Here at the Cunniff, teachers continue to look for ways to prepare our children with both the traditional skills and the 21st Century habits of mind they will need to be successful adults. This month, one of the foci for our teachers will be to consider the way we infuse “higher order thinking” skills in all aspects of our curriculum. To support this effort, we are discussing the kinds of questions we ask children that will push their thinking to a new level. To help us in this task, we have shared a questioning guide containing question patterns. These patterns, in addition to helping teachers think about how they talk to children, can be easily adopted for use at home.

Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, a well-known text for teachers, the guide breaks questions down into 6 general types in order of the complexity of thought they require: questions that check memory (knowledge questions); questions that check comprehension, questions that ask children to apply knowledge to new situations; questions that look for the ability to analyze important components of a situation; questions that require children to recall information from more than one source and to synthesize that information into a new thought; and questions that ask children to recall facts and to evaluate a situation based on those facts. Even at home, deliberately choosing questions can help children deepen their thinking. For example, while reading a story with your child or watching a favorite television program together, consider asking the following kinds of questions:

Knowledge: What happened in the story? Who were the main characters? Can you tell me three things that you thought were interesting in the story?
Comprehension: What was the main problem in the story? Which facts tell you what the character meant when he/she…?
Application: If you were the main character, what would you do? What would happen if the story had ended differently?
Analysis: Why did the author include that particular character (make the story happen where it did, etc.)? What details in the story made you feel the way you did about the main character?
Synthesis: If you were the author, how would you make this story better? What do you think might happen next in the story? Tell me why you think that?
Evaluation: What do you think of the story and why? Would you recommend this story to a friend? And why? Did you agree or disagree with the way the character handled things? Tell me why.

Not only do these questions relate well to many situations, they are appropriate for children at all grade levels. By asking the right questions, we teach them to be thoughtful, active learners. By listening carefully to their answers, we teach them that they each have something important to share with the world.