Finding Good Questions

My ThinWalls partners in Los Angeles and I spent an hour on MeBeam last night planning another collaborative piece. We used MeBeam instead of Skype and it worked great. But we also learned the value and the difficulty of finding good questions.

David Jakes has been pushing us since the beginning of the year to look at the similarities and differences we have been seeing between the students in the two classes. Are these things cultural? Are they based on the nations themselves? Are they explained by rural and urban understandings of the students?

Based on an article from ASCD, we are hoping to help these students develop more of a world view and promote deeper global understanding. We want to step into a part of our collaboration where we will have the students think more deeply about their cultures and their values.

To do that, we need questions. We want to begin on their blogs and have the students do some writing about their values. But if we simply pose questions at them such as: "tell us if your family is important to you and why?" then we all know the types of pat answers we will get back. They will give us what we want to hear. So we are struggling with questions. "Talk about your definition of success." This is better. This is open ended enough that it will promote some dialogue. "What have you been taught about money?" is also good. It will allow students to expose some of their values and put things out there to compare with other students.

But here we sit. A one hour meeting on MeBeam and we have two solid questions to show for it. But that is the point (or at least part of it). Changing practices in your classroom can be hard. Coming up with good questions that promote collaboration, understanding, and global awareness is not an easy task. Getting kids comfortable enough with each other so that they get to the point where they will put themselves "out there" takes time and is important. These are tasks that are best accomplished within a learning community that you know and trust.

When we do manage to get some suggested questions together (and if you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments) we want to have the students do some reading, writing, and thinking about these things. We want them to first think about their own values and ideas. We then want them to begin comparing notes with those around them. Where are they finding similarities and differences? Are the kids in Snow Lake mostly thinking in one way and the kids in LA another? Are there differences between males and females? Are these things split on cultural lines or are attitudes all over the place? These will be their things to think about.

Once again, I am back to the quote from Tom Carroll which has been riding around in my mind all school year long: "Quality teaching and learning today is a collective action and not an individual accomplishment."

Tags: thiwalls, questions, classroom, values

Comments

[Pat]

What a great example of collaboration. My mother always said that things done right weren't always easy. I guess this an example of that too. I can't wait to see their blogs.

[Laurie Fowler]

I read this post about looking for good questions to get your students started on their blogs. I have some suggestions. You might want to look at Table Topics--a box of questions intended to start dinner table conversations. They have a general one, a family one, and a teen one. The web site is http://tabletopics.com/ And there are some books that might help also. If, Questions for the game of life and If, volume 2. Both are available on amazon.com.

Laurie Fowler

[Laurie Fowler]

Another reference you might try is the Theory of Knowledge curriculum from the International Baccalaureate Programme in Wales. It asks students to do exactly what you are asking them to do. They have to think about ways of knowing from all different points of view. A Google search of Theory of Knowledge or TOK should point you in the right direction.

[Anne Davis]

This is terrific! I am going to keep thinking on this but I ran across this list this morning. It may help.
http://iteslj.org/questions/culture.html
then check back at the main page at
http://iteslj.org/questions/

Sometime we need to connect - want to share some research things. Also, my feed is probably broken as the server on which it was housed crashed and I am blogging again - somewhat but I'm getting there! :-)

You're making a difference!

[Rodd Lucier]

What do the students want to know? Is the data being used to meet mathematics expectations?

About 18 years ago, my class participated in an AT&T ten classroom network project where each class developed a survey, and forwarded to each other classroom. We were in London, Ontario; others I recall were an Air Force Base school in Minot; a downtown New York school; an enrichment class in California; and other scattered US cities/classrooms.

We used a 1200 baud modem daily to download what was essentially email responses from the group to a hub. Students were totally engaged as they were doing research on questions of personal importance, rather than attempting to answer questions posed by their teacher(s).

The students were amazed at not only the responses to our questions, but at the wide range of questions from the other participating students. One memorable example: "How many handguns are in your home?" (In Canada, this is something we would never have considered asking!) Another: "What food items are in your refrigerator?"

[Kyle Lichtenwald]

Hey Clarence. Here is a link to a neat open ended writing project from one of the Digital Interns at the U of R. She will be with us at Tlt. The teacher had students write on the prompt of "What I know (for sure) to be true..." There is some moving writing from these students.

See http://mrsowens.wordpress.com/what-i-know-is/

[Carolyn Foote]

Clarence,

Great point you make about how changing models takes time!

I'm also intrigued by the idea of actually asking the students to generate questions for you all to choose from.

It's highly likely they will come up with things none of "we adults" would think of, yet are very intriguing.

I think this is a great way to deepen the connection, and am looking forward to hearing how it goes!

[Tippi]

If you are interested in investigating their values have you considered starting with questions that will reveal something about their character? You know...who they are when no one is looking. Questions that force them to look inside of themselves and reflect on who they think they are. In my opinion, answers to these kinds of questions would definitely show a difference in cultures and values. Just a thought.

[Samantha Golden]

I think this project sounds great for you and the students. It really allows all of you to get to know where everyone is coming from. You spoke of making sure the students would be comfortable sharing with others. I believe be taking the discussion online it will allow the student to feel more free and open up. Also I was wondering if you will be posting answer of your own. A certain level of self disclosure can make others more likely to follow. Once you have open lines of communication not only can you build global awareness, but I am sure you are going to be building a lot of self-awareness. There are so many qualities that students have that they have not even discovered yet. Also looking at student’s points of view that are from a totally different background is going to be an eye opening experiences. I did think of a suggestion “Do you want to follow in your parent’s foot steps?” This project is something I would love to try in the future. It builds communication skills, expands technology usage, and creates social awareness. This truly is educating to the whole student. I LOVE IT!!!

[Lana Chow]

I used to have a small paperback "Book of 100 questions". I lost it during renovations. I looked for a copy on amazon.com, but couldn't find it.

One question that I remember is: "If you had the opportunity to live one year in complete happiness, but at the end of the year you would not remember any of it, would you take the opportunity?"

I used a selection of these questions years ago to teach students how to create an opinion column.

Here's another I've used: Technology exists today where it is possible to clone yourself and, if necessary, use a surrogate mother. Would you do it? Why or why not? Suppose you do clone yourself. Would you raise yourself in the same way as your parents raised you? Why or why not?