We have been learning about questioning. Questioning helps us learn new things, it helps guide our learning, it helps us to dig deeper into subjects and leads to new learning. We have learned about the difference between THICK and thin questions.
Thin questions;
- are answered with facts
- start with the words: Who? What? Where? When?
- have yes/no or short answers
- are quick and easy to answer
THICK questions;
- are answered with ideas: Facts + opinions
- start with the words: Why? How?
- have long answers
- need a lot of research is needed to arrive at a conclusion
When I asked students what they wanted to learn about many of them responded that they would like to learn how to make cheese!? It seemed like an odd request to me but if the students want to learn about we will! We just happen to have an expert in our mist and Kira’s mom has volunteered to help my students learn all about this process by making A 30 Minute Mozarella. Today we used Explain Everything© to share our learning about THICK and thin questions. With a partner we wrote THICK and thin questions about cheese. Students then uploaded their slides to Dropbox. I am sharing the students who were successful at this process below (we are learning this new skill and not everyone can do it YET!)
We are currently learned about MATTER in our Inquiry Block and cheese seems to fit right in. We will be turning liquids into solids. Please stay tuned for results!