Parking Lot - CTL - Collaborative for Teaching and Learning (2024)

STRATEGY FOCUS

PARKING LOT

PURPOSE

A Parking Lot is a space for students to post questions and ideas that surface during a lesson or unit of study. Students “park” their thinking in a common space for both fellow students and the teacher to access and address. A Parking Lot provides students with the opportunity to post ideas and/or questions anonymously, securing a space where thinking is safe in a culture of learning.

PROCESS

An Anchor Chart is labeled “Parking Lot” and placed in an easily accessible space in the classroom. Students and teacher are invited, throughout the duration of the unit, to add questions and ideas to the space. The Anchor Chart is a “living” document that is added to and referenced throughout the unit.

PROBING QUESTIONS

CONSIDERATIONS

  • What was most confusing about the material we explored today?
  • How has your understanding of _____ changed over the course of this unit?
  • How did your peers help you clarify your understanding of _____?
  • Ask a question and ask students to respond to the question on the Parking Lot. The responses serve as a formative assessment at a given time during a unit of study.
  • Assign a keeper or team of keepers who are responsible for posting questions and/or ideas they overhear articulated by peers or direct peers to the lot to add those questions and/or ideas.
  • Decide as a class when to visit the Parking Lot and how to engage with the content posted there.
  • Plan for how to use Parking Lot in conjunction with other literacy strategies such as List-Group-Label. Students could visit the Parking Lot and group like questions and ideas. From there, students could label the groups.

CONTENT APPLICATIONS

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ENGLISH
LANGUAGE ARTS

Students compose open-ended questions in response to a text that has been read independently or collectively.

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SCIENCE

After watching a video of loud speakers shaking a window, students generate questions and post them. Students continue to post new questions that arise throughout the unit.

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VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS

Students generate “I wonder…” statements after reviewing an artifact, which are then investigated by the students.

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CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION

After watching a video of a plumber installing a water supply line, students post what they learned, as well as their questions about the process.

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HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Students use the Parking Lot as an after reading strategy to post new learning.

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MATHEMATICS

Students ask clarifying questions about a mathematical concept or skill to promote an inquiry-based classroom.

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SOCIAL STUDIES

Students compose open-ended questions about power, authority, and governance.

Parking Lot - CTL - Collaborative for Teaching and Learning (2024)

FAQs

What is the parking lot question strategy? ›

A Parking Lot is a space for students to post questions and ideas that surface during a lesson or unit of study. Students “park” their thinking in a common space for both fellow students and the teacher to access and address.

How to create a parking lot for questions? ›

Designate a space in your room or via a digital backchannel for your "parking lot." This could be a blank wall, an anchor chart labeled "parking lot," a section of your whiteboard, etc. Have students use post-its or markers to write their questions on the parking lot.

What is the CTL in education? ›

Center for Teaching and Learning (or CTL) is a department found at all universities, which is dedicated to supporting and inspiring inclusive teaching and learning. The CTL regularly engages with students, often through course support, to enhance students' foundational skills.

Why are question answer parking lots useful in teaching critical thinking skills? ›

Question/answer parking lots are quite useful in teaching critical-thinking skills to students as this approach motivates them to constantly question. Learning transfer helps in effective decision-making by enabling students to think in a multidimensional way.

What is the parking lot technique? ›

'Parking lot' is a project management technique used to keep a team meeting on track. If a group conversation is in danger of veering off-topic, you could put that particular topic in the hypothetical parking lot. That way, you are 'parking' it for later so your team can focus on the more pressing issues.

What is the parking lot strategy for ADHD? ›

Another helpful trick is called the “parking lot” technique. Keep a notepad on hand. Whenever you study and get an unrelated thought, write it down, then let it go and go back to studying. After you've completed your session, you can go back to the “parking lot” of thoughts and review them.

What are the three basic parking methods? ›

The most common types of parking are angle parking, perpendicular parking and parallel parking. Angle parking is especially widespread in parking lots, where vehicles are designated to go one way.

What is a parking lot discussion? ›

The idea behind a meeting “parking lot” is that if ideas arise that aren't relevant to the meeting agenda, those topics are set aside. A parking lot can be a large sheet of paper, sticky notes, a meeting participant's meeting minutes, or a presentation slide.

What is the formula for parking lot? ›

The parking ratio of your building is determined by dividing the number of parking spaces in your lot by the square footage of your building (in thousands of feet).

What is another name for parking lot questions? ›

The IN / OUT / Open questions board is a variation of the parking lot technique that helps keep conversations on track and manage time effectively. By using this simple tool, facilitators can ensure productive discussions and quick decision-making during workshops or meetings.

What is the parking lot of ideas? ›

The Parking Lot of Ideas is a living instrument. It can receive new ideas during an ideation process or any other stage of product development, as well as feed the process with new ideas that have not yet emerged.

Why is CTL important in the teaching learning process? ›

CTL is a conception of teaching that helps teachers relate subject matter content to real world situations, and motivates students to make connections between knowledge and its applications to their lives as family members, citizens, and workers and engage in the hard work that learning requires.

What does CTL mean in schools? ›

Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) is defined as a way to introduce content using a variety of active- learning techniques designed to help students connect what they already know to what they are expected to learn, and to construct new knowledge from the analysis and synthesis of this learning process.

What is contextualized teaching and learning CTL approach? ›

Contextualized Teaching and Learning (CTL), also known as Contextualized Instruction, is defined as a "diverse family of instructional strategies designed to more seamlessly link the learning of foundational skills and academic or occupational content by focusing teaching and learning squarely on concrete applications ...

What does parking lot question mean? ›

Definition: A parking lot is a place to capture comments, topics, or questions that are not related to the agenda. It keeps the focus on the immediate discussion while deferring (i.e., “parking”) other topics for later. A parking lot captures discussion topics not related to the agenda.

What is the parking lot Avid strategy? ›

Parking Lot

This technique assesses level of understanding at carious intervals of a lesson. In preparation for the next days' lesson, student should be provided with sticky notes on which to write questions or statements about a given topic or concept.

What is a parking strategy? ›

The parking strategy is designed to support everyone who lives or works in the city as well as visitors. It aims to enhance travel options and make it easier for people to park, as well as encourage the use of sustainable transport alternatives.

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