So much scrutiny is placed upon teachers and the classroom these days, especially when it comes to how students are learning critical thinking skills – or IF they're learning critical thinking skills. Sometimes the “old school” ways of teaching simply don't work and new techniques need to be tested.
TQE is one such technique that allows students to think about their own questions related to the text and question WHY the author (or artist, if students analyze songs or paintings) chose certain words or techniques to give voice to their message. TQE simply stands for Thoughts, Questions, and Epiphanies. What better way for students to understand a piece of work than to explore it themselves — and think up their own questions instead of reading strictly to answer the teacher's questions.
My guest in this episode is Marisa Thompson who created the TQE method and has used this in her classes for many years. Marisa notes that this method can work for ANY grade level, not just middle or high school level ELA classes. Working the TQE method into the younger grades will only set them up for success and currently 4th, 5th and 6th graders give the most positive feedback.
Listen to my own experiences with TQE, set in both my high school junior class, as well as my college class comprised predominately of pre-service junior and senior-level teachers (and a couple of graduate students).
Resources mentioned in today's episode:
- About Marisa: https://about.me/MarisaThompson
- Marisa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarisaEThompson
- Unlimited Teacher: https://www.unlimitedteacher.com/
- Cult of Pedagogy Intervew: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/tqe-method/
- Twitter response from Dana Walrath: https://twitter.com/watersenglish/status/1069734207033876480
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
- Tulsa Burning by Anna Myers
- Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
- Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath