Educational Leadership - September 2015

more questions I got. Little ones are naturally curious. By the time kids reach adolescence, the love of questioning is sometimes gone. But I know that curiosity still exists inside my high school students. I just have to reawaken it.

I think the main reason older
students don’t ask question is fear
that they may look wrong or dumb
or too excited about school. Years
ago, I attended a summer workshop
in Denver at which Ralph Fletcher
delivered a keynote about honoring
the risks our students take. He said, “If
the first troops that hit the beach get
mowed down, no one will follow. Be
careful how you respond to the first
troops.”
For teenagers, school can be scary
and asking questions is risky, espe-
cially if you’re working really hard
to be cool. To avoid “mowing down”
the first question askers in my room,
I must respond to questions in a way
that honors their risk. I have to work
hard to make it safe for all questions
and all questioners. Here are a few of
my strategies:
n I use students’ questions to drive
the next day’s reading. These ques-
tions often energize others to read and
provide great discussion material for
small-group conversations. I throw in
a few of my questions, too, but I avoid
asking ones that only have one right
answer.
n I’m selective about the questions I
answer. When students ask a clarifying
question—one that starts with a who,
what, when, or where—I try to answer
it. I would find it difficult to ask a
how or why question if I were still
wondering about who, what, when,
or where. When a student asks a how
or why question, I try to respond
with another question, such as “Why
do you think that’s happening?”
Answering with a quick response tells
the learner that the thinking is done.
n Sometimes I share my annotated
text, pointing out my questions. I
show students that I care about some
questions more than others and
remind them that some questions
deserve more effort in answering than
others.

What Do Student
Questions Tell Me?

Students’ questions provide a great deal of invaluable formative assessment data that helps me adjust instruction. For example, students’ questions about a recent reading assignment shows me what students understood and gives me ideas for helping them.

The students are considering the age-old question of nature versus nurture—how does each affect a person’s future? One group is reading

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, a story of two men named Wes Moore who each face adverse conditions growing up. The Wes who authored the book is a successful civic leader, but the other Wes Moore is in prison for life. Readers get to contemplate the role of nature and nurture in the two men’s lives.

Before I release students to read,
I model how I read with the eye of
a sociologist. I share a couple of
events from the book and analyze
whether the outcome of the event is
an effect of the character’s DNA or of
his environment. As students read, I
encourage them to jot down both their
questions and their analysis regarding
nature and nurture on their “think
sheets,” handouts I’ve provided for
students to record their thinking as
they read. I can use these sheets to
give them feedback.

As students read, I circulate the room, discussing the students’ questions with them individually. I don’t get around to everyone during class, so I grab the think sheets from the students I didn’t talk with. I start with Shayanne’s. She writes, “Author Wes tells Sergeant Austin, ‘I’m from the Bronx’ and he says it with a lot of pride. I wonder if living in the Bronx gave him confidence to not be scared of anyone or anything. I think this has to do with nurturing.” Shayanne is really thinking about this nature versus nurture concept. She asks a question but then goes on to answer it with a logical inference.

Jenny, who is failing and missing a lot of class, writes, “Why did Sergeant Austin trick author Wes into thinking he had a chance of leaving the military academy?” Her question surprises me because it shows that she is farther along in the book than the rest of her group. Maybe she is a better student than I thought. I wonder why she is reading but not doing her written work. I need to find out what she needs to get back on track.

Juan asks about something that happened 15 pages earlier, which lets me know he is behind. It’s OK, though, because his question about how the two mothers’ style of punishment affects each boy shows he is really reading and thinking about nature versus nurture as it relates to where he is in the book.