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All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address FEATURE usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. TO BUILD A BETTER QUESTION 14 Knowledge Quest | What Makes a Literacy? All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. Sara Kelley-Mudie [email protected] Jeanie Phillips [email protected] Volume 44, No. 5 | May/June 2016 15 All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. AASL’s Standards for the 21st- GOOD QUESTIONS—DEEP QUESTIONS— Century Learner mandate that we equip our students with the ARE LAUNCHING POINTS FOR CRITICAL skills they need to pursue lifelong learning. The Common Core State THINKING. QUESTIONS, NOT ANSWERS, Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards all advocate PUSH US TO THINK CRITICALLY. for genuine student inquiry, and the best thinkers in education are demanding that students take a they’re looking for. Just as students in general versus the narrower and more active role in their education need to learn the alphabet and more detailed inquiry that can be to make them competitive in the develop phonemic awareness, they conducted when a specific case is global economy. One practice that also need to learn different question being examined. can prepare students for a lifetime of words and how expert vocabulary engaged learning is asking questions. and concepts are incorporated How Are Questioning and into questions. Understand- Critical Thinking Related? ing a question is different from What Makes Questioning a answering a question; it means Critical thinking is high-level Literacy? being able to form an idea of what thinking that requires us to analyze, Literacies are how we make sense of an answer might look like and what evaluate, synthesize, or apply what we the world; we read to gain knowledge, type of information is being sought. know. Its relationship with question- and we write to share new under- Knowing how to go about answering ing is cyclical. Good questions—deep standings. Asking and answering a question is an important skill, questions—are launching points for questions is also how we make sense and the first step in that process is critical thinking. Questions, not of the world. It’s why young children understanding the question that’s answers, push us to think criti- ask so many questions—there’s a lot been asked. As with any literacy, cally. As the cycle continues, critical to make sense of and patterns about students need regular practice to thinking leads to more-nuanced the world to discover. And yet, as develop questioning fluency and questions. Questioning and critical children age they ask fewer questions. to learn how to comprehend and thinking work together to further The Right Question Institute finds analyze questions. engagement, curiosity, thinking, and that as children’s reading and learning. As Richard W. Paul and writing skills improve, the number To become question-fluent, students Linda Elder have stated: “To think of questions they ask decreases, and, must understand how different types through or rethink anything, one unfortunately, as the rate of ques- of questions operate. They need must ask questions that stimulate tioning diminishes, so does the to practice asking and answering our thought” (1999, 8). Answers are rate of engagement (Berger 2014, various types of questions so they stopping points. Only when another 44–45). It is our belief that teaching can understand how different question is asked can thought move students to become fluent question- question lenses change the type of forward. ers also increases their engagement question being asked and the type of in learning. answer being sought—for example, Metaphors are often used by propo- “Which form of transitional justice nents of questioning, for example: When we think of someone who is is most effective?” versus “How questions are engines that drive literate we think of a person who does a society decide which form of thinking; questions are tools that can read and write—someone who transitional justice to use?” help us dig deep into knowledge. We can do only one or the other is propose a rock-climbing metaphor: not fully literate. To be question- Just as letters can make different questions are the foot- and hand- literate a person must be able to both sounds in different contexts, holds that help learners climb to new construct and understand questions. different types of questions serve heights in their understanding. To construct a question students different purposes depending on need to know what the parts of a their context. “Which form of tran- Authentic questions are crucial question are and how to put those sitional justice is most effective?” for cultivating both the motivation parts together to ensure that the requires a different type of inquiry and curiosity needed to scale question is asking for the answer when discussing transitional justice those heights. As Ian Leslie said in 16 Knowledge Quest | What Makes a Literacy? All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. Curious, “Asking good questions stimulates the hunger to know more by opening up exciting new known