Asking Better Questions

What makes the questions that we ask in our classrooms good questions?  Are they questions that require students to think deeply or to recall prior information?  Both types of questions are important and in balance can help scaffold for students.  To me questions become better when more students or all students are required to answer the questions or think.  How can we do this more of the time?  There are many strategies to use daily such as making sure we randomly call on students rather than requiring or asking students to raise their hands, using adequate wait time when questioning, asking students to repeat the responses of others, think pair share answers, and having students quickly write their responses before sharing them either with the whole groups or with partners/small groups.  Another aspect of asking good questions is to prepare your questions prior to the lesson.  When we prepare our questions ahead of time we can assure for a variety of questions that require students to think at different levels.  Preparing questions also can ensure students are using their resources such as text to support their answers.  This is an important skill for students to be able to do.  Asking better questions requires intentional strategies to ensure that the most possible number of students are thinking and answering and preparing a variety of questions.  How are you ensuring that you are asking better questions? Check out this quick article:  Asking Better Questions 

Accolades at Lincoln:  

Lauren Brown-  Lauren has set an awesome goal as her annual goal.  She selected to target her 19 students that struggled first quarter with low grades.  These  students struggled with the content and with completing work.  the impact she wants to have is to help them find success and improve their grades thus receiving their High school credit in ICP.  She has planned some great strategies to help these students attain more success.  One of the strategies is to use the Schoolwork App on the iPad.  She has committed to exploring the app and already has these student using it to help them complete more work more of the time.  Another one of her strategies is to use Powerschool teacher to look at the breakdown of her grades while checking in with these students frequently. Thanks Lauren for taking a risk and stepping out of your own comfort zone to help students.  Thanks for your growth mindset.

Sam VanLue and Staff-  Sam and her staff, Mike Maza, Wendy Milligan, Ashley Langley and Kennedy Sopher, put on costumes and took our Applied Skills student to the annual Halloween Dance at PHS.  Thanks for your enthusiasm and commitment to your students.

Darlene Derifield- Darlene will be presenting at the monthly superintendents meeting about the externship she did this past summer.  Great work on your own time to continue to learn.

Good Student Form- In an effort to highlight and celebrate Lincoln students being Amazing and doing Amazing things at the suggestion of Susan Lafree we are adding this form to the blog.  When you see students doing amazing things in class or around the school be sure to fill out the form so we can highlight Lincoln students being Amazing.  Thanks Susan for an awesome idea.
Upcoming @ Lincoln 

Monday PD:  Tomorrow Academic RTI collaboration
         Nov. 11th - School Safety PD Red Room
         Nov. 18th - Travel awards/ELL PD continued
         Nov. 25th- Behavior RTI collaboration
       
Speech Tournament- Our LJHS speech team will host a speech tournament here at Lincoln this coming Saturday Nov. 9th.  During this tournament all classrooms will be utilized therefore teachers please make sure you put away any valuables that you might be concerned about.

ILEARN Test Administration Certification - All teachers need to complete the ILEARN Test Administration Certification course.  This course takes about 20 minutes and please print your certificate and turn in into Sandy Cartwright.

Christmas Party- Save the Date of December 13th for our staff Christmas party.  More details to come.

November Spirit Assembly- November 15th- Spirit Assembly Schedule

Lincoln Commemorative Community Day- Wednesday November 20th Schedule and plans coming soon.

Lincoln News:  

Welcome Back Maddie Wohlfert from maternity leave.