Questioning: Agree, Challenge, Extend

 Questioning is a core part of teaching. Yet, as you badger away at an individual student, drilling down to see what they know and how deep their learning goes, how do you involve the rest of the class?

One finger = agree

Students in agreement with the answer/statement/opinion raise one finger.

Two fingers = challenge

Students who disagree with or want to challenge an answer can signal with two fingers. This is great - how often have you asked another student (or a series of students) only to hear the same opinion as the first student you asked? This way you can immediately jump to the dissenting voice.

Three fingers = extend (or build, as I've also seen it called)

Students who agree, but for different reasons than stated, or who want to extend the answer, can signal with three fingers.

Train your classes to do this as students answer. Suddenly, you can see where the whole class is, and suddenly they are all participating and thus have an even greater reason to invest in listening to each other. 

I'm fairly certain I got this off John Sullivan back in 2014, and I've used it ever since, introducing it to several schools. It's a brilliant combination of behaviour management and assessment for learning that keeps the whole class engaged. Super simple, super effective. 








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