unknowns” (2014, 103). A recent study reported in Neuron concluded that curiosity positively affects memory and information retention (Gruber, Gelman, and Ranganath 2014). But curiosity does more than just aid knowledge acquisition; it moves thinking forward by closing knowledge gaps. George Loewenstein, psycholo- gist and behavioral economist from Carnegie Mellon University, has described curiosity as a “response to an information gap” (Leslie 2014, 34). To feel curious, to ask good questions, we must become aware of our own ignorance. It is that awareness that enables us to ask questions that will build our knowledge. If we return to our rock-climbing metaphor, questions allow us to scale great heights by providing leverage points. They scaffold a learning journey, chunking it into pieces small enough to traverse but challenging enough to keep the learner interested. The beauty of student- generated questions is that they are individualized; each student determines her or his own path up the cliff face. While some may be prepared for a greater degree of difficulty, others may need to set Figure 1. Students collaborating during a write around. a less-challenging course. When students become literate in the art of questioning, they have the tools they tered students who want to know of Harvey “Smokey” Daniels and need for lifelong learning; they can what the source requirements are Elaine Daniels. Write arounds can set a course that guides and extends before they’ve even decided on a take a number of forms, but the one their thinking. research focus.) It’s difficult to I use most often when working with start asking questions before you students to develop a research focus What Do We Ask have some context for what you’re is text on text. Text-on-text write Questions About? asking about; if you’ve never seen arounds involve my laying out several the sky, you don’t ask why the sky is passages of text and/or images on a Students who lack background blue. A range of different strategies large piece of chart paper (see figure knowledge can find inquiry-driven can pique students’ curiosity, but 1) and students’ collaboratively anno- learning challenging. At first, their one of my (Sara’s) favorites is the tating the texts by quietly writing on questions may focus on minutia write around. I am deeply indebted the text and chart paper. of assignments’ due dates and to Buffy Hamilton for introducing requirements. (We’ve all encoun- me to write arounds and the work Volume 44, No. 5 | May/June 2016 17 All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. of questions that the best questions emerge and that students develop their question skills. The QFT includes time for reflection on the process, encouraging students to think about their thinking and how it might apply to future learning. For students who need help getting started with forming questions, it can be helpful to provide a list of Figure 2. Annotations prompted by text and Figure 3. Students applying the Question question starts, such as “How would photos during a write around. Formulation Technique. it be different if...?” and “What is the purpose of...?”. Scaffolding I recently used this strategy with How Do We Foster Questioning the question-asking process helps a class doing research on litera- in Students? students develop fluency and con- ture related to the winter holidays. The first thing we can do to foster fidence in asking questions and in The collaborating teacher and I questioning is to make space for understanding the questions asked sought passages that would help students’ questions. We can go a of them. See our list of further shift students’ perspectives around long way toward helping all students resources for other strategies for familiar stories; if you know why become literate questioners by giving scaffolding student questions. the sky is blue, and suddenly the sky them opportunities to ask questions is green, you have new questions! I and using those questions as spring- The question-development process have found this process especially boards for learning. provides many opportunities for useful in scaffolding the question- giving formative feedback while development process for students The Question Formulation Technique modeling questioning strategies. when paired with some of the strate- (QFT) is another way to develop We can ask students why they think gies Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, students’ questioning skills. Designed a particular question is useful or and Karin Morrison wrote about in by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana important, and what type of informa- Making Thinking Visible (2011). These of the Right Question Institute, this tion they think they might find based strategies can expose gaps in under- process provides structure as students on that question. Similarly, we can standing and provoke questions that ask questions, analyze their questions, model our own questioning process will lead to further inquiry. refine, revise and prioritize their when working with students and questions (see sidebar and figure 3). teachers by “questioning aloud” as we Carol Kuhlthau’s Informa- It is not enough