"Truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling." - RMP

For me, the “Art of the Question” is a large part of what teaching is all about. Even the most seemingly fixed truths often warrant further curious exploration. Learning can happen in cycles, delving into the depths of knowledge by circumnavigating available information in a question-driven vehicle. As pre-service teachers we stand at the precipice of a whole new life of professional questioning, looking into the vast and sublime possibilities and challenges of the future.

Descend... into the maelstrom...

Perhaps the most effective classroom discussions I have observed have been an organic (even messy) mix of teacher-driven, student-driven, teacher-response, student-prodding, all-exploring. In a recent class, undertaking the continuation of a NYS CC module, the teacher brought back the previous day’s work regarding the student-generated claims for an upcoming writing assignment. The teacher-driven review prompted students to generate their ideas textually through review questions, and then the teacher called upon the students to share their claims to check and advise. Students riffed their questions not only off the teacher but also off of their classmates. Through adroit questioning, the teacher was able to measure the students current level of understanding of the task at hand, subtly suggesting directions to strengthen their work before moving on to another student.

Through skilled and crafty questioning, the secondary English classroom may become a knowledge engine. As Christenbury states, “talking and answering and asking questions can help clarify our own ideas, not only to others but also to ourselves” (335). Producing knowledge cannot dispense with the hard necessity of realizing it into intelligible forms, often through questioning and answering. We should strive for a cyclical or, even better, a spiraling mode of questioning: students question à teacher questions or responds à all consider à repeat. But, we should also resist overly formulaic discussion structures or environments because, as per Christenbury, “few people—students and teachers—actually approach knowledge in an orderly, paced way, moving smoothly, as the sequential hierarchies would imply, up from one level to another” (339). The hardest part will likely be the first few years, as we fashion our own styles as new and developing teachers.

error...error...

What type of teachers will we be? I’m still hoping to focus on discovery, as per Christenbury. I will work towards designing a classroom in which organic student discussion and interest may direct the lesson and student engagement. To teach students from where they are, as opposed to any “should bes” will take time and incredible effort, but that is what we are signing on for as teachers (94-5). I hope to structure classes where the teacher guides and facilitates but students and teachers discover all together and generate excitement and community around learning.

Good questions not only intellectually poke at secondary knowledge, but they also stand to provoke experiential inquiries and exploration into what is temporarily unknown by students. Experience is the real facilitator for accumulating wisdom, which John Dewey recognized in calling for schools “to develop through experience into productive citizens.” Further, such exploratory experience in the classroom will help students engage in Bloom’s different types of thinking (Giouraoukakis 15). What is questioning really but probing deeply into our collected and personal realms of thinking. Beyond questioning in the classroom, we must help students learn how to capture, structure, and present the production of their inquisitions through writing, speech, and newly evolving modes of expression.

The Ecstasy of Technology

Throughout my observations, I have seen new technology integrated both seamlessly and clumsily. But, during one recent observation day, I witnessed a class that utilized technology fairly well with the content being studied.

The class had been reading, studying, and working with A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park over the past few weeks. In each of the 7^th-grade classes I observed throughout the day, the students engaged with the target set on the old-fashioned blackboard by the teacher: “I will watch a TEDX presentation about Salva Dut [the real-life character from the book] and reflect upon the information that he shared. I will also look at Salva Dut’s Water for South Sudan website [waterforsouthsudan.org] and reflect on the information provided there.” This lesson had the students engaging in many different types of educational tech, old to new.

The Book:

The class had been reading Linda Sue Park's book over the past week(s) following a teacher-customized version of the NYS module. The class teacher, Ms. Arakkis, stated that the short book was enjoyable for the students, and each class I observed, this seemed to be true as the students were engaged and interested.  

The TEDX:

As the students watched the video of Salva Dut, they filled out a short worksheet that was designed to keep them engaged with the speaker. The teacher encouraged them to listen, attempting their best to answer the questions, but reassuring them that they need not every answer.  Across multiple classes, students noted the strength of viewing the TEDX video to complement and strengthen the reading of the book. The author's voice and image brought to life allowed them to see Salva Dut as more than words represented on a page that formed a story of a far remote subject. 

