Muddiest Part of the Lecture

Yesterday, I gave my students notecards and asked them to write down anything about the lesson they did not understand. "Anything," I said. "I'll answer them tomorrow." When I got the cards back and looked through them I was extremely pleased with my delivery of the lesson. No one needed any clarification on the actual objectives. The question were mostly centered around other things presented in the lesson. Here are a few of their questions:

"Who won the fight?" - Just to clarify. The story we read is called "Amigo Brothers". It is about two boys who grew up together and were best friends. Both boys were boxers and they found out they would have to fight each other to become champion and enter a tournament of champions. The boys fight, but it does not say who won. So my answer was: "The point of the story is not who won, but the fact that their friendship was strong enough to sustain the competition."
(Note: They still wanted to know who won.)

"You said that both sports have four periods. How long is the period in football?" Another clarification. In my set, I asked the students to write down how football and basketball were alike and how they were different. My answer was: "I have no idea, but I will look it up for you." I was later told that it is either 15 or 20 mins depending on the level.

"When will we ever use this?" My answer: "When you go in the shoe store and you see a pair of Jordan's and a pair of Iverson's, how do you decide which ones to buy?" After the ensuing argument about why one was better than the other, I pointed out that they had just-without thinking-used the skill that we'd learned the previous day. The students responded with a resounding "O".

"I don't get how to use transition words?" My response: "You and your mother just pulled out of Pizza Hut and you're heading down Jackson Ave. to Wal-Mart. You decide that you want Wendy's to eat and ask your mother to get it. What does she do before she turns?" After several very weird answers, one child responded, "Put on a turn signal." Pleased," I exclaimed, "Right. That's exactly what transitions do. They are the signals that let the reader know where you are going next."

I think that the questioning technique works in its own way, but I do believe that you have to have the time to address some of the weird questions that you will get from students. I found that they asked about more basic things rather than the higher level thinking questions I hoped would arise.