unit and just taught a brainstorming lesson on selecting a common thread for the three vignettes. This could be a person, animal, object, location, activity, or emotion. You ask students what the first thing is that comes to mind for them. After giving 30 seconds or so of wait time, students share their writing topic idea with a partner.
4. Whole Class Share + Turn & Talk: The teacher poses a question, and several students respond to the question using whole group questioning. Next, the teacher asks students to turn and talk in response to what was shared as a whole class.
   • Example in action: You’re doing a fiction reading lesson on connecting reoccurring topics to possible themes. You start by asking the the class for reoccurring topics in your current read aloud book and jot of list of students’ answers on the board. Next, you ask students to turn and talk about what a possible theme could be based on one of the reoccurring topics.
5. Students Ask the Question: The teacher pauses at a key spot during the lesson and asks the students to think of a question that would be good to ask at this point in the lesson. Students then ask the question they came up with to a partner.
   • Example in Action: You’re in a science fiction reading unit. While reading The Hunger Games aloud, Katniss is stuck in a tree, and the Career tributes are waiting for her below. Katniss gets the idea to cut down the tracker jacker nest. Pause the reading and say to students, “What question would you ask right now to discuss this part of the book?”
6. Teacher-Modeled Thinking: The teacher asks a question and then answers their own question by explaining the thought process they would go through while deciding how to answer the question that was posed.
   • Example in Action: You’re prepping students for the reading portion of the state test and ask a few multiple choice question about the current read aloud book. For the first question, you open your mind up to students about how you would go about answering the multiple choice question by rereading the question, referring back to the passage, eliminating answers that don’t make sense, and choosing the best answer from there.
7. Symphony Share: The teacher asks a question that requires a word to no more than a sentence response. Students stand in a circle and whip around the circle, sharing their responses. Using a talking piece, such as a small ball or any other small object, is helpful so students know when it is their turn to talk.
   • Example in Action: You are in the drafting phase of a middle school writing unit. At the end of the class period you have students circle up and share their favorite sentence from what they drafted so far.
8. Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: The teacher asks a question that requires a yes or no response. Students give a thumbs up if they would respond “yes” to the question and a thumbs down if they would respond “no” to the question. This strategy can work with questions that have concrete answers as well questions where the answer is a matter of opinion. The teacher can also follow up after students give a thumbs up/thumbs down with, “For those of you who agreed with (restate question prompt) and gave a thumbs up, why did you say “yes” to this question?
   • Example in action (concrete answer): You are assessing students’ understanding of writing conventions with Sentence Dictation. One of the sentences had the phrase “my dad” in it, and you ask students to give a thumbs up if they thought “dad” should be capitalized and a thumbs down if they did not capitalize it.
   • Example in Action (open-ended answer): You are reading The Giver as a novel study, and get to the part where Jonas is deciding whether or not he should tell the Giver that he was able to transfer a memory to the newborn Gabriel. Stop at that place in the reading and ask students, “Do you think Jonas should tell the Giver about being able to transfer a memory to Gabriel?”
9. Raise Your Hand If: This strategy can be very practical and give teachers a sense of how the class is doing with a concept as a whole. It can also be used as a check-in. The teacher poses a question that starts with “Raise your hand if…”
   • Example in Action: Students are in the brainstorming process of their memoir vignettes writing unit. Students choose a common thread to use throughout their three vignettes. This can be a person, place, emotion, activity/hobby, etc. You could ask students, “Raise your hand if your favorite common thread for your memoir vignettes is a person.” “Raise your hand if your common thread is a person.” (Repeat for the other categories.)
10. Scale of 1-5: This is a great strategy to use for student self-assessment and reflection. The teacher asks students to hold up between 1 and 5 fingers to answer the question posed.
    • Example in Action: You are trying out a new classroom management system with positive behavior tallies and ask students to hold up between 1-5 fingers to describe how well they followed expectations during independent reading time.
