Double Entry Journal #12

From: Learning to ask Essential Questions

Social Significance of Questioning in Social Discourse

3 Things I learned:

- 1). The IRE means Initiation Response Evaluation. Basically, the teacher initiates by asking a question. The students respond. Then, the teacher evaluates.
- 2). IRE's pattern of questioning has very powerful implications in terms of both lesson content and classroom structure.
- 3). The questioning pattern of IRE does very little to verify if any real learning has taken place.

2 Things I found interesting:

- 1). Language communicates control.
- 2). IRE's pattern of questioning has very powerful implications in terms of both lesson content and classroom structure.

1 Question I have:

- 1). If the IRE question pattern does very little to verify any real learning has taken place, then why do many teachers continue to use it?

Learning to ask Essential Questions

Essential questions provide the link between students' lives and the curriculum because they deal with issuses the students deal with every day. They make the unit’s intellectual challenge more clear, more coherent, and more engaging for students.