Instructional Rounds practitioner sharing and support.

Instructional Rounds Plus 
Thomas Fowler-Finn, Ed.D. 
112 Grover Road Extension Medford, MA 02155 

Office: (781) 391-2172 Mobile: (339) 221-2922  [email protected]
Copyright 2016 Instructional Rounds: Lesson Observation & Analysis. All Rights Reserved.

Instructional Rounds practitioner sharing and support.

4 reasons to ask students questions

by Thomas Fowler-Finn on 02/19/15

There are four main reasons why rounds observers may want to ask questions of students in the classroom: 1. To ascertain whether the student understands the context for what is currently taking place in the classroom and the learning intention; 2. To determine how the student sees their role as a learner and a classroom participant;  3.  To assess the extent of investment a student has in the content - whether what they are studying is regarded as important or of value to them; 4.  To gauge the depth of student understanding of the content.... conceptual vs surface.  Observers need to ask multiple questions before even one of these purposes can be fulfilled.  

What questions should I ask students?

by Thomas Fowler-Finn on 02/19/15

Network members seek to know, "What questions should I ask students when I'm in the classrooms?  The answer to that depends upon the school's Problem of Practice (POP). The questions you should ask are determined by what the observer needs to know from the student in order to help the school resolve the POP.  For example, if "student engagement" is a central focus in the POP, you would want to know about the students' personal interest in the content and the students' perception of the value/importance of the content to them in their current lives.  Observers would not ask, "Why is this work important?" but rather, "Is this work of importance to you?" and "Why or why not?"