Third graders have been questioning questions. What makes a good question? What questions give you the most information? When is a clarifying question the right question? These are the topics we have been discussing and pondering as we begin our third grade journey in the library.
Students initially grouped questions into two categories, which we labeled as red dot questions and green dot questions. A red dot question will give a short response. An example of a red dot question would be "How old are you?" or "What is your favorite color?" A green dot question is a question that is meant to bring forth more information and requires some explaining. An example of a green dot question is "Why do you love to play Minecraft?" or "How did you begin playing soccer?"
As students continue to develop their research acumen, knowing how to frame a research question, as well as being able to assess information will become a key skill.Third graders are practicing this informally through interviews with other third graders. The students were paired so they could interview each other. Each student was given some time to share about something they loved or felt they could spend a lot of time talking about. The rest of the class then brainstormed questions. Although it seems simple, in order to develop an expertise in framing questions, students need multiple safe opportunities to practice. Developing questions as a whole class lowered the stakes for our novice interviewers. The interviewer was given the questions so they could organize the queries and choose the questions they most wanted to ask. Since the questions were on sticky notes, they were able to easily manipulate the ideas.
The next steps are for students to actually hold the interviews and then we will focus on extrapolating information.
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