Questions or Answers

Which one do teachers focus on most? Sometimes I think coming up with a question is harder than answering them (ever been in a job interview!).

One of Kaplan's concepts of Depth and Complexity is Unanswered Questions. I like to focus on this with the little ones, although beware--once you get them started, there is no stopping them!

I love to use photos as part of our reading warm-up (MSNBC publishes pics weekly from all around the world-I generally use those, although art works too). I ask the kids to ask questions-what don't they know. I wonder where those people are going? I wonder if they were alright? I wonder where that was taken?

I also do that with stories we read. We read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good Very Bad Day (actually we listened to it-did you know Barnes and Noble has a place for that on their site-some good titles there: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/online-storytime-books-toys/379003588   )

Anyway, I asked the kids to write about what they still wondered about. For some reason I don't have a pic of my favorite one, which was "I wonder if he has a bad day every day":

That maybe it was the reason he seemed so grumpy.

I wonder why he was so grouchy.

They thought it was a she because of the hair! :)

I wonder if he didn't want to go to school and stay home and play video games.