73.33 100 Types of Teacher Questions

14 class is about something that is familiar or well-known by the students. Here, there are some examples of the reading topic used in the classrooms; “Newspaper 3 rd Grade,” “Short Story 4 th Grade,” and “King Midas 5 th Grade.” In fact, this type of question will be asked by the teachers based on the students‟ own experiences and the fact that they have already known. Moreover, these are the following examples of Reflective questions used in the pre-reading activity of the 5 th Grade when the teacher taught about a Greek myth see Extract 1. Extract 1 Teacher C : Do you know about Greek? All students : Yes. Teacher C : What do you know about Greek? Student 1 : Ancient. Student 2 : god, goddess Student 3 : Myth. Teacher C : Good. Everybody can see? the teacher points the slide show All students : Yes. Teacher C : So, now I want you to guess who is in the picture. It‟s all about the god and goddess. The first picture, who is this? the teacher points the picture in the slide show All students : Ares. Teacher C : it is the god of …. All students : war. Based on classroom observation, 5 th Grade, on February 4 th , 2013 Actually, the examples of Reflective questions were taken in the beginning of pre-reading activity before the students read the Greek myth entitled King Midas. Here, the teacher asked some questions which are related to the Greek myth as the reading topic see Extract 1. In fact, this type of questions is based on the students‟ experience, fact, and observation about something. 15 When the teacher, asked this type of questions in the 5 th Grade, it aims to check the students‟ understanding about Greek itself or something related to the Greek before they read the Greek myth. Therefore, by looking at the examples in Extract 1, it proves that the teachers facilitate the students to share their opinion about something they have experienced or observed that might help the students build their own background knowledge about the topic that will be read. In addition, it is in accordance with Mayberry and Hartle 2003 that Reflective questions help the students to reflect the story with their own life. Even though sometimes, the Reflective questions asked by the teacher does not have any relation with the reading topic that will be read by the students see Extract 2. Extract 2 Teacher B : Have you ever heard novel? All students : Yes. Teacher B : Is the novel can be seen? All students : Yes. Teacher B : What is it look like? Student 1 : Thick. Student 2 : Heavy. Student 3 : No picture in it. Based on classroom observation, 4 th Grade, on January 23 rd , 2013 The examples in Extract 2 were taken when the teacher taught the 4 th Grader about short story entitled Harry and Rosie Trick Santa. Actually, the three examples of Reflective questions in the 4 th Grade have no relation with the reading topic . It aims to build the students‟ background knowledge of what 16 Short Story looks like. However, the teacher asks about Novel as the basic questions before she asks about what Short Story is. In addition, it is good to asked about Novel as the basic questions because Short Story is an element resemblance to Novel. Moreover, it can help the students to think more about the distinctions between Novel and Short Story is. It seems like the teachers just want the students to be actively participated in the pre-reading activity for reading. Furthermore, it is in line with the aims of Reflective questions written by Dantonio and Beisenherz 2001 as cited in Mayberry and Hartle 2003; Reflective questions are the quest ions that „stimulate conversation and examine basic assumption.‟ 1b. Clarifying Questions According to the Table 4.1, another the type of question that often used in the pre-reading activity in the 3 rd to 5 th Grade of Bethany Elementary School is Clarifying questions. Based on the Table 4.1, it appears 13 times out of 90 14.44 in the pre-reading activity. In addition, it shows that this type of question is rarely used in the pre-reading activity, especially in the 3 rd and 4 th Grade. In fact, it might because the 3 rd and 4 th Grade of Elementary School students do not have enough background knowledge if they directly asked by the teacher about Clarifying questions. Essentially, Clarifying questions mainly asked about the particular topic that will be read by the students. According to Dantonio and Beisenherz 2001 as cited in Mayberry and Hartle 2003, Clarifying question is the type of question that aims to „gain more information.