+

Noli Indian School

Summer Institute

2019

Michelle Stockdale

Resource: TheRightQuestion.Org

Introduction to the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

+Agenda

1) Welcome/One Good Question 2) Collaborative Learning with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

3) Classroom Examples 4) Lesson Planning and Exploring

Resources

+An Educator-Driven Movement

The Right Question Institute offers materials through a Creative Commons License and we encourage you to make use of and/or share this resource. Please reference the Right Question Institute and rightquestion.org as the source on any materials you use.

+

http://bit.ly/NoliSI2019

Create a free profile on the RQI Educator Network for access to a whole range of free resources and materials and download all of our materials today.

http://rightquestion.org/educators/seminar-resources/

Access Today’s Materials:

+One Good Question

● If you could ask just ONE question to determine a person/provider’s suitability for ___________, what would your question be?

+ Why spend time teaching the skill of question formulation?

+LAWRENCE, MA, 1990

“We don’t go to the school because we don’t even know what to ask.”

+

“The most common source of management mistakes is not the failure to find the right answers. It is the failure to ask the right questions.”

- Peter Drucker Management consultant, educator, and

author

+

“Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.”

– E. E. Cummings

+College Presidents on What Students Should Learn in College

“The primary skills should be analytical skills of interpretation and inquiry. In other words, know how to frame a question.”

- Leon Botstein, President of Bard College

“…the best we can do for students is have them ask the right questions.”

- Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of University of Illinois

The New York Times, August 4, 2002

+Yet…only 27%of students believe college taught them to ask their own questions

Alison Head, Project Information Literacy at University of Washington, 2016

+

But, the problem begins long before college...

+Percentage of Basic Skill Attainment

Sourceshttp://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2009/2011455.pdfhttp://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main2007/2008468.asp#section1Data on question-asking based on parent and teacher feedback

+Percentage of Basic Skill Attainment

Sourceshttp://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2009/2011455.pdfhttp://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main2007/2008468.asp#section1Data on question-asking based on parent and teacher feedback

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We can work together on changing the direction of that slope.

+ We Are Not Alone

350,000 educators using the strategy all over the world

+

What happens when students do learn to ask their own questions?

+Research Confirms the Importance of Student Questioning

Self-questioning (metacognitive strategy):● Student formulation of their own questions is one of the most effective metacognitive strategies

● Engaging in pre-lesson self-questioning improved students rate of learning by nearly 50% (Hattie, p.193)

John HattieVisible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800

Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, 2008

+Student Reflection

“The way it made me feel was smart because I was asking good questions and giving good answers.”

-Boston 9th grade summer school student

+

Collaborative Learning with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

+The Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

Students learn to:

▪ Produce their own questions

▪ Improve their questions

▪ Strategize on how to use their questions

▪ Reflect on what they have learned and how they learned it

+Rules for Producing Questions

1. Ask as many questions as you can

2. Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss

3. Write down every question exactly as stated

4. Change any statements into questions

+Produce Questions1. Ask Questions2. Follow the Rules

● Ask as many questions as you can.● Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss.● Write down every question exactly as it was stated.● Change any statements into questions.

3. Number the Questions

+Question Focus:

Some students are not asking questions.

Please write this statement at the top of your paper. Remember: Number the questions. Follow the rules.

+Categorize Questions: Closed/ Open

Definitions: ● Closed-ended questions can be answered with a

“yes” or “no” or with a one-word answer.

● Open-ended questions require more explanation.

Directions: Identify your questions as closed-ended or open-ended by marking them with a “C” or an “O.”

+ Discussion

Closed-ended Questions

Advantages Disadvantages

+ Discussion

Open-ended Questions

Advantages Disadvantages

+Change Questions

● Take one closed-ended question and change it into an open-ended question.

● Take one open-ended question and change it into a closed-ended question.

Closed Open

ClosedOpen

+Prioritize Questions Review your list of questions ● Choose the three questions you consider most important.

