Fill your pocket (Chapter from Connie Hamitlon's Book, Hacking questions

Hamilton, Connie (2019-04-14). Hacking Questions: 11 Answers That Create a Culture of Inquiry in Your Classroom (Hack Learning Series Book 23) (Kindle Location 1274). Times 10 Publications. Kindle Edition. ​

I just recently cracked Connie Hamilton's book Hacking Questions back open and once again, my mind is blown with her practical, spot-on ideas.  It's one of those books where the author articulates things  you have felt before AND shows you things you have never even thought of before.  Here is what I'm learning from her right now in her chapter entitled, "Fill Your Back Pocket."
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Fill Your Pocket: Prepare a handful of metacognitive questions.

Some of the things that strike me as important in this chapter are:
1.  The importance of metacognitive questions, not just content questions
2. The importance of teaching students the QAR Question-Answer-Response model
3. "Attend to verbs"  Instead of saying, "How's it going?"  ask, "How is _______ going? (comparing, contrasting, etc.)
4. Think-alouds matter.  (Sometimes it feels like read-alouds are discouraged in favor of reading articles and answering questions.)
5.  Follow content question with another question. 

Confession: I'm not great at always preparing questions for a lesson..  (Is there terribly awful to admit?) BUT I am learning from Connie how to do that, be more intentional about my questions.  I want to do that, so that's step one.  These Back Pocket Questions give me a concrete way to move in that direction.  

Action Plan: Plan for questions in lessons.  Write them down.  Post these questions in key locations around the room, so I can refer back to them.  

I am really trying to have the students think about their thinking this year, so this is a wonderful resource for me as I keep working towards that goal.