‟ They put Clarifying 17 questions in the first rank out of eight questions that they have identified. It indicates that it can be the first questions appear before the students learn about a particular subject. Moreover, it can be said that this type of question is always directly connected with a particular reading topic. However, this type of question is not always to be first asked by the teachers when they taught in the pre-reading activity. Below are the examples of Clarifying questions used in the 5 th Grade see Extract 3. Extract 3 Teacher C : Does anyone know what is Pandora’s Box? All students: Yes. Teacher C : So, what is Pandora’s Box? Student 1 : Box that belongs to Pandora. Teacher C : Who is Pandora? Student 2 : a person. Student 3 : a girl. Based on classroom observation, 5 th Grade, on February, 14 th , 2013 According to Extract 3, the teacher in the 5 th Grade still discussed about Greek myth using another reading passage. The title of the reading passage is Pandora’s Box. Here, it is clearly stated that the teacher asked Clarifying questions. It is because the teacher asked questions that directly connected to the reading topic. Actually, Pandora’s Box is the title of their reading text. At this point, the teacher asks Clarifying questions by often mentioning the title of the text. It is because the title of the reading is simple, so that the teacher tries to build the students‟ background knowledge by asking Clarifying questions before they read the text. 18 However, Clarifying questions emerge depending on the topic that will be taught by the teachers. There is an example of Clarifying question asked by the teacher in the 3 rd Grade see Extract 4. Extract 4 Teacher A : Where you can find information? Student 1 : Book. Student 2 : Magazine. Student 3 : Newspaper. Student 4 : TV. Based on classroom observation, 3 rd Grade, on January 8 th , 2013 In line with the Extract 4, the teacher taught about Newspaper. When taught in the 3 rd Grade, the teacher brought a newspaper in hisher hand. Then, she asked a Clarifying question see Extract 4 to the students which aims to introduce the topic that the students will read later. Here, many students try to answer the question spontaneously with different answer. However, the teacher‟s expectation of the students‟ answer is Newspaper. Therefore, it is clear that the questions used by the teacher in the 3 rd and 5 th Grade are different depending on the topic that will be taught by the teachers. In addition, when the students answer this type of question, there is no right or wrong answer because this question only helps the students to explore their thought about a particular reading topic that they will read later. Again, Mayberry and Hartle 2003 also prove that Clarifying questions occur in teaching reading. However, the examples given by them shows that Clarifying questions are used in the post-teaching. 19 1c. Interpretive Questions Derived from the Table 4.1, the third type of question that is used in the classrooms is Interpretive questions. It is shown in the table that Interpretive questions occur 10 times out of 90 11.11 in the pre-reading activity. Eventually, this type of question requires the teacher to ask about cause and effect or the reason of doing something. Here, there are examples of Interpretive questions based on the particular topic in and 5 th Grade see Extract 5. Extract 5 Teacher C : How do you know that it the story in a blog is true story? Student 1 : it is said in the blog Miss. Student 2 : the writer said it is his scary experiences. Teacher C : Why is it scary? Student 3 : because he see ghost. Based on classroom observation, 5 th Grade, on March 8 th , 2013 Actually, the Interpretive questions in the 5 th Grade are asked when the teacher gave a reading topic entitled How to Make a Dinosaur, but in the pre- reading activity, the teacher asked about what just the students did in the classroom. They had read a scary story in a blog. At the point, she asked Interpretive questions see Extract 5. In addition, it does not have relation with the reading passage that they will read. When the teacher asks this type of question, it aims to help the students to have higher level of thinking by answering the reason why they did something. 20 In fact, Interpretive questions are also asked depending on the topic that will read by the students. There is another example about Interpretive questions asked in the 3 rd Grade see Extract 6. Extract 6 Teacher A : Why do you use telephone? Student 1 : I use it to call my parents, Miss. Student 2 : to communicate with people. Based on classroom observation, 5 th Grade, on March 8 th , 2013 Here, the teacher will give a reading text about How the Telephone was Invented, so she asks an interpretive question which has relation with the reading topic. It is because the teacher wants to check and build the students‟ understanding about the function of telephone that might be stated in the reading passage. Unfortunately, there are no examples of Interpretive questions used in the 4 th Grade. Based on the writer‟s observation in the 4 th Grade, it is impossible to apply the Interpretive questions because the topic of reading in the class. It is in line with Mayberry and Hartle 2003, they do not provide the examples of Interpretive questions in reading because the reading topic in the classroom might not possible to use this type of questions. From the examples of Interpretive questions above, the teachers expects the students to explore their thought even though, it is have no relationship with the reading topic. It seems the reason why the teacher uses this type of questions is to check the st udents‟ understanding about a particular topic in order to help them to have higher-level of thinking. However, it is good for 21 asking this type of questions to help the students think deeply about something. 