Questioning As An Effective Instructional Strategy

How do we get students to think critically? I discussed using learning outcomes, success criteria, meaningful rubrics paired with meaningful instruction as ways to engage students and have them own and be responsible for their learning. But is that all we can do as teachers? 

As a teacher and as a tutor, I have always worked to engage students in thinking critically about their learning. My favorite strategy? Questioning. Maybe it’s a “hmm…” or a raised eyebrow, or even a well timed question to make them look, examine and think. However it’s done, questioning is a strategy that can be lighthearted and help create that safe space so students are willing to try, make mistakes, examine their mistakes, correct them and try again and again and again. 

Over the years, I have found that redirecting or cueing students with a question to think about their own thinking is more effective at lasting learning than just redirecting them with a correction. When they think about their response or their answer it taps into their metacognitive thinking skills and helps build new neural connections that we can build on and reinforce. Even my most dyslexic students benefit from the questioning strategy when they stop, ponder for a moment, produce the correct letter sounds, blend the sounds correctly as many times as needed to read the word correctly (and not give a similar word). 

The best part of this strategy is the self confidence and efficacy it builds in students. When students see that they can do something, that they are able to think through and solve a problem or come up with the correct pronunciation of a word, they see that they are capable. Students see that they can tackle challenging curriculum and do hard things. 

One of my students I worked with was believed to be two grade levels behind in reading while in third grade. When I started asking what sound a letter makes in a particular position of a word, I noticed they were able to break down words by letter sounds and blend them together to read. Since they were so successful at doing this, I kept increasing the difficulty by introducing more complex letter combinations and pairing that instruction with the question strategy. It turns out that they were not two grade levels below. They were able to independently read a second grade level text with 92% accuracy and access and read an early 3rd grade level text with minimal support. I only realized this because I asked questions that required them to think and apply what they already knew. Even better, my student began to realize that they knew more than they thought they did. They realized that they were a reader.

Another student that was also behind in reading made a two grade level jump in reading using this same question strategy during instruction. We pondered and thought about the different sounds of vowel teams and letter blends. We examined the differences between the /igh/ words and the /ight/ words. The more questions I asked to get them thinking, the more their confidence in their ability grew. Their gains in self confidence and efficacy resulted in their increased participation at school and volunteering to read aloud in class.

I think it’s important to note here that even though questioning is an effective strategy, it does not replace good instruction and safe relationships with students. It is another tool in our toolbox that we can use as teachers to help students stop, think, revise and make those connections for lasting learning.

© 2025 Linda Patrell-Kim

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