How do you model questioning?

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on February 9, 2010 at 2:00pm

Hi Suzie,

I LOVE the video. Ooooo.... gets me wanting to jump right out of school to the great outdoors or a fantastic nearby museum. Learning just comes to LIFE--the kids are happy and thrilled, squeals of delight fill the air. This is it. How wonderful that you're sharing this view on education.

Modeling questioning, such a good thing to think about. And as the museum educator said, getting students to OBSERVE is paramount. So if it's ok with you, may I start with how to get the observation skills going? There's an art to just settling and taking things in, using the senses to ignite the fire of WONDER.

One thing I do to activate observation skills is a writing exercise we do outdoors called "Ob-ex," which stands for observation exercise. Students write down everything that comes to them through their senses--I tell them to just think of their pencil-holding-hands as something like seismographs, recording the tracks of their observations. Everything, everything gets written down: "I see, I hear, I touch, I taste, I smell, I feel..." Kids easily fill a page in 10 or 20 minutes, some go on and on. It takes a while to get used to the exercise--at first students aren't sure what there is to write down, they're unsure what they're actually taking in. We start in a group. I start modeling what I'm taking in through my senses, then call on others who have observations. Soon it just takes off, everyone has a multitude of observations. I have the students then go to their own individual places (about 50 or more feet apart from each other) to be nature observers and recorders. We share our ob-ex's afterward.

Once we've done the exercise several times it becomes a catalyst to a "learning mode." "Use your ob-ex skills," one student will say to another. And by the way, that learning-mode really perks up writing skills--it brings stories and essays to life: "Add ob-ex details and people will be right there with you," I'll say, and the kids know just what that means.

Oh, it's so good to be thinking with colleagues about this stuff. Can't wait to hear others' ideas and share more.

You actually asked about questioning and I didn't really answer that except to say it often starts with immersion in observation... To be continued... thanks for the great discussion question!

Permalink Reply by Suzie Boss on February 9, 2010 at 4:13pm

Hi Connie,
Welcome to this group! So happy to have your voice in the conversation.
Love your description of the ob-ex process, and especially the pencil/hand as seismograph. Great! This sounds like a skill that kids will use again and again, long after a project wraps up.
Eager to hear others' thoughts about what ignites that sense of wonder.
Cheers,
Suzie