1d. Evaluative Questions Then, the last type of question hardly ever used in the pre-reading activity is Evaluative questions. Actually, in accordance with the Table 4.1, this type of question appears only once from the total ninety questions 1.11 in pre- reading activity. It might be caused most teachers used Evaluative questions only in post-reading because the teacher will ask about what kind of moral value that the students learn from the story or what are the things that they learned from the topic that being studied. Mayberry and Hartle 2003 show the examples of Evaluative questions used in the post-reading. However, the fact that teacher asks about Evaluative questions in the pre-reading activity does not guarantee that this type of questions always used in the post-reading. In addition, the use of Evaluative questions depends on the reading topic that the students learn. This is an example of Evaluative question in the 3 rd Grade of Elementary School when the students learn about Folktales. Extract 7 Teacher A : What did you learn from the story Never Ride a Tiger? Student 1 : Never ride a tiger. Student 2 : don‟t do stupid things. Student 3 : think first before you do something. Based on classroom observation, 3 rd Grade, on February 4 th , 2013 22 Eventually, based on the writer‟s observation, the Evaluative question is asked by the teacher when the students will read about some Indonesian folktales see Extract 7. Here, the teacher gives pre-reading activity by asking questions related to the previous reading text about Chinese folktales entitled Never Ride a Tiger. When the teacher asks Evaluative questions, it aims to recall the thing that they learn from the folktales before they read Indonesian folktales. From the example in Extract 7, it is clear that Evaluative questions can be used in the pre-reading activity. Again, it depends on the topic that the teacher will teach. Moreover, it is also used by the teacher to ask about the moral value stated in the story. Then, by asking the question, the teacher also helps the students to remember the main points of reading Folktales. Among the four types of questions emerge in the pre-reading activity, the writer finds that there are two types of questions belong into two categories. They are Clarifying – Reflective and Clarifying – Interpretive questions. The two types of questions will be discussed further in the following explanation see Table 4.2. Type of Questions Class C - R C - I Total 3 rd Grade 12 12 4 th Grade 10 11 21 5 th Grade 15 15 Total Questions 37 11 48 Percentage 77.08

22.92 100

Table 4.2 The distribution of two combination types of questions used in each class. 23 2a. Clarifying – Reflective Questions According to the Table 4.2, Clarifying – Reflective questions appear 37 times out of 48 questions 77.08 in the pre-reading activity. Actually, based on the writer observation, Clarifying – Reflective questions not only asked about a particular topic that will be studied, but also related it with the students‟ own experience. Moreover, it can be said that the teacher‟s questions of a particular reading topic has relation with the students‟ experience. Furthermore, the following examples below are Clarifying – Reflective questions asked in the 4 th Grade see Extract 8. Extract 8 Teacher B : Last story that you have read? All students : James and the Giant Peach. Teacher B : What is it about? Student 1 : James lives with his bad Aunt. Student 2 : His friends are Centipede and Earthworm. Teacher B : Who are they the characters of the story? Student 1 : James. Student 2 : James‟s mother and father Student 3 : Aunt Sponge Based on classroom observation, 4 th Grade, on February 6 th , 2013 The examples in Extract 8 were taken when the teacher discussed about Book Review in the 4 th Grade, but she asked basic questions in the pre-reading using the last story that the students have read. It was about the James and the Giant Peach. In asking Clarifying - Reflective questions in the 4 th Grade, the teacher asked about the main points of the previous lesson. It is because later, they will use the main points to make a book review. Thus, from the examples in Extract 8, it is clear that the aim of this type of question is to recall the information that has been studied by the students. In