"Information isolated from contexts, people, and actions is worthless. But when people use good information for good purposes - when they use it to experience and create genuine acts of cognition - information can be a powerfully liberating tool." (Christenbury 247)

The Web:

http://www.waterforsouthsudan.org/

After the class watched the TEDx video and discussed the questions, tying the discussion back to the reading of the book and reinforcing previous class discussions with the new perspective granted by the video, they formed pairs and used Google Chromebooks to explore Salva Dut's website. 

The class' use of technology was admirably woven into the lesson. The multimodal engagement with the text kept them engaged and generating thought. Towards the end of the class, the students asked the teacher if there was any way they could have Salva Dut come to their school and speak. When the teacher told them that she would find out but she thought he was very busy at this point with his causes, they suggested that maybe, instead, they could try and raise money for his organization. Their deep engagement with the text spurred active engagement with the core of the author's mission, to share the story and get people involved. This is genuinely reflective of the innovation in the classroom espoused by the Christenbury text: "innovation is a way of thinking. It is a way of considering concepts, processes, and potential outcomes; it is not a thing, a task or even technology" (230).

With Spring Break imminent, the students were not assigned any homework. But, when they returned they would be continuing work with this unit. From what I observed, this would be a great impetus for a writing project exercising the standards:

• Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
• Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
• Draw evidence from literary and informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• Develop personal, cultural, textual, and thematic connections within and across genres as they respond to texts through written, digital, and oral presentations, employing a variety of media and genres.

Crafty: Writing with Interest

In the majority of my observations, writing has largely taken a position of secondary concern to reading. However, this may be due to the specific classes I have been observing, especially considering that I have been exploring different classes in different school districts. It also may relate to when students have been writing in class, it was largely a silent activity that did not lend much to observation. But, a few classes stick out with regard to writing and our class readings.

In one 7^th-grade observation, I observed as students presented research-based Google slideshows on various historical epidemics. This class fell directly in line with the multi-modal and technologically enhanced writing that the standards favor. After reading the book Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson, each student signed up for a specific instance of epidemic to research independently and develop a thorough slide show to present to the class. The teacher of this class held the assumption that students were fully capable of researching a focused topic and completing a presentation that answered a structured line of questioning. And, her assumption was marvelously confirmed as students presented refined and highly entertaining digital texts. The seamless integration of new-media into the practice of writing sparked creative interest in the product each student created.

As laid out in our text Getting to the Core of English Language Arts, this lesson activity embraced and utilized the idea of exploration and discovery in writing (63). That exploration and discovery was put into practice not only by the research necessary to assemble the information from digital resources, but it also had the students explore and discover a digital form of textual expression. Further, this is a great step towards preparing students to craft for an audience. The Christenbury text states, “Teachers also need to provide students with outside audiences for their work, audiences that may give the students more of a feeling that their correct final draft writing matters” (269). And, while this is certainly true and more practical than ever with digital media, starting by presenting thorough and entertaining research-based projects to classmates allows a scaffold to a wider, perhaps more critical audience.

Another observation involved a writing exercise that fell flat in a 9^th grade class. In a previous class, the students were instructed to form groups and rewrite the famous balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet. Done well, this could be a great exercise in turning Shakespeare’s complex writing and language into a more modern textual expression, reflecting analysis and exercise of register and code-shifting or –merging as per Christenbury (272). Unfortunately, the student groups did not show much enthusiasm for this exercise, but I honestly don’t understand why. Perhaps they did not receive clear enough instructions or motivation; or maybe they were not given enough freedom to play. It was clear that most groups relied on one person to do the work just to get it over with, and some groups hardly contemporized the scene at all, copying it almost verbatim. I feel that if this was set up to encourage fun and play, the students could translate the scene into interesting and contemporary expression.

Regarding the instruction of grammar, I feel both scenarios mentioned above could be used to check, review, and instruct grammar with each student. Christenbury points us to the standards, “The language standards include the essential ‘rules’ of standard written and spoken English, but they also approach language as a matter of craft and informed choice among alternatives” (259). Having students consider their audience, be it for a formal presentation or an informal interpretation of a classic work, allows them to consider usage alongside effective expression.