I’m a huge tennis fan and Rafael Nadal is one of my favorite players. Over the years he has become a fluent English speaker, but I found it interesting that when he was interviewed recently on the television show, 60 Minutes, he opted to use Spanish for the extended on-camera interview because “he expresses himself more freely in Spanish.” That is likely true for many second language learners. A friend made the remark that she feels like her IQ goes up 10 points when she uses her first language. Even when fluent in another language, one’s expression is often affected when using a non-native language.
In the classroom, teachers may underestimate English learners’ capabilities since these students may not be able to adequately express their thoughts, understanding of content, or ask questions in a precise way to get at the information they seek. As a result, teachers may confuse English proficiency with ability. In other words, just because a student can’t speak English fluently doesn’t mean she can’t think – and do so at high levels.
To advance academically and linguistically, English learners need to be sufficiently challenged and one way to do so is by providing ample opportunities to think at higher levels.
Research tells us that about 80% of questions teachers ask are at the literal level. That means students are asked to give back information that was given to them or memorized rather than engaging in critical thinking. Examples of literal or recall questions include:
When did ________ take place? and, What is the definition of __________________.
It’s pretty easy to see why teachers tend to ask questions at the lowest levels. Typically, we want students to remember or understand what we’re teaching, and basic comprehension questions reveal what students remember from a lesson. Studies also show that students of color, English learners, and those at lower income levels are more likely to be asked lower level questions than other students. If teachers believe that certain students are unlikely to be successful when engaging in higher order thinking tasks, they tend to teach in ways that make this expectation a reality.
Bloom’s taxonomy provides guidance for asking the type of questions that challenge students to think more deeply about information. The most recent version of Bloom’s sets the levels from lowest to highest as, Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. The graphic above provides ideas for engaging students at higher levels such as analyzing information: “Can students distinguish between different parts?” In this case students would be asked to compare, contrast, or test information.
There are lots of websites that have sample questions for Bloom’s higher order thinking but the challenge for teachers of English learners is to formulate questions that reduce students’ linguistic load while being cognitively challenging. For example, What is the relationship between ________ and ________ ? (analyze)), or Did ________ choose a wise course of action? Give reasons. (evaluate) English learners should be encouraged to demonstrate their knowledge about these and other higher order questions in a variety of ways such as drawing, through drama, building a model, using a graphic organizer, creating PowerPoint slide presentation, and so forth. The purpose is for students to engage in and demonstrate higher order thinking, not to show their level of English proficiently.
Some ways of increasing the use of higher order questions include:
- Plan for higher order questioning during lesson planning. Several SIOP lesson plan templates have a section for developing higher order thinking skills (HOTS). Planning specific questions ahead of time is important since it’s unlikely that teachers can come up with a variety of good higher order questions on the fly.
- Teach students about higher order thinking and higher order thinking strategies. Explain to students why they are being asked questions that provoke thought and require them to grapple with an idea or analyze a problem. Making students aware of HOTS helps them understand their own higher order thinking strengths and challenges.
- Post anchor charts with question stems representing each level of Blooms. These posted resources can be used:
- To teach students about HOTS and to become familiar with questions at each level (see previous point);
- By teachers to stimulate class discussions. The visual question starters remind teachers to go beyond literal questions and ask questions that deepen students’ thinking;
- By students to refer to and use different levels of questioning when working with peers. The charts model how to ask good questions.
- As students read, urge students to ask themselves questions from the charts to enhance comprehension and engagement with text.
- Use prompts to stimulate thinking. Prompts can be placed purposefully throughout the text, asking questions of readers that intentionally emphasize different skills such as inference or analysis.
In post-match interviews, professional tennis players, most of whom are multilingual, are asked to analyze a point, compare their match to a previous one, evaluate their play or that of another. All these questions require higher order thinking and although the players’ English may not be fluent, they are able to think beyond literal levels — just like our students.