How to Teach Students to Ask Better Questions in Math

Segment 7
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[00:00:00] Hey everybody. It is Cheri Dotterer here at Tier One Interventions podcast. It's great to have you here with us while we talk about the core of the math classroom. Today we're gonna be talking more about. Pizzas, rectangles, lockers. Oh my.

Cedric:  Back on March 10th, 2026, we started a 10 segment series Here is segment 7 from our October Workshop. If you are enjoying what you are learning, please subscribe and leave a comment.

I think that was the right order. Over to Jonily.

What did you guys do? What did Amy help? Cheri? What did, what? What'd you guys start with? We started with the pizza problem. Oh, I was not expecting that answer. Son of a gun. Okay. That is not what I was expecting you to say. Because Beth wanted to [00:01:00] work on fluency and different things. So we talked about how she could use the cubes to set up different ways to make I think we talked about 16, 24.

Like how can you, how many different ways could you create 24 with pizzas or rectangles? 'cause I had said I feel like if you want to have more. Facts available. I like using rectangles. So then we talked about how you could create those and how they could tell like how, how tall, how long, what your total number was.

And then, I don't know, Cheri was setting them up a lot different than, I wish she was making it a lot harder. I said for my first grade teacher brain, I had to start with the numbers at the sides of the X so that I could just say, okay, I know that when I multiply the product is this, and when I add the answers this.

But [00:02:00] she was doing the numbers in a different way. I was mimicking, literally mimicking what you had up on the board on the screen. Last time I copied a couple of the programs, the problems down, and I was trying to solve yours and I was struggling myself to solve them, trying to figure out how these things worked.

And so I just took the problems that you had shared and was trying to solve them with Beth, but then tried to set 'em up myself and I was like, I have no idea how to set this up. That is beautiful. Amy's solution was like a light bulb that went off in my head where you. Do the sides, figure out the top and bottom and then do whichever one is going to be Mo most great appropriate.[00:03:00]

But then I feel like Cheri was using, so we did 24 and we talked about making different rectangles using the number 24. So you could have one in 24, 2 and 12, three and eight, four and six with your Katy cubes and how we could put it on the dimension chart and then make the diamond problem even after that.

And I feel like Cheri was putting 24 on the top and then that clicked with me for higher level or older kids than my first graders. To be able to have your 24 on the top and then you have to figure out what your side numbers would be based off of the rectangle or the dimension chart. And then you could put your sum on the bottom.

And the other thing that we talked about was where forms are located in the mastery math method course level one [00:04:00] place, so that Beth was able to short shorten the gap on learning some of the features and stuff, but learning from the two and a half hour. Curriculum was overwhelming her. So we gave her the assignment to do one and get an idea how one of them works.

And we, I think Amy, if I'm correct, we suggested pizza. Is that where we told her to start? I think you had said pizza and I had said rectangles and either one would work it depe, I think I said like it depended what she was doing. Are you doing, are you wanting to just do squares or like square numbers or not?

So I don't know what she said she was gonna go back and look at them. Yeah. So for you guys that are listening to this conversation last 18 months, we recorded all [00:05:00] 12 of the reference tasks as an introductory level so that you could have a basic understanding of those tasks. They are in the Mastery Math Method course and we have that for sale for you.

And we will put the link in the show notes so that you can access that.

And then this year we are recording level two, so we have a basic understanding because. These people that you see in front of you and have been talking and interacting have gone through that last 18 months as well, and you're going, oh my gosh, that's a lot of information. It's okay. We just shared with you how we've taken one of our clients who did not go through the 18 months with us, [00:06:00] how to shorten the gap to understanding that she could use some of the material effectively today.

And I think this is what is important.

Oh, there's so much in my head that I can't even finish that thought.

Let me look here.

Yep. Okay. I am looking at your comments.

Okay. So now I'm going to do a couple of things. Now I'm gonna be a responsive teacher again. See, thi this is where we have to head [00:07:00] now. I know when I come back in and it's like I don't understand anything Jonily's saying. But then I've got my people here that are like, bring it down girl, bring it down.

And that is what we're attempting to do today and what it's doing to help all of you who are on here live is what are the pieces that you've been missing to heavily implement. That's been part of what my goal was for all of you today. Just like Sarah said, I avoided the locker problem. It is a complex one to facilitate, but only by seeing that picture.

Sarah doesn't even know what we did with that picture, but knowing the locker problem and seeing that picture that I showed, she's dang, now I'm not totally getting it, but I'm seeing what the locker problem can do on the back end. Now I have to figure out how to facilitate this thing because now I can see how powerful it's, so then Sarah knows [00:08:00] now what her next mini lesson from me needs to be in my algebra classes.

I teach the same way. And Natalie, you may have noticed this yesterday, I don't know, I'm making this up as I go, but that's what I've trained my student, my high school students to do is to know what mini lesson to ask me for. So I teach in this same way to my high school students and then all of a sudden they'll be like.

Oh my gosh, Ms. Dupant, I get why you need us to know that I still don't know this piece. Here's what I need you to help me with. Gosh, Natalie, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but did you see evidence of that yesterday? Because I can't think of an exact example, but did you see evidence of that yesterday?

She's saying Yes. Okay, let me pause and let her do this. Yeah, I'd say a little bit. I don't know that like they named specific things, but I overheard a conversation with one [00:09:00] girl, I don't know if it was algebra one or algebra two, I think, but she's I'm starting to see this P part, this part and this part, but right here is where it's con still confusing to me.

And so they were asking like, I get this, and this. I need help right here. But the way they were like, my kids were just saying, I need help. I'm like, cool. What do you need help with? I need a question. Like they were able to get to the question like, I need help here. So yeah, it was very directed in the way they were able to ask for exactly what they needed.

