SELF-REFLECTION AND GOAL SETTING:

 What motivated you to take this course? What about your experiences or your professional
practice made you want to learn more about this topic?
 What are one or two personal or professional goals that you hope this course will help you
achieve? (You may use the SMART model to assist you in writing your goals if you prefer.)

MY ANSWER:

I was motivated to take this course because I want to discover more classroom teaching techniques that
will encourage healthy, academic discussions within my classroom. I want to use the “questioning
strategies” to help my students discover their interests and strengths in life. I also believe that asking the
right questions to my students will help them build their critical thinking skills and communications skills.
In my part as educator, it will help me professionally to adjust to the needs of my students and to their
level of thinking. It will give me hints on how to handle my class in our day to day discussions.

My own culture and upbringing did not have the level of innovative teaching styles or techniques
afforded to my students. Because I am accustomed to completing things using only pen and paper, I
have learned that students need not be expected to do the same. Additionally, I often use the same
rotation of applications and standard teaching styles in school and rarely venture out to explore new
techniques. I have found what has worked for my line of profession. This doesn't mean that students be
expected to do the same as they have not settled into a life routine and are actively discovering new
interests and strengths. Students should be allowed to explore and learn new techniques that positively
impact their academic and recreational performance.

Introductory Forum

Throughout this course, you will be interacting with your colleagues by responding to reflective
prompts in the course’s discussion board. To ensure full participation, please respond to one or
two of your colleagues’ posts on each discussion board.
At this time, please introduce yourself by describing:

 The grade(s) and subject(s) you teach, or other current professional role
 How many years you have been in your current role
 The composition of your school or workplace
 Something interesting about you
 Your goals for taking this course

Serving as a special education teacher for nearly a decade, I discovered that many of my
students were underserved outside the school setting. While they were met with a great
educational model by school day, their weekends and recreational time were often void of any
activity. 
 MODULE 2 DISCUSSION FORUM

 Evaluate Bloom’s taxonomy in terms of the subject, level, content, and other
considerations of your instruction (i.e., if you are a gifted and talented social studies
teacher, what role does Bloom’s play? What level would you expect questions for that
course to be on?). Now, honestly evaluate your current questioning strategies to
determine which level(s) of Bloom’s taxonomy you tend to use. Does it match with what
you would expect from someone instructing the same courses you are? Why do you
work in this level? 
 After completing this module, how might you modify your questioning techniques?
Please support your thinking with specific examples of questions you could utilize in
your instruction.
 What outcome do you think utilizing these new question stems might have on the
following: the outcomes for your learners, your ability to foster discussion, the
engagement your learners feel in lessons, and your differentiation techniques for
learners of varying needs? How can the responses from these new question stems
better empower your use of data to drive instruction?

 If I were a gifted and talented social studies teacher, I believe that all levels of
questioning in bloom’s taxonomy should be used in this instruction.
Remembering and understanding of the lessons may seem not enough for it is
also needed that students may apply their learning in the similar situation in life
and create or formulate solutions to the problems arises out of that situation. I
believe that all levels of bloom’s taxonomy are important in every situation or
lesson.

As a special education teacher that handles both elementary grader and middle
school, my level of questioning in terms of Bloom’s taxonomy was basically
revolving around the remembering and understanding level alone. I expect the
same from someone instructing the same course. I work on this level because it
is what I believe that my students can give best in class considering their varying
needs and the diversity of their experiences, and social and educational
background.

 After completing this module, I realized that my students can do more than just
remembering and understanding. In bloom’s taxonomy, both teacher and
students may come up with a deeper and meaningful conversation and
engagement if we only use the rest of the questioning techniques from the rest of
the pyramid. Instead of asking only the “what’s” we may ask the students to
expound their answer by asking the “why’s” and “how’s” for the students to
develop their critical thinking and conversational skills.

 Utilizing these new questions stems, I believe that the learners will be able to
have a deeper understanding of the lesson more than just the recalling level.
They may also use the information they gained in new or similar situations that
 would be able to make them differentiate or relate it with real life situations and
make them evaluate or justify a stand or decision in their undertakings. As a
teacher, it will enhance my ability to foster discussion within classroom that will
draw the learners to engage with the lessons. The responses that we will get
from the new question stems will empower our use of data to drive instruction as
we will have more data embanked that we could use as references in
differentiating our teaching techniques with learners of varying needs. By the
responses we get, we will have an idea on how we will handle the class or a
particular student based on his needs or preferences that are acceptable and not
offensive to their cultural background, social upbringing, experiences etc.

MODULE 3 DISCUSSION FORUM

 List two to three low-cognitive questions you commonly use in your instruction.
Transform them into high-cognitive (HOT) questions. Then, evaluate the impact the
elevation will have on both the effectiveness of your learners’ ability to master content
as well as your ability to gather data and formatively (or summatively if you transformed
assessment questions) assess their learning.
 Outline or create a plan for how you can integrate high-cognitive (HOT) questions and
open-ended questions into your current teaching practice. How will this look in your
classroom, grade level, and content area? For example, will you use formative
assessment trackers and question stems, set aside lesson planning time to develop a
certain set of questions you will utilize, and so on. What impact will this have on your
student outcomes?

Low-cognitive question: 1.) I have 3 books. I buy 5 more. How many books do i have
now?

HOT question: What is 3 +5? How did you arrive in your answer? What formula was
used in the problem? Explain.

2) Who is the antagonist in the story?

= If you were the antagonist in the story, how would you correct the bad deeds that you
have done and how will you turn your character into a protagonist?

By asking high-cognitive and open-ended questions, the students’ ability to answer

question is not limited to what they could only recall from previous lessons or
undertakings. They could go further by explaining themselves, their opinion and their
side of the story or what they think in general. They could also explain in details using
their own words the formula, bases, and evidences used in a certain problem solving
activity. As a teacher, it will help me gather the data that I need in assessment of my
students’ learning as well as my effectiveness in carrying out my practice and
strategies.
I plan on integrating the use of HOT and open-ended questions in my daily classroom
and teaching practice, in order to encourage warm and healthy engagement in my
classroom. In my lesson planning, I will integrate the formulation of the questions stems
and the use of other formative assessment trackers.

But, in formulating my questions, I have to consider the grade level of the students as
well as their developmental ability to answer questions that are beyond the usual
questioning in a classroom.

With this questioning strategy, I am preparing my students to think deeply and critically
about a certain topic or situation before they jump into a conclusion or a decision. Their
way of thinking will eventually will affect their decision-making and problem solving
skills. In general, these questioning strategies will help the students later on life solve a
bigger problem. And this skill will make them a valuable member of the society in the
future.