Help Students Elaborate on New Content (Marzano DQ 11)

Imagine you've just taught a lesson about the American Revolution.  You might ask your students, "So, what European country helped us by providing naval support?"  Hopefully, your students could answer, "France did; they gave us naval support."

That's great, but being able to answer a question is only the first part of this element.  The next part is the most effective.  Students must be given the opportunity to make inferences about the newly learned content so their thinking can expand beyond what was explicitly taught.  A great follow up to the student's answer in the example above might be, "Why did they help us?" or, "What effect might France's help have had on the war?"

Here are some things you (or an administrator) could look for in your class to see if this element is being utilized:

Students might...

• give answers to inferencing questions.
• show how different ideas or concepts are related to each other.
• give evidence for their inferences.
• show how different things are related.

The teacher might...

• present problems that ask students to consider how one thing relates to another.
• ask students to provide evidence for their inferences
• ask questions that require students to make inferences