Questions Only

This routine encourages students to contemplate information and creatively dialogue with a partner using only questions. This stretches their knowledge, and drives a deeper understanding of the content by forcing them to think about the content in different ways, while having fun at the same time.

The Process

Prepare a list of topics that the students should discuss. You can also come up with a scenario for them to act out using content-related words and concepts (see the included Whose Line is it Anyway? video for an example), or have them act as if each student IS part of the content (like, John is the pythagorean theorem, or Alexandra is Catherine the Great)

• • This can be new information, but is better as a review.

1. Ask for four volunteers to come to the front of the room, and select two to be the first pair to speak, each with one of the other volunteers behind them

2. Give them a funny scenario to discuss, with the instruction that they can ONLY ask questions; if they fail to ask a question, the other volunteer steps up and resumes the questioning.

   • This is to introduce the activity and get everyone having fun, while also preparing them for what they will be doing as a whole class shortly

   • Give them a few tries to try to make it a few rounds, then have the volunteers sit

3. Tell the class that they will now be doing that using content, and have them get into pairs; you can have two pairs group up, or just have two students pair up.

4. Have each pair decide who is partner A and who is B; you can then tell them that "B" is going to go first (or A, or randomly roll a die so that even is A and odd is B)

5. The first speaker has to ask the partner a question about the content. 

6. The partner then responds with a question. The first speaker responds with another question, and so on.

   • It is important for students to know to keep it on topic, though they will stray into funny territory

   • If a student doesn't have a question, they should swap with one of the other pairs in their grouping. Or, if you have single pairs, that person is to raise their hand, and you can pair them with another who "lost," and create two different pairs, with two who asked questions correctly, and the two who didn't; 

7. Give them a few minutes for this round, then switch it up with another scenario or content item

8. If you feel this has run out of steam, you can again select four students to do this in the front of the room, using the content this time.

Adaptation: You can enlarge the grouping to four students, and each person has to ask a question in turn; if you have an odd number (or if you like the idea), have a 5th student keeping "score" of who has the best, most appropriate questions.

Accommodation: Pair students intentionally, so that those who might have more difficulty coming up with questions are with someone who suits their level and can help them; pair English-language learners with someone who can help them formulate questions, if possible.

Modification: Students can each get a copy of the PDF in this post, and have a silent "discussion" using questions only. You give them an essential question, and they have to write questions about that question to each other. The pair that has the most questions wins!

Creative Questioning

This routine encourages students to students create interesting questions and then imaginatively mess around with them for a while in order to explore their creative possibilities. 

1. Pick an everyday object or topic and brainstorm a list of questions about it. These can be broad or specific, serious or silly, simple or complex, whatever drives the discussion forward. It might feel a little awkward at first, and might take some prompting, but the goal is to get students to exercise their creative muscles in a non-threatening, low-stress environment.

2. Look over the list and transform some of the questions into questions that challenge the imagination. Do this by transforming questions along the lines of:

   • What would it be like if…

   • How would it be different if…

   • Suppose that instead of ...

   • What would change if ...

   • How would it look differently to …

3. Choose a question to imaginatively explore. Explore it by imaginatively playing out its possibilities. Do this by: Writing a story or essay, drawing a picture, creating a play or dialogue, inventing a scenario, conducting an imaginary interview, conducting a thought experiment

4. Reflect: What new ideas do you have about the topic, concept or object that you didn’t have before?

Adaptation: Use this to introduce students to new content, some concept, result, event, or "finished product" from what they will ultimately try to achieve in terms of mastery. Ask them to develop creative questions regarding the content: how did it happen? What were the steps to get there? What went into getting that result? Students are, in effect, predicting the process using prior knowledge. Spend some time exploring the possibilities before diving into the content study itself.

Accommodation: Encourage students to write the questions in their notes or on sticky notes, or type out the questions using PollEverywhere to help those students who might have ideas to share but not the confidence or comfort to do so with the whole class.

Modification: Provide question stems, with several blank spaces for students to create their own. Create a handout for all students to write their questions on, and have everyone write their questions before sharing them.

"Yes, and..."

The following activity promotes critical thinking in a fun and engaging way. This is an improv technique used to drive scenes forward. This would work well as a review at the end of a unit of study. The goal is to get students to recount important information in a cohesive story as a small group.

Here's the process:

1. The day before the activity, tell your students that they will be doing an oral review of the material the next day. They should come prepared with as much information as possible, since they will be helping a small group review.

2. The day of the activity, have the class either sit or stand in a large circle, or group up in small groups of 5-6 students. Ideally, there are enough topic items for each student to be able to speak twice or more.

3. Instruct students to recount whatever information you want them to master--steps in an experiment, events from a history unit, story plot points, solving a formula, etc. Randomly select one student (or one from each group) to be the first to go, and that student has to say a quick fact/step/explanation of the topic. You can also break the topic down into parts and give different prompts as class progresses.

4. The next student MUST follow up as quickly as possible once the first student finishes; they begin by saying, "yes, and..." and then they finish that sentence with their thought about the topic. The sentence must make sense, and must drive the explanation forward. It is also important that students speak as if they are ALL voicing the thoughts of one person (no "you" or "your" statements, but rather "I" and "my").

5. The next student follows the process and contributes to the explanation.

6. This will go on until each group has completed the process/explanation. 

7. If you have multiple topics, you can remix the groups and have them repeat the process for a new topic.

8. Monitor in the POWER ZONE as they talk to each other, and encourage them to

   1. make sense

   2. speak in complete sentences

   3. take the perspective of ONE person recounting the information

At the conclusion of the class, you can have students complete an exit ticket recounting all the steps/information of one of the topics you had them discuss; each group member can be given a different topic to write about for the exit slip.

Adaptation: Once each group has finished the first part, have them each write down the final result. They need to recount what each person contributed to the roundtable in as cohesive a way as possible. Alternatively, you can have each person write the first step, then pass their paper to the right and write the second step on that paper, then pass again and write the 3rd step. They could essentially respond on paper the way they responded verbally.

Accommodation: Intentionally pair students based on ELL status or learning level. Provide them with sentence starters or question stems.

Modification: Have students write the steps on slips of paper, then mix and match between groups. Each group then has to assemble a completed explanation or story using the slips of paper.

More details here: https://www.thoughtco.com/yes-and-improv-game-2713213