One Way to Battle the IDK in the Classroom!

     As teachers come back from Christmas break, we need to narrow our focus as we only have 13ish weeks before testing starts.  Some ways we can help our students understand the content standards we are teaching is by scaffolding questions (also know as leading questions).  Sometimes, in the classroom, we feel pressured to get through so much in an hour, that we allow students to respond with "IDK" (I don't know) and move on to another student who we know will give us the answer we are looking for.  However, by allowing students to respond with IDK, we are allowing them to check out and not be responsible for what is being taught. 
     Is this a dilemma?  YES.  This has always been a struggle - to get apathetic students involved in learning; nonetheless, it is still our job as educators to do so.  Do we kick them out of class because they are not paying attention?  NO!  We must engage these students as best we can - thus...leading questions.  Leading questions are those questions one uses to get students to talk.  They should start out easy and scaffold/lead to high level thinking.  This allows those students who feel unsure in the content area to build some confidence and feel successful.  These questions should *start off simple and build to higher DoK levels *help students recognize misconceptions *redirect students thinking if they are going in a different direction, and *build on each other to bring the student to the desired thought process. 
     Some examples of scaffold questions are *Where in the text can you find...?  *Give me a specific example of...  *Why is ... important?  *What would happen if...?  *How does ... affect ...?  *Explain how ...?  *Explain why...?  (Follow all of these except the first question with where in the text does it support your statement?)  These questions build from easily found in the text to drawing conclusions, analysis, and application. 
     One big shift as we move into Common Core State Standards (CCSS), or in my state Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS), is for students to be able to explain their answers.  Often there is not one correct answer with CCSS; the assessments are looking for how students support their answers with textual evidence from whatever text they are using.  Thus, these kinds of leading questions help students get to that end point - their thoughts about a topic using evidence to back up their opinion(s).
     So, as we move back into the classroom, refuse to accept IDK.  Require your students to be active participants in their education.  Ask your students questions that take them from "I don't know" to "I know that answer" to "I have an opinion, and this part of the text supports my opinion."  What a confidence booster for those students who have struggled in the past.  Students will feel more at ease as they understand as long as they can show evidence from the text for their answer - their answer is not incorrect.
     Here is a two minute video you can watch from the Teachingchannel.org (a great resource) on questioning for understanding.  https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/questioning-in-the-classroom