The H-Q-Q Chart

Finders, Margaret and Phyllis Balcerzak. “It’s Time to Revise K-W-L.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 56.6. (20013): 460

The authors of “It’s Time to Revise K-W-L” argue that the traditional K-W-L (what I Know, what I Want to know, what I Learned) chart, a popular formative assessment designed to help students connect prior learning with new knowledge, may inhibit authentic student inquiry.

In its place, they propose the H-Q-Q Chart (what we’ve Heard about an issue or topic, what Questions we have, and after reading and searching for answers, what Questions we have about our new knowledge of the issue or topic).

• Column 1: Students work with a partner or in small groups to share what they have heard about a topic in the form of notes in first column.
• Column 2: Students generate questions about what they have heard in the second column and to work collaboratively to investigate their questions on the topic. This process “allows for a collaborative examination of deeply held misconceptions rather than the correction of shallow facts,” and encourages students to build on prior knowledge. It also provides a framework for students to explore conflicting ideas and to question their own misconceptions and values.
• Column 3: After students have researched for answers to their questions, students reflect on what they have learned and what more they need to learn by generating questions in the third column for further inquiry. These questions might be explored in class, independently, “or simply left percolating for some future exploration.”

Topic / Issue / Text:
H: What have we heard about the topic?	Q: What questions do we have about the topic?	Q: What new questions do we have?

 

 

ReQuest

From Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Also called Reciprocal Questioning, this strategy is designed to teach students to question a text as they read and learn. Used at the beginning of a unit or extended text, it can also provide teachers with an initial understanding of students’ background knowledge. Over time, this reading and questioning routine can be transferred to students working in pairs. 

• Either silently or in a read-aloud, teacher and students read a segment of text.
• Students ask the teacher questions about the content they just read.
• Teacher and students change roles. Now everyone reads the next segment of text.
• Teacher asks students about the text.
• Students and teachers take turns back and forth.

 

 

Question Sets to Explore a Topic

From Chapter 3, The New St. Martin’s Handbook, “Exploring, Planning, and Drafting”

 

Questions to describe a topic

Originally developed by Aristotle, the following questions can help you explore any topic  by carefully and systematically describing it: 

1. What is it? What are its characteristics, dimensions, features, and parts? What does it look like?
2. What caused it? What changes occurred to create your topic? How is it changing? How will it change? What part of the changing process is your topic involved with? What may your topic lead to in the future?
3. What is it like or unlike? What features differentiate your topic from others? What analogies does your topic support?
4. What larger system is your topic a part of? How does your topic relate to this system?
5. What do people say about it? What reactions does your topic arouse? What about the topic causes those reactions?

 

Question to explain a topic

This is the well-known question set of who, what, when, where, why, and how. Widely used in news reporting, these questions are especially useful to help you explain a topic:

1. Who is doing it?
2. What is at issue?
3. When does it take place?
4. Where is it taking place?
5. Why does it occur?
6. How is it done?

Questions to persuade

When your purpose is to persuade or convince, the following questions, developed by philosopher Stephen Toulmin, can help you think analytically about your topic:

1. What claim are you making about your topic?
2. What good reasons support your claim?
3. What underlying assumptions support the reasons for your claim?
4. What backup evidence can you find for your claim?
5. What refutations of your claim can be made?
6. In what ways is or should your claim be qualified?

 

 

Levels of Questions

Adapted by William Drewnowski from Teacher’s Manuel, The Language of Composition, and Teacher’s Manuel, Laying the Foundation

The information in the first column can be used by students working in partners or small groups to analyze the types of questions published in a textbook, on a test, or in a teacher’s lesson plan. After analyzing the questions posed by others, students read a passage or listen to a presentation and practice composing their own questions in the second column.

TYPES OF QUESTIONS	YOUR QUESTIONS
“On the Line” questions (also called comprehension questions) are text-based: the answers to these questions can be verified in the text. These questions often ask who, what, when, where, how? They are not debatable and everyone should have the same answer.
“Between the Line” questions (also called interpretation questions) require us to read between the lines and to draw conclusions about the author, people, events, and ideas in the text. They require analysis and inference. These questions stay within the text and often ask why, how, and so what? The answers require reasoning and textual evidence; answers may vary.
“Beyond the Line” questions (also called extension questions) use the text as a stimulus, but require us to extend and connect the text to ideas, events, and texts other than the one under discussion.  The answers to these questions are often debatable, and reasonable people may disagree on the answers.

