I started on a new, required for an MSU course, book this weekend A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger and was surprised by how engaged in the reading I became. I had a hard time putting the book down and often shared passages I found powerful with my husband. After finishing the first two chapters, I couldn’t help ponder the fact that a four year old girl will ask 390 questions a day, but as children get older the amount of questions they ask significantly decreases (Berger, 2014, p. 3).I was still thinking about this while putting my daughters to bed. As I lay with them, my two year old, who was supposed to be going to sleep, started asking questions. After a few questions I started counting. By the time she finally calmed down she had asked 47 questions in a 5 minute time period. My six year old lay silent, listening to her sister ramble on while I tried to answer what I could in my exhausted state. After both girls drifted to sleep I wondered why is it that my two year old asks more questions than my six year old? Obviously my six year old understands at bedtime we lay silently, but throughout the next few days I started to observe the stark differences between my girls. My two year old asks endless question upon question whereas my six year old asks significantly less questions. Why is there a change? Is there a way I can encourage both of my daughters to continue the desire to ask questions throughout their life? Is there a way I can encourage my students in my classroom to ask powerful questions? Can I create a classroom that encourages inquiry?
In my CEP 812 course we were required to participate in a Quickfire. A Quickfire starts with a single question on a given topic and the participant continues writing any question that comes to mind using a stack of sticky notes and a writing utensil, or the virtual equivalent thereof. I found that questions came faster than I could type and inspired me to really think about how I was using questioning in my classroom. One of my goals for my teacher evaluation this year is to improve questioning with my students, but after reflecting on the Quickfire and reading A More Beautiful Question I decided to turn my goal around. Why should I always ask the students questions? Doesn’t Bergers text support everyone asking questions? Do I always need to be the one asking questions and judging students' answers? Why have I shifted away from an inquiry based classroom? When I taught preschool with Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program we used the Creative Curriculum to teach standards through students’ interests, and when I taught in first grade in Wisconsin we used Project Based Learning in a similar manner. Now that I am immersed in upper elementary teaching, why is the focus on test preparation or teaching lessons from a Teacher Edition text? Taking the Quickfire approach from CEP 812, I had students read a district required text and then ditched the accompanying questions I was supposed to ask and instead allowed students to ask questions. When I explained to students what we would be doing they stared at me blankly. Turning the tables around and disrupting our routine was shocking to these students. One student was so perplexed by this he had to verify he heard correctly, “We are asking the questions, not you?” I set up a class Jamboard for the students. For the first minute, the clicking of keys was scarcely heard, but once students saw their peers asking questions the amount of sticky notes came pouring in. Some students were eagerly asking questions while others didn’t post a single question. I know using a Quickfire once doesn’t mean my students will constantly ask beautiful questions, but I think this has shifted the way I think about questioning and will hopefully help guide inquiry in my classroom.
Sources Cited:
Berger, W. (2016). A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas (Reprint ed.). Bloomsbury USA.
