Thristene Francisco - "Higher Order Questions: A Deeper Path to Learning"
Program Transcript

Shelia Banks (Interview):
Today's lesson was primarily a discussion, and in preparation for that lesson students created questions, and each student used the technique that worked for them in order to create the questions.

Banks:
Yesterday we read the chapters-- A few chapters in Iqbal, and we started to look at questions that we can ask to have a deeper understanding of the text.

Banks (Interview):
You start with comprehension. You're identifying, you're recognizing, you're choosing. As you get more complex and you want to ask higher order questions, then you're having to teach them, what does judge mean? What does hypothesize mean? What does, um, analyze mean?

Banks:
Today we're gonna present these questions in order to allow discussion to flow, as well as get a deeper understanding of the issues presented in the text.

Banks (Interview):
One of the standards that I address today with Common Core in mind is analyzing a sentence or a section in order to see how it works with the overall theme.

Banks:
All right, so I'm gonna open up the floor. Um, anyone want to start? Gabriella?

Gabriella:
According to Fatima, the liquid drips out and it hurts for a while, but in time the skin grows back tougher, so you don't feel anything anymore. How is this statement a metaphor for the children's' lives?

Student 1:
It's like they have to get tougher over time, and they just have to learn that it hurts for a little while, but you just have to keep on working.

Banks:
Marley?

Marley:
All these kids think that they're eventually gonna escape. That they'll end up getting all of those lines wiped off their slate, and in the meantime they might as well just get tougher, so that when they do end up leaving, that they can be stronger.

Banks (Interview):
If you can get them to question the text then you can get comprehension going, you can get understanding, you can get deeper meaning. It lands them into this place of thinking critically, and that's really what we want, especially with common core. We want them to be lifelong learners. We want them to be able to get to college and when they are in college, they can-- they know how to struggle with that complex text.

Student 2:
Describe how Fatima reacted to the knowledge that her debt will never be cancelled.

Student 3:
I would-- I'd be terrified that my debt would never be erased, so when I found out that it never would, I would just like, literally, be scarred.

Banks (Interview):
Another standard that I address was citing textual evidence to support an analysis.

Student 4:
It says in the book, everyday I saw a line mark, but they would never go away. Like, the-- my debt can't be like the weeds that grow back in my father's garden. Like, when someone confirmed it-- When someone from the outside who, like, seemed so wise and knew so much confirmed that, yeah your debt's never gonna be erased, that kind of was just a huge realization for her…

Banks (Interview):
Today we worked with reading complex text. It challenges them to not run away, because it's-- the text is difficult, but rather to take the tools and the strategies such as the questioning, in order to attack the text and find a way to really desegregate it so that they can understand the text.

Student 5:
Listen and interpret this quote. Can you count?

Student 6:
I think he asked it because he must be, like, trying to trick them into, like, not noticing the lines.

Student 7:
He was also kind of, like, taunting her, because, like, she-- she can't, like, count and she doesn't really have an education. And now she definitely doesn't get any education because now she's a carpet weaver.

Banks:
Okay. We're gonna transition. Um, so we've done the discussion, and we're gonna take that and turn that into writing.

Banks (Interview):
The final step involving wrapping up the lesson. They exchange a piece of notecard with a peer. I have them take one question and I ask them to exchange with that person and I get that person's response to that question to test to see how valid that question is.

Student 3:
So, you're asking basically if they pay off their that…

Noah:
If he ran away, why do you think he did it at that certain time?

Banks (Interview):
So the goal of the question is for them to be able to own, um, their learning rather than hearing the teacher do all of the talking. So, when you have them make that shift, then you're gonna see it in the writing. Then they're gonna be able to be naturally analytical. Then when they read something, they'll start to make observations and make connections with the text. There are several strategies that I use to help my students formulate higher order questions.

Banks:
I know you, you had the opportunity to choose between the Frayer Model, Costa's level of questions, making observations based on the text, and verb starters. I'm gonna ask a few people to share. Noah? Who was it that you got the question from?

Noah:
Marley.

Banks:
What strategy did you use to write that question?

Marley:
The verb staters.

Banks:
Verb starters. Okay.

Noah:
Determine why Iqbal would say to the other slaves, the debt is never cancelled, and justify why the children reacted this way in disbelief. Iqbal would say the debt would never be erased to the others, because he wanted to reveal how the whole slavery thing works. He didn't want to frustrate the children, but they all reacted to disbelief...

Banks (Interview):
I'm really passionate about Common Core because it challenges them to become critical thinkers at really a young age. It has them writing in a way that they are really prepared to go to college. They're writing thesis statements, they're, um, developing thesis statements. They're developing connections to the real world. Real things that they will actually encounter in real life. Um, through these texts, they are experiencing global issues beyond just their backyard, and they're getting to form an opinion on it.

Gabriella:
Like, before Iqbal came, things-- they were horrible. It was very dehumanizing where they worked, and they were slowly kind of becoming a machine.

Banks (Invterview):
With Common Core, you see the just endless possibilities in terms of how, how you can push kids to the highest level.