Challenge 1: Student Generated Questions

In 8th grade ELA, we have been working the skill of how to write different types of questions. The question types we focused on are close-ended ("right there") questions, open-ended questions, connection questions, and theme/core questions. After reading a short story, students generate these different types of questions in connection with the story, and then share them with a small group to understand the story on multiple levels. They then use this same skill when reading their own independent novels, and later share them with their small group that is reading the same novel. Close-ended questions address the surface level thinking of describing what's there; open-ended questions can use a variety of different thinking processes like wondering or uncovering complexity; connection questions help students build their critical thinking with different types of connections; theme questions use capture the heart thinking to get to the core of a story.

The following day, we use questioning to understand the author's purpose with the use of different writer's craft (repetition in particular, but also simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, etc.). Students identify a writer's craft the author used. They then ask questions about why the author used that particular writer's craft, and draw conclusions about the author's intent/message based on their questioning.

When students form questions, they need to think a lot deeper about the text then when answering questions provided to them. When discussing more complex questions with others, they understand different aspects of the story, the connection to our world, and the message(s) at the heart of it all, which leads to more concrete comprehension. In forming their own questions, they better understand the process of reading comprehension - that it is not something that usually clicks on the first reading, but instead takes a great deal of thinking and discussion before coming to the core meaning.