just to have students plan a lesson or a search strategy. tion Search Process provides pose questions, they also need to excellent guidance for the right examine them critically (see figure Sometimes student research is times to intervene and provide 4). It is in the analysis and iteration independent, but collaborative some structured questioning for students—when to help students find a handhold on the cliff. Students who have hit a point of frustration and are asking “What do I research?” are at a point where they need questions asked of them, and they need scaffolded support for developing a research question.1 1 If you aren’t familiar with Carol Collier Kuhlthau’s work, we recommend exploring her website at <https://comminfo.rutgers. edu/~kuhlthau/information_search_ process.htm>. Figure 4. Students collaborating to analyze questions. 18 Knowledge Quest | What Makes a Literacy? All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions. questioning can still be helpful. something more. Student questions EXAMPLES OF Students can be given time to can be used in many ways: develop their initial knowledge and CRITERIA FOR questions on their topics through • as research questions to guide pre-search. They then present inquiry, PRIORITIZING their findings to a small group, • for formative or summative QUESTIONS ending with a question of interest. assessments, Classmates listen and take notes, jotting down questions on sticky • as focuses for reading texts, • Which questions will best notes. Questions are shared with • as tools for problem solving, help us solve the problem? the presenter who then organizes • Which questions will • as driving questions for project- and categorizes them, analyzing and make interesting research based learning, or revising them until a focus question questions? emerges for research. This is a • as questions for Socratic Circles or • Which questions can we powerful tool both for practicing Harkness Discussions. answer through direct question skills and developing a Students will always need to be able to observation? better research question. ask—and answer—good questions. By • Which questions can we working with students to build better Regardless of how we help students questions, we ensure that they will develop an experiment to ask, analyze, and revise questions, it always be able to answer the question: answer? is crucial that these questions lead to “What do I want to know next?” Sara Kelley-Mudie Works Cited: Further Reading: is the upper school Berger, Warren. 2014. A More Berger, Warren. n.d. “How Can Beautiful Question: The Power of We Teach Kids to Question?” A librarian/instructional Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. More Beautiful Question. <http:// New York: Bloomsbury. amorebeautifulquestion.com/ technologist at Hawken can-teach-kids-question> Daniels, Harvey, and Elaine Daniels. School in Gates 2013. The Best-Kept Teaching Secret. (accessed December 18, 2015). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Hamilton, Buffy J. 2014. “Moving Mills, Ohio. She was an AASL Emerging from Our Mindmaps to More Gruber, Matthias J., Bernard D. Leader in 2011. She also received the Jan Focused Topics with Question Gelman, and Charan Ranganath. Lenses and Musical Peer Review.” Gluz Cooperative Spirit Award from the 2014. “States of Curiosity The Unquiet Librarian (October Modulate Hippocampus- 27). <https://theunquietlibrarian. Connecticut Library Consortium in 2013. Dependent Learning via the wordpress.com/2014/10/27/ Dopaminergic Circuit.” Neuron 84 She blogs at <kmthelibrarian.blogspot.com>. moving-from-our-mindmaps- (2): 486–96. to-more-focused-topics-with- Leslie, Ian. 2014. Curious: The Desire question-lenses-and-musical- to Know and Why Your Future Depends peer-review> (accessed December on It. New York: Basic Books. 22, 2015). Paul, Richard W., and Linda Elder. Heick, Terry. n.d. “7 Strategies Jeanie Phillips is 1999. Critical Thinking: Basic Theory to Help Students Ask Great and Instructional Structures Handbook. Questions.” Teach Thought. <www. the librarian at Green Tomales, CA: Foundation for teachthought.com/critical- Mountain Union High Critical Thinking. thinking/inquiry/8-strategies- to-help-students-ask-great- Ritchhart, Ron, Mark Church, and School in Chester, questions> (accessed December Karin Morrison. 2011. Making 23, 2015). Vermont. She is a Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Ludwig, Sarah. 2015. “Using member of AASL and is currently serving Independence for All Learners. San Question Lenses to Identify Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Conceptual Themes.” Sarah on the AASL Standards and Guidelines Ludwig: Sharing What I Learn about Rothstein, Dan, and Luz Santana. Implementation Task Force. She received a Education, Libraries, and Tech 2011. Make Just One Change: Teach (February 2). <https://sarahludwig. Rowland Foundation Fellowship in 2014. Students to Ask Their Own Questions. wordpress.com/2015/02/02/ Cambridge, MA: Harvard using-question-lenses-to- She blogs at <http://gmlibrarian.blogspot. Education Press. identify-conceptual-themes> com>. (accessed December 22, 2015). Volume 44, No. 5 | May/June 2016 19