Great Scot - The Scotch Family Magazine - Issue 151 September 2017 GreatScot_Internal_Sept_2017_FA | Page 19

L-R: THOMAS DOAN, WINSTON CHEN AND JOSEPH KARALAPILLAI YEAR 1
Questioning, questioning, questioning
Throughout this year the Junior Primary team
has been exploring the importance of questioning
within the classroom. There are many aspects to
questioning that are worth considering. First and
foremost, we want our boys to be able to generate
and ask good higher order questions. Often the
boys will ask questions with obvious answers,
or ones that simply scratch at the surface of a
concept or area of investigation.
Recently the Year 1 boys were introduced to
their Term 3 unit of study about dinosaurs. Miss
Penny Cumming and Miss Clare Kydd had directed
the boys to think of a question that would lead to
learning more about dinosaurs. We found that the
majority of boys initially generated simple questions
that required very little consideration, research or
higher order thinking to answer.
The boys were then introduced to the concept
of fat and skinny questions. One activity involved
categorising their initial questions about dinosaurs.
The next step was to teach the boys the difference
between fat and skinny questions. They were then
provided with the necessary scaffolding to generate
fat questions that would encourage robust
discussion, in depth research and higher order
thinking skills to answer. These fat questions may
begin with sentence starters such as:
Give three reasons why …
Make a prediction …
What if …
As part of their exploration into questioning,
the boys also considered the different resources
at their disposal to enable them to find answers.
The obvious thought to just ‘Google it’ was
discussed, and led to the importance of validating
the websites the boys were visiting by comparing
and contrasting the information with another source
such as a reference book.
Pleasingly, the boys discussed the benefits
of asking an expert. After their exploration of
questioning, the boys were left with the challenge to
generate their own fat question that would appeal
to their peers, and would be worthy of a thorough
investigation leading to new understandings and
knowledge.
ANTHONY TASCA
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
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