SQRQCQ in Math

Word problems are often very tricky for students to understand. However, the Questioning Strategy Discipline Specific to Math, SQRQCQ, aims to help guide students as they work through them. In Arnold Skillman's Geometry class, he determined that SQRQCQ would be helpful to his students as they learned about the Pythagorean Theorem. Basically, the question involved them finding the hypotenuse, the long side of a triangle, that was formed by a fallen tree. To get students started, he simply asked, "What's the problem?" And using questions like such, Mr. Skillman modeled the SQRQCQ method to his students. Most importantly, he would always revisit the problem with any new information they gathered and apply them to what they knew about the problem. It is important in this strategy to reference back to the question to help the students determine the next step so that when they approach a word problem on their own, they reflect this behavior. Like always, it is helpful to know your students and how they learned. Mr. Skillman knew his students liked visual representation, so at one point, as he was going through the SQRQCQ method, he brought out a meter stick so that the students can get a sense of the visual for the height of the tree, which he noted helped his students grasp the details of the question. When students go through this strategy independently, they will reflect that of what their teacher does. So incorporating small aspects that are specific to your students will be very helpful.