● While prioritizing, think about your Question Focus: Some students are not asking questions.

After prioritizing consider…● Why did you choose those three

questions?● Where are your priority questions in the

sequence of your entire list of questions?

+Strategize on How to Use Questions

From priority questions to action planIn order to answer your priority questions:

● What do you need to know? Information

● What do you need to do? Tasks

+Formulate an Action Plan

Information Tasks

From priority questions to action plan

In order to answer your priority questions:

● What do you need to know? Information

● What do you need to do? Tasks

+Share

1. Questions you changed from open/closed

2. Your three priority questions and their numbers in your original sequence

3. Rationale for choosing priority questions

4. Next steps

+Reflect

● What did you learn?

● How did you learn it?

● What do you understand differently now about some students not asking questions?

+

A Look Inside the Process

+The QFT, on one slide…

1) Question Focus2) Produce Your Questions

✓ Follow the rules✓ Number your questions

3) Improve Your Questions✓ Categorize questions as Closed or Open-ended✓ Change questions from one type to another

4) Prioritize Your Questions 5) Share & Discuss Next Steps6) Reflect

1. Ask as many questions as you can

2. Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer

3. Record exactly as stated4. Change statements into

questions

Closed-Ended:Answered with “yes,” “no” or one word

Open-Ended: Require longer explanation

+Curiosity and Rigor

Three thinking abilities with one process

+

DIVERGENTTHINKING

Thinking in Many Different Directions

+Narrowing Down, Focusing

CONVERGENTTHINKING

+

METACOGNITION

Thinking About Thinking

+ Classroom Example:12th Grade

Teacher: Ling-Se Chesnakas, Boston, MA

Topic: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Purpose: To help students generate questions for a Socratic Seminar at the end of the unit

+QFT in Action (ELA)

+

Exploring Classroom Examples

+ Classroom Example:Middle School

Teacher: Megan Harvell, Boston, MA

Topic: American History –The Civil War

Purpose: Pre-reading activity to engage students in the unit and to build primary source reading & interpretation skills

+Question Focus

Image by John L. Magee, 1856

+Student Questions1.Why are they fighting? 2.Are they fighting? 3.Are they part of the government?4.Where were they?5.Who are they?6.Were they signing anything?7.Who else was there?8.Why are you hitting him?9.Why didn’t they call 911?

10.Was this related to slavery?11.Why is he hitting him with a bat?

12. Why are you taking a pen?

13. Why are they in court?

14. Who hit who first?

15. Who died?

16. Why are they smiling?  

+ Classroom Example:12th Grade

Teacher: Daniel Fouts, Des Plaines, IL

Topic: 12th Grade AP Government unit on the American presidency at moments of crisis

Purpose: To engage students at the start of the unit and to help students select a topic for an independent project

+Question Focus

“Nearly all men can handle adversity; but if you really want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96522529/

+Student Questions1. How does power challenge one’s morality?2. Should everyone have some type of power? 3. Does power make people corrupt?4. What if the person who is qualified for power doesn’t attain it?5. How is a man’s power tested?6. What is considered power?7. What defines good character?8. How can we ensure that the good men get the power?

1. What kind of man can handle adversity?2. What can power tell us about a man’s character?3. How can power be obtained by adversity?4. Why are some people affected by power differently?5. If adversity supposedly makes you stronger, does that mean

that power makes you weaker?

+Next Steps:

❖ Each student selected l question from the class list to work on throughout the unit

❖ Students answered their question using research and knowledge from the unit in a two-page reflection paper

❖ Students shared their reflections in a class discussion on the final day of the unit

 

+ Classroom Example:11th Grade

Teacher: Jose Reyes, Marlborough, MA

Topic: Emily Dickinson

Purpose: To strengthen close reading skills and practice analyzing poetry

+Question FocusMuch Madness is divinest Sense - (620)By Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is divinest Sense –To a discerning Eye –Much Sense – the starkest Madness – ‘Tis the MajorityIn this, as all, prevail –Assent – and you are sane –Demure – you’re straightway dangerous –And handled with a Chain -

+Selected Student Questions1. Why are the first line and title the same?2. What pattern do the lines follow? 3. What does ‘discerning’ mean?4. Why are there dashes after every line?5. Why are some of the words capitalized?6. What does this poem mean?7. What is the deeper meaning?8. What is the poem describing?9. What is she trying to achieve through this poem?

