10 Teaching for High Potential | February 2021
Using Curiosity to
Differentiate the
Classroom
Tracy Cloninger
Peak to Peak Charter School, Lafayette, CO
Tracy Cloninger is currently the Gifted and Talented
interventionist for grades K-12 at Peak to
Peak Charter School in Colorado. Previously,
she taught Spanish to all grades for 16 years.
She enjoys family time in the great Colorado
outdoors, travel, art, and reading (Harry Potter
being a favorite series).
T
eachers are always searching for new ways to engage
their students, and spring is a time for reinvigorating
practices. So how do we engage all students and
make them excited about learning? Curiosity is the key.
Too often, as teachers, we give the answers first…what would
happen if we started with the questions? Here’s how to do it.
1. Practice. Get students used to asking questions, being
curious, and not having the answers. Use Ian Byrd’s puzzlements
(go to https://puzzlements.co/ to sign up to get weekly
puzzlements in your inbox). Project them on the screen, and
ask the students: What do you wonder? What do you see?
This gives students a non-threatening way to experience asking
questions and wondering in a classroom.
2. Normalize questioning. Keep a book or wall of unanswered
questions.
3. Apply the concept to your content. Show a conjugated
verb in Spanish class and ask your students, what they see or
wonder? Or ask them to look at math equations and find patterns
and highlight with two (or more) different colors. Important!
Don’t tell them which patterns to look for. Let them figure
out the puzzle on their own.
Examples
Using Cards:
Learning level one information (an example from the world language
classroom) –
•	 Make sets of flash cards. There should be a different
	 conjugated verb on each card. Do this for three different
	 verbs. The easiest way is to print these from Quizlet, put
	 them on cardstock, and have a student aid or volunteer
	 cut them out.
•	 Put them in large envelops all mixed up.
•	 Ask the students to work with a partner to put the verbs
	 into as many categories as makes sense to them. Share
	 out the categories. What you want is for them to discover
	 the endings and the stems on their own. This is an organic
	 process that may take multiple directions but will eventu-
	 ally get to where you want them to go.
•	 Do the same with stem-changing verbs. Irregulars…is
	 there a pattern? Why not? What do we do with these?
	 What do we call them? Do you want to know what “ver-
	 bologists” call them?
•	 A similar thing can be done with adjective agreement or
	 word order if you print whole sentences on to the cards.
•	 Keep the cards for future use. Color code them on the
	 back and have them laminated.
•	 How could you use this in your content area?
Learning vocabulary –
•	 Make sets of flash cards.
•	 Make the categories and see what comes out of it. Con-
		 nections to other words they already know? Prefix, Suffix?
•	 Ask the students: Can you make sub-categories?
Using Images:
Making connections –
•	 Post the image and ask: What do you notice? What do
		you wonder?
•	 With a partner or individually, write down all that you notice
		 or any questions you have. This could be as simple as
		 colors, or design details, all the way up to complex ideas
		 and connections to prior knowledge.
•	 Share out.
•	 Record it on the board or somewhere all can see.
•	 Use wait time…the second questions are often the best.
•	 Start answering the questions that came up…let students
		 go first.
Using a Box:
Asking questions –
•	 Put an object in a box related to the content you are
		teaching.
•	 Play 20 questions. Students ask yes/no questions until
		 they can draw or describe the object. Or if they know the
		 vocabulary, they can say what is in the box.
When students are guided toward being curious, their brain
releases positive chemicals that are not only pleasurable, they
help put them in state of anticipation. All humans remember
better when in this positive state of anticipation. How many
times a day are any of us in that state? Can we make that
number higher for our students? THP
Resource
Byrd, Ian. “Recipes for Curiosity.” Byrdseed.com, 2019, www.byrd
	seed.com/?s=curiosity.
CLASSROOM connection