11. 1, 2, 3, 4 (instead of A, B, C, D): If you are asking the whole class the answer to a multiple choice question, instead of calling on one student to give the correct answer, have all students hold up the number their answer correlates to at the same time. In order to do this, you have to have the question and answer choices projected for all students to see. You could use language like, “On the count of three, hold up the number of the correct answer.” This gives you a quick idea of your students’ overall understanding of the concept you’re asking a question about. From there, you can decide the next step based on students’ responses. For example, if students are split between two answers, you could have one student give their rationale for one answer and a second student give their rationale for the other answer.
    • Example in Action: You just finished your daily interactive read aloud, and state testing is coming up. Instead of giving students relentless test prep reading passages and questions, have a multiple choice question prepared based on a plot event from the day’s reading.
12. Sticky Note Jot, Then Categorize: Ask an open-ended question to students that may receive responses from multiple perspectives. Students jot their response to the question on a sticky note. After students respond, ask them to stand up and stick their sticky note in different areas of the room based on their responses. You could then read aloud a few student responses or have students find a partner who had a different perspective than them to discuss with.
    • Example in Action: You just finished reading aloud to students the part in Touching Spirit Bear where Cole tries to attack the Spirit Bear but gets mauled and ends up in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. You ask students the question, “What should Circle Justice do now that Cole ruined the chance they gave him?” After students respond ask students who responded saying Cole should get another chance to place their sticky notes in one area of the room and students who thought Cole should go to jail in another area of the room. Follow up by reading a few from each perspective aloud to the whole class.
13. Sticky Note Jot with Teacher Feedback: Ask students to respond to a question or complete a quick task by jotting their response on a sticky note. After you give students proper wait time to write down their answer/response, have all students place their sticky notes in the same area of the room. Students should not put their names on the sticky notes. Go through a few students’ responses and give real time feedback about what they did well and what could be improved.
    • Example in Action: You’re using the Blog Post Writing Unit, and are starting out the class period with Sentence Level Writing, where students practice specific types of sentences that they could use in their draft. Today’s focus is complex sentences, so you have students jot down a complex sentence they might use in their blog post draft on a sticky note and place it in the front of the classroom. Next, you read aloud a few complex sentences that were written correctly and a few with minor errors, giving feedback recommended changes.
14. Stand Up and Discuss: Sometimes you can just sense that your students need some movement. This is the perfect time to have 2-3 questions projected for students and then tell them to stand up and find a student across the classroom to discuss the questions with. I prefer to use this method with a series of questions and also after students have been sitting and/or concentrating for a long stretch of time.
    • Example in Action: You’re in a Realistic Fiction Reading Unit, and you just finished the read aloud portion of your reading instructional framework. You have three questions displayed on the board for students in connection with the events that happened in today’s read aloud, Forget Me Not.
15. Fill In the Blank Response: There is no need to have just one student respond to a quick question that only requires a 1-2 word response. All students should be able to say the answer at the same time. When you say a statement that requires students to fill in the blank at the end of the statement, it gives all students a chance to answer.
    • Example in Action: You’re reviewing where to put a comma in a compound sentence with students. You say, “When two independent clauses are joined together with a coordinating conjunction, the comma is placed before the coordinating conjunction. A common acronym to remember what the coordinating conjunctions are is __________________ (FANBOYS).
16. How Do You Know?: For this questioning format, start by asking the question. Next, give students the answer. Finally, ask, “How do you know?” or “Why do you think this is true?” Students can turn and talk about how they knew that was the correct answer, or you could have a student share out with the whole class.
    • Example in Action: You’re doing a reading lesson on identifying point of view in fiction books. You display an excerpt from The Hunger Games and say, “Suzanne Collins uses first person point of view from Katniss’s perspective. How do you know?”
17. Two Options with Movement: This is a fun one that gets everyone involved, even if some middle school students might initially act “too cool” to participate. Ask a question and give students two response options. Have a coordinating movement to match each response option. Ask all students to commit to an answer by doing the movement that matches their answer choice. Here are a few movement ideas that could work: jumping jacks, push-ups, step side-to-side, raise arms up and down, pat the top of head, etc. It works best if you display the question and movement options for students to see before they answer.
    • Example in Action: You’re on the last chapter of The Hunger Games, and Katniss and Peeta are almost back to District 12 and resuming “regular” lives after the games. You display this question on the board, “Do you think Katniss will spend more time with Peeta or Gale once she’s back in District 12?” Students who think Peeta will do jumping jacks, and students who think Gale will do push-ups.
