Supporting Students in Questioning

"The rigorous process of learning to develop and ask questions offers students the invaluable opportunity to become independent thinkers and self-directed learners.” Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, p 3

• What is a Question Focus? View this video to learn more about what a Question Focus is and how to develop one. (~ 7 ½ minutes)

Organizational structure of learning

• Consider an upcoming unit or lesson. Look over some of your existing prompts and consider how you may change these into a Question Focus (QFocus).
  • Keep the Criteria and Steps for developing a Question Focus in mind.
  • Use the Pros and Cons Worksheet for narrowing down your selection.

"The more you ask questions, the more thoughts come to your head and it helps expand your learning." Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, p 57

• How do we support students in learning to ask questions? View this video to learn more about the rules and steps for producing questions. (~  6 ½ minutes)

• Using the QFocus you developed in Module 1 for your upcoming unit or lesson, begin the QFT process during the unit/lesson by:
  • Introduce the rules for producing your own questions to your students.
  • Provide the templates for discussing the rules to your students. You may use one or both of the templates.
  • Facilitate the discussion.
• Once the class has completed the discussion of the rules, continue with the first step of the QFT process and have your students begin producing their own questions!

"Students who learn the differences between closed- and open-ended questions climb a sharp learning curve in a very small amount of time." Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, p 74

• How do we support students in improving their questions? View this video to learn more about improving your questions. (~ 6 ½ minutes)

• Organizational structure of learning
  • Now that the students have produced their own questions, begin the process of improving the questions by:
    • Defining and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of closed- and open-ended questions.
    • Provide your students with a copy of the Closed- and Open-ended Questions handout.
    • Facilitate the discussion
  • Once the class has completed the discussion of the definitions/advantages/disadvantages of closed- and open-ended questions, continue with the second step of the QFT process and have your students begin improvinging their own questions!

"The ability to prioritize may be one of the most important - yet too often overlooked - skills that a student can acquire in his or her formal education." Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, p 87

• How do we support students in prioritizing their questions? View this video to learn more about prioritizing your questions. (~ 6 ½ minutes)

• Organizational structure of learning
  • Now that the students have improved their own questions, begin the process of prioritizing the questions by:
    • Following the Steps for Prioritizing Questions
      • Provide groups with the Reporting Guidelines
    • Facilitate the group reporting

• View this video to wrap up our learning about Supporting Students in Questioning (~ 9 minutes)

Now that you have completed Supporting Students in Questioning, please complete this short questionnaire to receive your contact hour certificate.

Supporting Students in Questioning: Creating a Culture of Questioning for Ownership of Learning

Resources used to support the development of this professional learning opportunity:

• Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions from Dan Rothestein and Luz Santana
• The Right Question Institute (resources and videos of the QFT process)
• The Curious Classroom by Harvey "Smokey" Daniels

Next Steps for continued learning:

• Inquiry Professional Learning Module
• Investigations and Research Professional Learning Module