We’ve all been there: It’s Monday morning. Students drift into the room, a fog floating behind their eyes as the early morning wake-up clouds their consciousness. We greet them at the door, proffering a powerful greeting, hoping to engage them. “Good morning!” we say. In return, we might get the nod, the hello, the brief glance from behind their phone screen. And then we attempt to invite them into conversation, to bring forth their voice, to form a person-to-person connection: “Did you have a good weekend?” There it is–a question to elicit a response, an opportunity for students to share the details of their wonderful weekends–but it fails almost every time. Why is that? (Well there’s one of many open ended questions worth exploring.)
Indeed, we ask students questions because we want to hear a response.
We ask students questions because we want them to think.
We ask students questions because we want them to be active, not passive, participants in the classroom and in their relationships.
But a question like “Did you have a good weekend?” is doomed to fail, fated to receive the conversation-killing “Yup,” “Yeah,” or (more formally, cutting even deeper for some reason) “Yes.”
Aaaaaaaand then the students are on their way to their desks…
Why’s such a question so bad, destined to drawout the most minimal of responses? Perhaps it’s because it’s not one of the many open ended questions to start a conversation we could ask.
Open Ended Questions Benefits
Picture this: you are leading a group of students in a discussion of a text. To prepare, you generated discussion questions. Your question generation created questions that you hope will engage the students in critical and analytical thinking about and beyond the text. Here are some questions you generated:
- Who’s the antagonist of the story?
- What’s the word ____ mean on page 2?
- How does the author’s use of language in paragraph 4 contribute to its tone?
- How does the symbol contribute to the story’s theme?
For the questions above, which are open ended questions to ask students?
Which are open ended questions to keep conversation going?
Let’s see if we can find the open ended questions examples for students in #1-4 above.
#1 and #2 are, depending on the text and task, pretty straightforward and easily answered. Students could easily identify the antagonist and, either from context or from a dictionary, define the word. (Note, however, a question like #1 could be modified to become an open ended question to ask. For example, after reading The Great Gatsby, a teacher could ask students a variation of #1–Who’s the ultimate villain in the text?–and have a lively debate. Is it Gatsby? Or Tom? Or Daisy? Students could find evidence for many interpretations and arguments.)
#3 and #4, then, are the better open ended questions to ask. Those questions are better discussion questions because they, get this, require discussion. Negotiation. Consideration.
There’s not an easy, single answer.
Certainly, open ended questions promote conversations, and that’s one of the many open ended questions benefits.
According to the Minnesota Children’s Museum, there are four distinct open ended questions benefits: “Critical Thinking,” “Creative Thinking,” “Communication,” and “Confidence.”
- With Critical Thinking, children can explore perspectives, problems, and possibilities from many angles since there aren’t single right-or-wrong answers in open ended questions to ask.
- With Creative Thinking, children can “think beyond the obvious” to find more novel interpretations or approaches. They can think outside of the cliche-box we hear so much about.
- With Communication, children can articulate their thinking beyond one-word-answers, and in doing so, they can use these open ended questions to start conversations that require them to work with an audience and stretch their communication skills.
- With Confidence, children can see their ideas are worth sharing, articulating, and defending since they aren’t hunting for right or wrong answers, but instead, they are developing responses that are better or best, stronger or strongest.
How to Create Open Ended Questions Students Will Respond To
So we know the open ended questions benefits, so how can we develop open ended questions to start a conversation and open ended questions to keep a conversation going?
Here are five things to consider to help you with question generation:
1. Avoid Yes/No answers.
Frame questions in a way that requires more than “yes” or “no” from students. Consider, for example, this quick-win: many educators will ask the class, “Do you have any questions?”
Instead, ask, “What questions do you have?” One question gives students an easy way out; the other presumes students have something to say.
2. Use question starters.
Try beginning discussion questions with something like these: “How,” “Why,” “To what extent,” or “In what ways.”
These words/phrases express to students that these are student questions for discussion, giving students a permission-structure to get on the field and play the open ended questions game, not sit on the sidelines waiting for someone to get the “right” answer.
3. Consider Bloom’s Taxonomy during question generation of open ended questions to ask.
With student questions, try to have students exhibit different cognitive skills: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.
By asking different types of questions with different purposes, you are inviting more perspectives (and possibilities) into the conversation.
4. Encourage personal reflection.
Open ended questions to ask can include opportunities for students to reflect on their own experiences, beliefs, or values.
These personal questions can help students engage more in conversations and see the different perspectives and views others are bringing to the discussion.
5. Create (or find) controversy to promote discussion and discourse.
If there’s a problem to solve, there’s discussion to have, so look for ways in activities and question generation to create heat needed for authentic dialogue.
For example, see some of the activities Dr. Larry Johannessen and others have created and promoted–you could use an opinionnaire to go along with a piece of text that divides students (like an opinionnaire on politics and patriotism with statements like “In certain situations it may be justified for a political leader to bend or break the law for the good of the country”) or ask an abstract question about a character that requires proof or defense (like “In school Brutus’s favorite course would be . . .” followed by options like “philosophy” or “speech.”).
These open ended tasks lead naturally to open ended questions for discussion.
So, to recap, we can use questioning to start a conversation and use open ended questions to keep a conversation going, good things to remember whether we are preparing students for rigorous discourse of academic content, for encountering challenging texts, and for greeting students at the door.
Little shifts in our question generation can lead to big changes, so instead of “Did you have a good weekend?” we shift and ask, “How was your weekend?” giving students the opportunity for discussion and elaboration.
(Though, somehow, they still manage to slay us with a dry “Good” in response! Looks like we will have to focus on open ended questions to ask and follow-up questions to probe, too!)
Project Based Learning: Unlocking Creativity and Collaboration