Kindergarten

After reading this article, it is noted that questioning is very important! However, as stated in the article, "the ability to think is based on the ability to ask and consider important questions." This is a very important point and in kindergarten it is a little difficult to achieve such a goal as many questions are teacher driven. As the children learn more throughout the year, and their academic skills increase as well as their self confidence they are able to generate more questions, and even write them down! The science units are teaching the kids to be more like scientists, and to be good observers, and to do that, they do, in fact, have to ask questions. We get those questions through inquiry. They are learning to problem solve and to work in groups. This is a very important skill that they will take with them as they grow through the school grades. We like the first grade teacher's approach within her lesson using the SELECT questioning strategy, in which the children were able to fill in a matrix and decide what the best pet for Franklin would be according to different objectives. That is a practical example and one we can easily replicate.

[|slpena] Accountability to Rigorous Thinking: 1. Assess students background knowledge 2. Build upon knowledge using open ended questioning 3. Open ended questioning allows the student to expand or re-evaluate prior schema 4. Use Kagan grouping to develop logical thinking patterns among students 5. Provide a variety of text and resources to enhance thinking skills [|[delete]]  ||
 * || **re: Professional Development Activities for Dec.2009**