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Lesson 3: What Do We Do With All These Questions?

From KNILT

Overview

In this lesson you will learn how to...

  • Design the next steps in using these questions to inform instruction.

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Now that we have all these questions, what now?

Part of the QFT process allows time to prioritize their questions by picking their top three favorite questions. This helps to create the next steps by making the possibility of including these questions into future instruction more feasible. However, if we have big classes, we can still be left with a lot of questions- too many questions to keep track of.

In my experience, I once used the QFT with a class of 30 students all seated in groups of 7. Each group had a different Q focus which of course, led to different questions. After prioritizing our top three, I asked each group to share their top three with the class. Then, as a class, we voted for the #1 question between each group's top three. This helped to narrow our questions down to a total of 7 instead of 21. Revisiting 7 questions is much more doable as opposed to revisiting all 21 questions. Check out the list below to see what our questions looked like at the end of this process.

Unit: Screen Time and Teenage Brain (Students were given a different Qfocus for each group. There were given visuals and different quotes from texts that they will be exposed to later in the unit)

Period 1:

  1. What does the research say about your brain?
  2. What are the effects of using social media?
  3. How can teens learn from their mistakes?
  4. How can teens’ decisions affect their future?
  5. Why do teens make bad decisions?
  6. How can we identify the positive effects of playing video games on the brain?
  7. What are the positive effects we can get from playing video games?

Period 2:

  1. How does the internet OR social media affect your brain?
  2. What can we learn from the prefrontal cortex?
  3. What can we learn from peer pressure?
  4. Why do kids become so addicted to their phones?
  5. How can social media separate teens from their family members?
  6. What can we learn from the title “ScreenAgers”
  7. How does our brain develop as we grow?

Period 5:

  1. Why doesn’t the brain develop until the early 20s?
  2. How do bad decisions affect early teens?
  3. Why do teens have a higher risk of making decisions they might regret?
  4. What is the importance of “screenagers”?
  5. How can “screenagers” damage their brains?
  6. What can we learn from “screenagers”?
  7. What does the research say about video games and brain-power?

Period 8:

  1. Why are teenagers using their phones outside?
  2. What does “screenagers” mean?
  3. What can we learn from “screenagers”?
  4. How do video games connect with brain power?
  5. What can we learn from video games and our brain?
  6. What does the research say about video games?
  7. Why does the brain make wrong decisions when we are young?

Now that we've narrowed down our questions, what now?

This is the part of the QFT that really drives its purpose. It is important to provide the opportunity for students (or yourself) to revisit these questions in the future. Here are some creative ways you can use these questions to help inform instruction. If we do not use these questions, later on, the QFT will no longer have had a purpose.

  • Student-Generated Essential Questions for the Unit (must be done at the very beginning of the unit in order to be effective)
  • Exit Card Questions- this allows the class to revisit these questions every day
  • Essay/Quiz/Test Questions- students may feel less performance anxiety knowing that they can answer a question that THEY asked themselves

Note

Since this is a collaborative class, everyone is encouraged to share their thoughts, ideas, and/or questions through our discussion board on Google Classroom!

Click here to access our discussion board

Reflect

  1. In which way(s) would you prefer to design your next steps with your classes?
  2. What would be another way of using these questions to drive instruction?

Look Forward

Next lesson, you will review ways to provide question designing support for our struggling readers and writers.


Move on to: Lesson 1: Providing Support for Our Struggling Readers and Writers

Go back to: Stimulating Student Curiosity with the QFT (Question Formulation Technique)

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