And that doesn't just happen because in typical high school math classrooms. They can't articulate just like a sixth grader. Can't articulate. That doesn't just happen. It happens through the way we facilitate and we train them to ask the right question. And it's funny because as I'm teaching on this right now, I wasn't planning on teaching on this piece of it today, but it's ironic that Natalie was there and I couldn't think of an example 'cause I didn't prepare to teach on this.

And I do remember a couple of things that happened yesterday that my kids were very [00:10:00] articulate in the way that they asked questions. And Natalie, I don't want you to think that just because they're high school students, they're naturally able to do that. I don't have advanced kids. I have kids that have struggled for years that came with a ton of baggage and they're able to do that just after nine weeks of training with me.

And I'll pride myself on that because it's through deliberate intentional instruction and understanding the whole the mastermind or the masterclass that we teach on developing, pre-planning, planning, presenting and post-planning as an educator to help increase our facilitation techniques so that kids extend their achievement and independence.

Thought, Natalie, my, I mean my kids right now. But they'll learn, if you just tell me you have a question, I'll say, great, what's your question? And if they say, I don't understand, I'll say, figure out what you don't understand. Like they, I also I know they will get there. I won't just say, oh let's, okay, let me hold your hand through this whole problem.

No, you what? Do what? Don't you understand? What's the most specific thing? So I train my kids as well. We're still getting there [00:11:00] this point in the year. But another takeaway or strategy that I saw, you do like little mini lessons with small kids at some of the whiteboards around your room. And you were, they were asking, so you were breaking down certain parts, but then other kids were maybe observing that or oh, okay, so what was Ms Z doing over there?

And then when you would get to them, they're like, I understood this part but I, you lost me here. So you were able to mini lesson with individual groups, but you didn't have to start from the top every single time. 'cause they were clued in that I should probably see what's going on over there. And they were self following along, but then they could say, I, but you lost me here.

What's this part? So when you're, now you're at this group, you're like, okay, here is where, and you were able to go on and so we didn't have to, or you didn't have to do everything at the front and debrief the whole class. 'cause they had all seen it individually, but it wasn't like you had to go through a 15 minute progress or process each time.

'cause they were clued in the how to. [00:12:00] Follow along and check their work and see what they knew and what they didn't know. So that was a very deliberate practice as well. Natalie, I forgot about that. And that is really savvy. I have my kids sitting in groups. Every group has a color. Every table group has a color, every student has a number based on their team roles.

So this has been deliberately, intentionally set up. So now what she observed in that class yesterday, and I didn't plan to do this, but it happened naturally 'cause I do it a lot, is exactly what she said. So I had problems up and I went and mini lessened in the small groups. Okay. And I positioned myself in the small groups.

I actually have a stool beside each small group. And the stool is the color of the group. Okay? Everything is so spot on, like I'm so type B in my facilitation. But I am very type A in my preparation of it. So I have a stool that I don't have to stand when I go to the group. I can sit on that stool with that group.[00:13:00]

But what's cool is the stool is positioned by that group so that I can see the rest of the classroom from where I'm sitting. So that's also deliberate. I also have vertical surfaces that are matched up to each table groups. So when the kids get up in their groups and go to the vertical surfaces, they know based on their color of table group, which vertical surface, which whiteboard they go to when their group does vertical surface whiteboards and knowledge mobility.

What I also did yesterday was I don't know that I sat a lot because I was working one from one group to another pretty quickly. So I went to the group. I easily had the vertical surface for that group right behind me. So I was able to talk quiet to that group in mini lesson while other groups have gotten conditioned to eavesdrop.

And then I can do some of those things. Then I go to the next group and I'll be like, okay, so where are we? And that's when the next group will be like, oh, I heard you say over there about this and I see that you did the nine and eight, but eight's not a stopper [00:14:00] number. And so then they were able to ask that, and then I would go to another group that ha, they haven't picked up on the fact that they should eavesdrop when I'm talking quiet to for some reason they think that's cheating.

So just very few kids aren't trained, very few kids and that's okay. So I'd go to another group and they'd be I. Okay. Tell me about I'd mini lesson with them. I'd move on. I'd get to the other side of the room. I had gotten to almost every single group when I came back together to go over it.

I did not pull kids back together, whole group and go over it. I did that in my mi, so my whole group lesson happened in multiple mini lessons. Now, some teachers feel the need. You type a control freak. People stop it. Some teachers feel the need that after doing all of that, they have to come to the front of the room, bring everybody together, and make everybody listen and do that same mini lesson together with everybody.

I'm not sure why. I'm [00:15:00] not sure if you think that has to be the icing on the cake, but that cake don't need no icing. Okay? It's already icing up and decorated with the topper and the balloons and the this, and like it's done. I already did it. Now, if Natalie wasn't so savvy as my observer, if Natalie wasn't so savvy, or if you have an administrator, if you have an administrator that isn't real savvy on instructional delivery, that administrator is going to miss all of the instruction that happened because they'll see me going around, they'll see kids talking, they'll see all this happening, and they'll get on their phone and they'll check their email because they'll be like, oh, she's not teaching yet.

Jonily, I wanna close out Tier One Interventions podcast, and that is, if you are listening to this podcast and you are thinking, [00:16:00] how do I get involved, you wanna head over to your show notes and click on the link. We are offering you to come to a session like this where you get all two and a half hours at one shot for $47.

You can then join another session for another $47. Or you can buy the whole year for $497 plus you have to buy the. When if you're going to go buy the whole year, you're gonna have to buy level one as well. But the coaching and these conversations that we're having are $497. That sounds to me like a really good deal for to, to really think the way you're thinking about not just mathematics, but occupational therapist delivery, speech therapy, delivery, special ed delivery, and how we're helping these kids [00:17:00] rethink, reregulate, relearn and think about life as whole.