10. What does ‘demur’ mean?11. How does ‘madness’ compare with ‘divinest’?12. Why is this poem confusing?13. What does ‘assent’ mean?14. Who is the poem about?15. Why is the poem only 8 lines?

1. What type of poem is this? 2. Who is Emily Dickinson?3. Why did she write this?4. What was going on in her life at this time?5. What does her word choice mean?6. What is her tone, mood, attitude?7. Why does the poem sound negative?8. What literary devices does she use?9. Is ‘chain’ a metaphor for something else?

10. Who is meant by ‘the majority’?11. Why is ‘straightway’ used as oppose to ‘straightaway’?12. What object is handled by a chain?13. What does (620) mean?14. Is the intent of this poem to state that madness is dangerous as a sense?

+Next Steps:● Students selected their three priority questions and

came up with answers using textual evidence.

+ Classroom Example:9th Grade

Teacher: Ellen Gammel, Fitchburg, MA

Topic: An interdisciplinary unit on bioethics and a nonfiction text, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Purpose: To help students begin preparation for a formal debate at the very end of the unit

+Question Focus

 Debate Resolve:

Doctors should be able to do what they want with human tissue after the patient gives consent for removal of the tissue.

 

+Selected Student Questions

1. Are our bodies truly our property?2. How much consent?3. How much information should a patient receive in order for them to give informed consent?4. Consent for removal or consent for research?5. Should the patient be paid?6. How should patients be paid?  What for?7. What counts as tissue?8. Consent for removal of tissue or other body parts?9. How about animals?

10. Are owners in charge of their pet’s tissue?11. Are parents in charge of their kids’ tissue?12. Can kids give informed consent?13. Do gives give their parents consent?14. How about teeth?15. Do teeth count as bone donations?

1. What percent of compensation should patients receive?2. How have tissue ownership laws changed over the years?3. Is there a law?4. Do doctors owns the tissue after patients give consent?5. Should patients be able to perform their own research?6. Do doctors come up with the idea? (A focus)7. Do doctors need consent for tissue that doesn't belong to humans?8. Can patients take back consent once they find out what the doctors are doing with their

tissue?

A Team Against Debate Resolve:A Team For Debate Resolve

+Next Steps

❖ In teams, students research their priority questions

❖ Students prepare their debate arguments and rebuttals, using research

❖ Students practice public speaking and rhetorical skills

+Closing Reflections

1. What did you learn?

2. An “a-ha moment” or a meaningful take away from your experience today

3. A key question that will guide your work

+

Why is question formulation so important now?

“How should you respond when you get powerful new tools for finding answers?

Think of harder questions.”

- Clive Thompson, Journalist and Technology Blogger

In the Age of Google…

+The Skill of Question Formulation

● For reframing the perception of ignorance: not a weakness, but an opportunity

● For arriving at better answers (and more questions)

● For increasing engagement and ownership

● For a little more joy in a very demanding profession

● And…

+Democracy

See Chapter 6 on Septima Clark in Freedom Road: Adult Education of African Americans (Peterson, 1996).

“We need to be taught to study rather than to believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.”

- Septima Clark

+Today’s Agenda

1) Welcome 2) Collaborative Learning with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

3) Classroom Examples 4) Lesson Planning and Exploring

Resources5) Reflection and Q&A

+2 Keys to Beginning to Plan a Lesson with the QFT

1. Starting at the End2. QFocus Design

+The QFT , Not a Detour but a Shortcut

+Various Teaching Purposes

● Engagement

● Knowledge acquisition

● Formative assessment

● Summative assessment

● Peer review

● Skill development

+Next Steps?

