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Questions Can Be Powerful
Researchers have identified effective
questioning as a tool for building students' basic and higher-level skills.
By Carla Thomas McClure September 2007
ASKING QUESTIONS IS ONE of the most commonly used instructional strategies in K12 classrooms. Researchers have identified effective questioning as a tool for building students' basic and higher-level skills. Here is what is known and what's new about using questions.
Middle school reform discussed
Parents, students and teachers meet to consider improvements
By Beverly A. Carroll Staff Writer
Copyright with permission of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
About 250 Hamilton County parents, students, teachers and administrators met Tuesday to discuss ways to improve middle schools.
"We are finally listening to what the four groups — parents, students, teachers and administrators — are saying about improving schools," said Shari Feltner, a parent from Ooltewah.
Tuesday’s daylong event at The Chattanoogan was funded through a planning grant from the local Lyndhurst Foundation.
The private foundation’s board members issued a $250,000 grant for middle schools to develop reform plans. "
High schools are requiring more of students with a focus on literacy and math, and we’ve had a focus on literacy in the elementary schools," Dan Challener, Public Education Foundation president, said.
Leadership teams from each of the district’s 21 middle schools will oversee development of plans unique to each school, he said. The district also has a $3 million grant from the National Education Association that is earmarked for closing the achievement gap at urban middle schools, officials said.
About 40 students shared their opinion of how classroom teaching can be improved. "
A lot of times kids in my class have trouble learning, and it’s because the teacher only teaches one way," said Nick Canler, a seventh-grade student at Ooltewah Middle School.
Mike Feely, a Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts parent, said his daughter’s school now offer a rigorous curriculum and flexible scheduling.
A $5 million, five-year grant from the Chattanooga-based Benwood Foundation helped educators raise reading and math scores at nine inner-city schools, officials said.
Lyndhurst President Jack Murrah has said the foundation may provide several million dollar over several years, depending upon the strength of the proposals.
E-mail Beverly A. Carroll at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com
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WHAT'S NEXT Leadership teams will return to their schools today and share what they learned. They will hold focus groups and study best what works at other schools. A February retreat is planned. |
Article used by permission