The Portrait Indicator

The Portrait Indicator will be a powerful communication tool for our learning community. This monthly newsletter authored by the district administrators will connect to various district initiatives through a series of articles that are connected to current research and educational best practices. We hope that you find these articles informative and enjoyable.

Questioning is an essential part of learning, people have understood the value of questions for thousands of years. What makes questioning so significant to learners is that it helps them think and act in the face of uncertainty (Berger, 2014). The ability to adapt and think prepares them for a world that is difficult to anticipate and even more difficult to control. In today’s world, where there is an avalanche of information available at any time, it is the skill of questioning that allows us to navigate the massive amount of information out there, and be better prepared to evaluate information, understand our own views and the views of others.

Moreover, questioning skills can be nurtured, and increase student success; in studies, good questions have been shown to improve thinking skills and comprehension (Zweires & Crawford, 2011; Berger, 2014; Francis, 2016; Hill, 2016). However, even though educators know that questioning is an important part of learning, it is difficult to break down what seems like something so natural into strategies to support young learners at home. It is my hope that the following paragraphs will give some helpful hints for parents looking to build in more robust questioning at home, which can improve academic performance in school, and make dinner table conversations more engaging.

The most important piece of advice is patience, called “wait time” in education. Waiting for a person no matter the age to come up with an answer is fundamental to generating better dialogue and better answers (Johnson, 1997; Hill, 2016). Wait time allows a person at any age to think about their answers and give you the fullest response that they can. Quick responses often encourage information-based answers to questions (where a person is recalling and not necessarily thinking). When developing learners, you want to form questions that support deeper thinking, which encourages students to process information they have, and turn it into expertise, understanding, and self-reflection (Francis, 2016; Ritchhart, 2015). This process definitely looks different for a young learner than it does for an adolescent, or young adult. Furthermore, just because recall questions are not as cognitively taxing, doesn’t mean they are not appropriate questions to ask, in reality, it all depends on the situation. In many cases, questioning can start with recall questions and then move to more thought-provoking questions to help learners make inferences, or self-reflect.

If you are a parent of a younger learner, it is important to realize that he/she is relying on you to help him/her think abstractly about a topic (Walsh & Hodges, 2018). When reading to a child at night, ask him/her questions about the book, focus on the pictures and the characters, and encourage the young learner to make connections and predictions. In order to be impactful, questions need to be phrased in a way that keeps a young learner engaged and allow for the child to respond in a variety of ways; which means the question should start with something concrete, but allow a child to use his/her imagination to think about how a story might be different if they were the main character, or to have them make predictions about how the story should end. This strategy can be applied to other types of situations as well, like when a child is building an imaginary world, asking them to tell you the story of the world he/she is building and why it was made that way, allowing the young learner to stretch their thinking while still being comfortable. When it comes to learning, questions should be conversation starters and not conversation closers.

As young learners get older, it is easier for them to think abstractly, and at that point, as a parent, it helps to build questioning routines, or to internalize question stems yourself, to support your learner at home. A thinking routine is defined by Harvard’s Project Zero as:

Patterns by which teachers and students operate and go about the job of learning and working together in a classroom environment. A routine can be thought of as any procedure, process, or pattern of action that is used repeatedly to manage and facilitate the accomplishment of specific goals or tasks (Project Zero, date).

Thinking routines create habits that help support students in their learning. In Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question (2014), the author gives the example of Debrorah Meir’s questioning routine, which can be applied when examining a new topic or problem. Meir’s routine became influential in the New York City School System:

• Evidence “ How do we know what’s true or false? What evidence counts?

• Viewpoint “How might this look if we stepped into other shoes, or looked at it from a different direction?

• Connection: Is there a pattern? Have we seen something like this before?

• Conjecture: What if it were different?

• Relevance: Why does this matter?

Question stems are question starters that a parent can use with students to help create a more in-depth conversation. A helpful list of question stems can be found here. These stems are based on the Depth of Knowledge Wheel demonstrating different “levels” of questions to ask. As stated earlier, different types of questions are appropriate for different situations, and just because a question is technically at a higher level does not mean that question is appropriate in all situations to increase student thinking.

Probably the most important thing a parent can do, is just set up a home environment where enriching and engaging questions are just part of the day-to-day routines. By creating a culture where questioning is a part of rich conversations, a young learner builds a habit of questioning in other aspects of his/her life that will help support growth in school and beyond.

Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Francis, E. M. (2016). Now That's a Good Question!: How to Promote Cognitive Rigor Through Classroom Questioning. Ascd.

Hill, J. (2016). Questioning techniques: A study of instructional practice. Peabody Journal of Education, 91(5), 660-671.

Johnson, R. (1997). Questioning techniques to use in teaching. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 68(8), 45-49.

Project zero's thinking routine toolbox. PZ's Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from http://www.pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines#CoreThinkingRoutines.

Ritchhart, R. (2015). Creating cultures of thinking: The 8 forces we must master to truly transform our schools. John Wiley & Sons.

Walsh, R. L., & Hodge, K. A. (2018). Are we asking the right questions? An analysis of research on the effect of teachers’ questioning on children’s language during shared book reading with young children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18(2), 264-294.

Zwiers, J., & Crawford, M. (2011). Academic conversations: Classroom talk that fosters critical thinking and content understandings. Stenhouse Publishers.

In this book, Erik M. Francis explores how one of the most fundamental instructional strategies—questioning—can provide the proper scaffolding to deepen student thinking, understanding, and application of knowledge. You'll learn:

• Techniques for using questioning to extend and evaluate student learning experiences.
• Eight different kinds of questions challenge students to demonstrate higher-order thinking and communicate the depth of knowledge.
• How to rephrase the performance objectives of college and career readiness standards into questions that engage and challenge students.