Double Entry Journal #12

"Social Significance of Patterns of Questioning in Classroom Discourse"
Three Thing I Learned:
1. The IRE structure of discourse sets up an imbalance of power in a number of ways. 
I hadn't ever looked much into the IRE structure. I knew it stood for teacher initiation, student response, and teacher evaluation, but not much more than that. So getting a good look further into it was beneficial.
2. "A good set of questions is good not merely because it contains a significant percentage of higher-level questions but also because it helps students to think about the topic systematically and emerge from the discussion with connected understandings."
I completely agree with this statement. A good question is when their is thought involved in answering the question, not just memorization.
3. "Perhaps rather than focusing on the communication system of the social institution of education, teachers should be focusing on the social implications of the communication structure of education."
Communication is the key to success as a teacher. We just have to gear toward the right form of communication.
Two Thing I Found Interesting
1. "While language is a valuable tool for exploration of most fields of study, the prevalence of oral communication in our lives often leads teachers and students to take language for granted."
I don't see how anyone could take language for granted. Language is the basis for all communication and language can come in many forms: body, facial, oral, etc. As teachers, we have to be able to successfully communicate with our students above all else in my opinion.
2. "...teachers typically wait one second or less for students to start a reply to their question before calling on anther student or supplying information related to the question themselves."
There's no way a student has time to think in depth about a question when only given that little of time to come up with a response.
One Question:
1. What are some strategies to help our students better their communication? A lot of kids are terrified to speak in public, and that's definitely something teachers need to help to improve.

"Learning to Ask Essential Question"
Asking essential questions in schools can help students to grasp the concept better and think more in depth. Since an essential question is usually the main idea of a topic, you know the student at least gets the main idea, and they will usually expand further than just the main idea; especially if you frame the question to involve in depth thought.