Beyond Yes or No: Elevating Questions that Spark Thinking With Rubric A-5 of the EPiC™ Key Assessment

What if a single question could shift a classroom from passive listening to active, analytical thinking? The EPiC™ Key Assessment’s Rubric A-5: Using Questioning Strategies to Develop Complex Thinking challenges teacher candidates to do just that. This rubric examines how teacher candidates transform ordinary classroom moments into opportunities for deep thinking through purposeful questioning. By drawing on frameworks like Webb’s Depth of Knowledge and Bloom’s Taxonomy, candidates are expected to move beyond surface-level prompts—sparking analysis, encouraging evaluation, and guiding students to reflect, explain, and think critically.

The strategies below will help candidates plan and reflect on their questioning approaches, as well as gather evidence for this key rubric.

 📽️ Watch: Tips for Rubric A-5– Using Questioning Strategies to Develop Complex Thinking

Key Tips for Success on Rubric A-5

✓ Use Purposeful Questioning and Feedback

Tip: Incorporate content-related questions that go beyond basic recall. Aim for prompts at the strategic thinking level of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) or the applying/analyzing level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Example: 

Ask questions such as:

• “What would result if...?”

• “How is... similar to...?” 

Follow up with specific feedback that encourages students to explain, defend, or extend their thinking.

✓ Support Student Connections to Content

Tip: Use questioning techniques that help students build meaningful connections to the lesson content.

Example:

• Allow appropriate wait time before calling on students.

• Use pacing and rephrasing to support clarity.

• Try strategies like “stretch it” (ask students to elaborate) or “say it again better” (encourage clearer communication).

These methods help students process their ideas more fully and make stronger content connections.

✓ Elicit Extended Thinking and Responses

Tip: Encourage deeper conversations by asking follow-up questions and prompting students to think beyond surface-level answers.

Example:

When a student responds, try:

“Can you explain why that’s important?” “How might someone else view this differently?” 

This creates opportunities for students to analyze, reflect, and respond at higher levels of cognition.

✓ Collecting Strong Evidence

Engaging Students with Varied Cognitive Questions: Describe and show how you asked questions at different cognitive levels aligned with your lesson objectives. 

📌 Include timestamps from your video showing questions that move beyond recall and prompt deeper thinking.

Questioning Strategies for Content Connections: Show how you used techniques like cold calling, wait time, or rephrasing to support student understanding. 

📌 Include timestamps where these methods led to clearer connections or stronger student responses.

Eliciting Complex Thinking and Extended Responses: Demonstrate how your responses encouraged students to extend their thinking. 

📌 Highlight video segments where your prompts sparked extended discussions or thoughtful analysis.

Example Question: “How does the main character’s decision affect other characters and the book’s overall theme? Can you provide examples from the text that show how this decision changes the plot or reveals something important?”

By employing these strategies and addressing the critical analysis prompts, teacher candidates can demonstrate how their questioning techniques foster deeper thinking, enhance comprehension, and engage students in complex cognitive processes.

Next up: Rubric A-6 – Reflecting on Teaching