Assigned Blog: Questioning Technique

Today, I applied one of the questioning techniques in my class. I used the muddiest part of the lesson technique, or the clarification process. Actually, I tweaked it a little bit, because I'm cool like that and I can. Today we were mainly reviewing for the entirety of the four periods. At the end of the day, fourth period, when the students can't sit still any longer (picture a wet fish flopping around on dry land), I had the perfect activity planned, Jeopardy: American History Style. Something you'd want to do on a Saturday night right? Anyway, it worked wonders. After three periods of review (fun), we had the student (1) write numerous questions on index cards that he wasn't quite clear on. He had to write two questions for each respective category. Each category was placed on the board with space under it to write in. The stage was set. Me vs. Him.  He would receive one point for answering each question correctly, and I would gain a point if he answered incorrectly. He won, and he loved it. He rubbed it in my face pretty good too. Anyway, I asked him the question that he himself wrote. He would answer, but then I would ask another question to elaborate the main topic to make the question more relatable to him. In turn, he would get two points instead of one for answering my question that brought clarity to the big picture. It has always been my theory, that I was actually taught in college by my favorite professor, that History and in actuality any subject, is all about the big picture. There are all of these minute, specific, and at times confusing details, but all that matters is your ability to relate it to the ultimate meaning or context. It's like fitting a piece perfectly into a puzzle. I had a bell that I borrowed (stole) from another class, and its ring was the sound of that piece snapping into the puzzle. The crowd (Mr. Z and Ms. G) roared with applause. Johnny killed me in Jeopardy (I let him win, not really), and he ate it up. Alas, beating your teacher at anything is cool right? My reputation is forever tarnished... Damn you Trebek.