Click here for the Levels of Questions Chart handout.

Question Starters / Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Adapted from High/Scope Foundation and Checking for Understanding Fig. 3.3

Type of Thinking	Key Words	Prompts
Remembering: Recall information, data, ideas, facts, experience	define, describe, identify, know, label, list, match, name, outline, recall, recognize, reproduce, select, state	Where is… What did… Who was… When did… How many… Can you explain/describe/recall/list…

Understanding: Demonstrate understanding of the meaning and significance of facts, ideas, structures, problems…

comprehend, convert, defend, distinguish, estimate, explain, extend, generalize, give examples, infer, interpret, paraphrase, predict, rewrite, summarize, translate

What is the main idea… How would you explain… How would you rephrase… How would you summarize… What does it mean… Describe what… Give an example of…

Applying: Solve new challenges with acquired knowledge, techniques; apply rules in a different way

apply, change, compute, construct, demonstrate, discover, manipulate, modify, operate, predict, prepare, produce, relate, show, solve, use

What would happen if… How would you solve/show/apply/use… If you were there, would you… What other way would you…

Analyzing: Separating material or concepts into parts to identify and understand structures, causes, motives, generalizations

analyze, break down, compare, contrast, diagram, deconstruct, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, identify, illustrate, infer, outline, relate, select, separate

What are the parts of… What would you have used… What things are similar/different? What caused _____? What is the relationship… What evidence supports…

Evaluating: Making judgments about information, ideas, quality, materials

appraise, compare, conclude, contrast, criticize, critique, defend, describe, discriminate, evaluate, explain, interpret, justify, relate, summarize, support

Do you agree with… What is your opinion… What is the value / importance of… How would you determine / select / prioritize / justify… Which is better…

Creating: Building a structure or pattern from diverse elements in an original or different way; proposing alternative solutions

combine, compile, compose, create, devise, design, explain, generate, imagine, modify, organize, plan, present, produce, propose, rearrange, reconstruct, relate, reorganize, revise

How would you adapt / change / improve / invent… What if… What new model would you construct? What would it be like if… What would happen if…

Click here for a user-friendly handout of Bloom's Question Starters.

 

Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, authors of Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, put forth two simple arguments:

All students should learn how to formulate their own questions

All teachers can easily teach this skill as part of their regular practice.

In this approach to questioning, the teacher introduces a teacher-constructed Question Focus (QFocus) related to a unit of study. This can be done at the beginning of the unit to introduce students to a new topic; it can be done in the middle of a unit to deepen comprehension, stimulate new lines of thought, or prepare students for a long-term assignment; it can be done at the end of a unit to generate further study (34). In response to the QFocus, students will:

• Produce their own questions
• Improve their questions
• Prioritize their questions

The Question Focus

A QFocus can be a statement, a quote, an image, almost anything except a question prompt. The work of creating an effective QFocus resembles the work we do in designing an effective prompt. It should have a clear focus, provoke and stimulate new thinking, and not reveal a teacher’s bias or preferences. When the teacher displays the QFocus, s/he should not comment on it. See Table 2.1, Steps for Designing a QFocus, for guidance.

 

Produce Your Questions

Students discuss the rules for producing their own questions:

• Ask as many questions as you can.
• Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer the questions.
• Write down every question exactly as it is stated.
• Change any statement into a question.

Before revealing the QFocus, allow 3-4 minutes for students to discuss the rules, guided by this template for discussing the level of difficulty. This step captures students’ interest and helps students to remember the rules.

Students work in groups of 4-5; one student in each group assumes the role of recorder. Display the QFocus. Allow 5 minutes. Circulate and enforce the rules!

 

Improve Your Questions

In their groups, students categorize their questions. The authors recommend categorizing questions as close-ended or open-ended, but if students have been working on the types and levels of questions, they can apply that knowledge to this step (for example, students can categorize their questions as “on the line,” “between the line,” and “beyond the line” questions). Students can be challenged to changes questions from close-ended to open-ended.

 

Prioritize Your Questions

Students choose their three most important questions and list them by order of importance. Share and compare the priority questions produced by each group; ask students why they consider these the most important questions. The next steps depend upon your purposes.

 

For a brief but helpful outline of the QFT, read this article published in 2011 in the Harvard Education Letter: http://hepg.org/hel/article/507#home