18. Everyone Raise Their Hand: Ask a question that has many possible answers and then ask all students to raise their hand. Next, tell students to keep their hand up until either they’ve been called on or their answer has been shared. Call on students until no one has their hand raised anymore. I’ve tried this a few times with my students, and I loved hearing the variety of answers, and I was also shocked at the students’ voices I heard that wouldn’t normally share out with the whole class.
    • Example in Action: Students just started the Product Review Writing Unit where they select a restaurant, business, object, or technology source to write a product review on. Students are in the brainstorming process and haven’t committed to a definite topic yet, but you want other students to hear a variety of ideas, so you ask, “What is your top product idea topic so far?” Next, you ask all students to raise their hand and keep their hand raised until their idea has been shared.
19. Think About It: This questioning strategy almost sounds too simple, but it is fast and something that may catch students off guard because they’re so used to everything always having to be shared out to the whole class. Pose a question to students and then say, “I want you to think about how you would answer that question in your head.” Give them some wait time to think about their answer and then say, “Thanks for doing that thinking.” Then just move on. It doesn’t always have to end with a share out.
    • Example in Action: You’re doing Poetry Workshop with students and just completed the “Poetry Stalking” portion of the lesson framework. Students were analyzing “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. You ask students, “What do you think Robert Frost meant at the end of the poem when he wrote, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference?” Give wait time, and then follow it up by saying, “Thanks for doing that thinking.”
20. Partner Dictation: Students are paired in partners. You have a series of questions prepared. You ask a question, and one partner speaks the answer aloud while the other partner writes down their answer. You ask the next question, and students repeat this process, switching roles. The trick with this is that students are not allowed to give feedback to their partner’s answer if they are in the writing role. Their job is to simply listen and write down whatever their partner says. This would work great with mini white boards, but the white boards are definitely not required to complete this strategy.
    • Example in Action: Students are completing their daily Sentence Stalking to dig deeper into grammar and vocabulary using mentor sentences from popular middle school books. Instead of having students complete the 5 focus questions with today’s mentor sentence independently, they partner up with only one response sheet. You read the questions aloud while students alternate back and forth with recording/saying the answer to the questions. You can read even more about this strategy and download a free resource to try it out in this blog post.

Final Tips for Making Questioning Strategies Work with FREE Resources to Help:

• Plan when you’re going to use which questioning strategy and put the questioning strategy right into your lesson presentation. I’ve prepared this Google Slides presentation that you can download for free. There are 20 slides, one slide for each of the questioning strategies mentioned above. This presentation is meant to copy and paste individual slides right into your lesson presentation and easily insert your question prompt. We all have good intentions, but if we don’t plan when we’re going to use a variety of questioning strategies, we’ll just go right back to teacher questioning default mode (whole class Q & A). I’ve also made a version of this with questions specific to teaching that can be used as an example for the types of questions that can be asked or even for teacher PD.
• Use peer observation and feedback. Getting the privilege to observe other teachers in action is hands down the best professional development opportunity I’ve ever had. Some schools have peer observation requirements. However, it’s hard to know what to focus observation on when you’re in another teacher’s classroom. Questioning strategies are a great place to focus peer observation. Have all the teachers in your school read this blog post and commit to using a variety of questioning strategies in their classrooms. If all teachers in your school observe even one other teacher and use this tool to focus their peer observations, imagine the positive impact this could have on students and teachers. The peer observation tool simply has teachers notice the different questioning strategies being used, rate students engagement with the questioning strategy, and jot down any other noticings.
• Use the Questioning Strategies Quick Reference Table to plan which strategies to use. Even if you’re really short on time, glancing at this resource before a lesson and jotting three questioning strategies you want to use during the day’s class period on a sticky note is better than nothing!

You can download the resources mentioned above: Questioning Strategies Presentation Templates, Questioning Strategies Peer Observation Tool, and the Questioning Strategies Quick Reference Table for free by opting into my emails where I share new blog posts or by downloading it from my TPT store.

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