The Power of Kids' Own
Questions
by Larry Taylor
I had an interesting experience with a year 6
class last week and the week before.
The class is studying medieval history and
were using the Castle Discovery
WebQuest.
The first week they came equipped with a sheet listing a set of questions
generated by their teacher.
Their responses as they engaged in the task were interesting.
- there was a great deal of off-task discussion
- the group was quite noisy (not a problem in itself
but there was little busy noise)
- the group had little vested interest in completing
the task
- some wanted to explore unrelated links
- the comments directed to the teachers were of the ilk
of ...
"I can't find the answer to ...."
"I can't find that one either!"
"How are we supposed to find ... ?"
"Where's the answer to ... ?"
The clear implication for the teacher was,
you
thought up these questions so what are you going to do to help me
find the answer?"
Our responses became a continual, "Have you
read the section that ... ?"
I found the whole exercise quite frustrating and I suspect the children did
too, since most didn't look like completing the task.
I knew the class would return the following week to finish the exercise, so at
the conclusion of the lesson, I suggested to the teacher that she
have the kids brainstorm a list of things they would like to know about castles?
Last week they returned with a longer list of questions that
they
had generated themselves.
The difference was remarkable!
An observer might have wondered if this was the same group from the week
before looking at the same webquest.
- there was little or no off-task discussion
- there was more on-task interaction between children
- the group was much quieter
- they wanted to find the answers to questions
- no one asked about following unrelated links
- comments directed to the teachers included ...
"I found out that ..."
"Why would they have used ... ?"
"Is this what it would have really ... ?"
"Did you know that ... ?"
- comments directed by children to each other
included ...
"Has anyone found out ... ?"
"I found the answer to ... at .... ?"
"Where did you find out about ... ?"
I really wasn't needed much, nor was their teacher, except to periodically
acknowledge someone's discovery.
Occasionally I helped someone explore an alternative link to the 3 or 4 they had
already tried in search of an answer.
I would occasionally ask, "Has anyone found the answer to ... ?"
only to be greeted by several answers of "Yes!"
Then someone would suggest a link where the answer could be found.
I didn't see any signs of frustration, but many signs of motivation,
determination and curiosity.
The task wasn't completed but they want to come back this week and
continue their quest.
What's my point? I would like to see us building in a way for children to create their own questions when we design their webquests.
