Creating Meaning: Making Thinking Visible Through a Practice of Questioning

One of the more difficult aspects of conversing with young children is finding the right questions to ask. Should we be precise in what we ask? When do we stop a child if their answer is moving off-topic? How much should we support a child when they struggle to find an answer? Finding the right way to ask a question and determining how to best enable a richer conversation can feel difficult. It’s important to find ways to ask broad, open-ended questions alongside precise, more specific questions.

Open-Ended Questions

The biggest thing to consider when you are about to have a conversation with a child is, “What do I want to find out?” If you choose a question that is too broad, you may not get any answer at all, while a question that is too specific doesn’t always leave room for open-ended answers and can shut down the thinking process because the only available answers might be yes, no, or I don’t know.That’s why taking a moment to pause before asking a question to a child can be so important.

When students look at art, we often begin the conversation with the question, “What do you notice?” This question is broad (almost too broad), but when we begin the conversations about art we start with a wide lens, giving students plenty of space to think and answer, and then move into a more specific series of questions meant to help them arrive at noticing details and make connections in a supported way. For example, after students share what they notice, the next step might be to ask about size, shapes, colors, or any other aspects of the piece of art that we want students to focus on. This move from open-ended pondering to focused questions can be successful in the situation because what the teachers want the students to do is to be better observers.

Starting with Focus

Conversely, many parents approach their child’s teacher with a similar problem: “When I ask my child what they did today, they don’t have anything to say!?” This is a perfect example of a conversation that needs to be re-evaluated. When we are asking this type of question, we are not trying to encourage better observation or metacognition, we are simply curious about how our child’s day went. Young children find it difficult to think about the past (even the immediate past) in broad terms, and this is why this line of questioning needs to be more focused. Instead of asking, “What did you do today?” or “How was your day today?” think about questions that have definite answers such as: “What did you do during choice time today?” “Did you play with your friend ____ while you were at the playground?” “What letter are you learning this week?” After you have gauged your child’s interest in the conversation, move towards more open-ended questions such as, “What was the most exciting thing you did today?” This style of questioning is great across many subjects, but will be the most successful if you first ask yourself what you want to know from your child.

Create Space

The most important aspect of having a conversation with a child is to give them room to think and respond. Too frequently, we adults ask a child a question and when they pause to answer, we cut them off, fill in the space, or prompt their answers. Conversations happen at a different pace for children than for adults and sometimes children really need those extra few seconds of time to process and respond verbally. It’s easy as adults to see a pause and assume they are struggling. We may want to help them out, but by shortening their time to respond we are cutting them out of the conversational process. Remember that when you ask a question, whether it’s about a drawing they have worked on, a game they played the previous day, or even when discussing new math concepts, create space and time to let the child answer. There are obviously times when a child doesn’t know the answer and that’s okay. If they realize they don’t know what to say, we want the child to be able to reflect on the moment, and recognize that they can ask for help. When a child is unsure of how to respond to a question, if we give them the answer instead of giving them the tools to answer, we are doing a disservice to the student. We are giving them a fish instead of teaching them how to fish. Instead of filling in the blanks for your child, help them recognize and ask for help when they need it. Even simply giving them a few seconds to answer, and then posing the question, “Can I help you?” or, “If you aren’t sure that’s fine.” reinforces the idea that they have autonomy in the conversation and can reach out for help if they need it.

Supporting Peer Interaction

While children mature and begin moving away from parallel play and start to truly participate in cooperative play, an important place that you may see growth is in your child’s ability to have conversations with their peers. Through modeling conversations, learning to ask and answer probative questions, and practice serve-and-return interactions, we can guide them in their independent relationship building. When you are listening in on your child’s conversation with their peers, what do you notice?