Blog Archive

Monday 26 November 2018

Questioning to Embed Understanding - Tom Sherrington


Check out this fantastic blog post above by Tom Sherrington on the use of questioning to promote memory recall and deepen students understanding. 

In a nutshell, Tom discussed the vices surrounding students ability to 'know' new information, commenting that "We're not just throwing stuff into the room and hoping it lands. 'Making it stick' isn't something you hope for; its something you plan for and drive through. And 'know' means - recall, use, apply, explain - also known as "understand"."

He advises the following steps; Specify, Check, Apply.

1. Specify the knowledge even more precisely - what exactly do you want students to know before the end of the lesson, what are you learning intentions (not tasks).  Build in multiple occasions where you recap and consolidate. This is where good knowledge organisers can come in.

2. Check for understanding even more, in varied ways - Use no hands up questioning, Kagan Structures and hinge questions to ensure students are able to run through and reflect back on what has been learned. 

3. Apply the knowledge in more ways - more examples, more independent practice and more synoptic practice. Students need to be able to do things by themselves to gain confidence and fluency in their thoughts.

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