Homework

Debate Prep

Research

Paper topic

Projects

Exit ticket or ”Do Now”

Presentations Class discussion prompts

Hang on walls, Check Off as Answered Test Prep

Lab work & Experiments

Pop Quiz or Reading Check

Interview an Expert

Guest speakers

Tailoring Instruction

Make Your Own Final Test

Close Reading Protocol

Service Action Projects

Socratic Seminar PromptsStudent Choice Projects

Journal Prompt

Year-long or Unit-long Essential Questions

And sometimes…

Nothing!

+2 Keys to Beginning to Plan a Lesson with the QFT

1. Starting at the End

2. QFocus Design

+Question Focus (QFocus):A focus or prompt for student questions

● A phrase or quotation

● An image or video

● A podcast or speech

● A hands-on experience or experiment

● An equation or data set

The QFocus is not a question!

+Designing a Question Focus

1. Directly tied to lesson’s main idea

2. Simple…but not too simple

3. Interesting or provocative to students…but not biased or leading

An effective QFocus should be

+Initial Question Focus:

+Revised Question Focus:

The city fathers were aware that the decaying bodies of these rodents were

making people sick. (page 28)

+Initial Question Focus: “People, Animals, and Friends”

1. Do people exist?2. Where do people live?3. Why do animals live in the zoo?4. Why do people go to the pool?5. Why are friends fun? 6. Why do animals bite?7. Why do people go to school?8. Do people, animals, and friends

play together?9. Do animals make friends?

10. Why do I need friends?

11. Why do people want to be friends with animals?

12. Why are people making friends with animals?

13. Why do people, animal, and friends live in different countries?

14. Where did my dog and friend go?15. Can my friend pet our new dog?16. Why do I have eyes?17. How do people smell?18. Can animals speak?19. Can people fly?20. Where is my bunny? What happened?

+Revising the Question Focus

“People, Animals, and Friends”

Your idea here!

+

The one quality all excellent QFT designers share?

Thick Skin.

+Self-Organized Work Time

Option 1:• Work on the Lesson Planning Workbook

through page 5.• Try creating your own QFocus. (It’s ok if it

is a bit rough.)Write it on an index card.• Trade cards with a partner.• Generate questions about your partner’s

QFocus.• Trade back and use their questions to

guide revision of the QFocus.

+Self-Organized Work Time

Option 2:• Look through more English or history

classroom examples: (available to download at http://rightquestion.org/educators/seminar-resources/, and select “History & English Classroom Examples PowerPoint”)

• Read 3 key resources for history or English (available to download at http://rightquestion.org/educators/seminar-resources/or pick up a hard copy handout)

• Discuss what you’re learning and how you might use the QFT with a partner or group

+Additional History ResourcesLook through more History classroom examples: (available to download at http://rightquestion.org/educators/seminar-resources/, and select “More History& English Classroom Examples PowerPoint”) http://rightquestion.org/blog/my-qft-journey-putting-students-minds-into-motion-with-their-questions/ Texas social studies teacher, James Brewster, reflects on the large scale cultural changes in his classroom after a year with the QFT and offers several specific lessons, using political cartoons as Qfoci. http://rightquestion.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Minigan-Beer-2017-Inquiring-minds-Using-the-Question-Formulation-Technique-to-activate-student-curiosity.pdfA longer article in the New England Journal of History, co-written with a history teacher from New Hampshire, that details several very different applications of the QFT in history. This article also builds a larger argument for the importance of curiosity.

+To Learn A LOT More About How to Use the QFT

Check out our online course hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education:

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/program/teaching-students-ask-their-own-questions-best-practices-question-formulation-technique

October 15, 2018 – November 2, 2018