Questions, questions

I really wish I was better at the questioning thing.
Common Core is forcing me to rethink my teaching strategies. Actually, Common Core is allowing me the freedom to rethink my teaching strategies. In the great era of NCLB, I was told to "teach this way," and "use these problems," because they would "raise our test scores." Tell the kids what to do.  Have them practice doing it. They should know the procedures! They should be able to perform the algorithms so they can get the right answer on the test! Now I am facing a generation of students who were taught multiple choice answer picking strategies but not how to think. 
Not that I'm bitter...
Which brings us back to questioning strategies.
They permeate every thing I do now and I am working to get better at them.  Just rewriting questions on assessments to try to get inside their heads is a challenge.
"How did you find this answer?"
"Could you use a different method to find the same answer?"
"Discuss how you know your answer is reasonable..."
"Is there some way you could confirm your answer (other than the way you got it in the first place)"
"How are all of these questions related?"
"What have we done prior to this that is related to this?"
"So and so got this other answer.  Discuss how you know this answer is not reasonable..."
"HOW are you thinking?!"
"WHAT are you thinking?!"
"ARE you thinking?!"
Dave Matthews said:
I have no lid upon my head.  But if I did. You could look inside and see.  What's on my mind.
Maybe that would be easier than giving a quiz.
I have taken the leap into NOT grading quizzes and tests--sort of.  This is high school after all.  Students must have some sort of grades for colleges and sports eligibility.  But wouldn't it be nice if I could just give them a holistic grade?
"Your kid has a C because he sort of turns some work in and sort of gets it."
"Your kid has an F because she never does anything and definitely doesn't get it."
Not going to happen. (Maybe in the future?) Besides, giving them a grade for homework and quizzes accomplishes pretty much the same thing.  Isn't "your kid has an F because she needs to come work with me after school on the five homework assignments she is missing," going to get the student in for extra help?
So I still have to grade the quizzes.  What I've started doing is going over them and writing questions.  Everybody gets two or three questions... even the ones who got them all right.  They then get the quizzes back and have to respond to the questions.  They can collaborate if necessary, but they aren't allowed to look at each other's quizzes.  They can use white boards.  They can watch Khan Academy videos.  They can even ask me questions (although I tend to answer with more questions, which drives them crazy).  Sometimes we have a class discussion.
What they don't see is a score--yet. I have an "initial score" written in a hidden place. Their final score is determined partially by that and partially by what I see when I look inside their heads.
Maybe I'm getting better at the questioning thing after all...