Thick & thin questions
By Doug Buehl
Any Questions?
Questioning is an integral part of our daily routines, and sometimes
it may seem that we are constantly invited to pose our questions. We
outline instructions for the babysitter: any questions? Our doctor describes
procedures for taking a new medication: any questions? We purchase a
new product and scan through the explanations for use: any questions?
We are assigned a project to complete from our supervisor at work: any
questions? We leave our spouse directions for assembling the evening
meal: any questions?
And it goes on and on. Asking questions is our particularly human
way of narrowing our understanding, of making sense. Asking questions
is how we zig-zag our way between knowing and not knowing — questions
are the way we navigate our personal learning.
Students would probably offer a dramatically different take on questions.
For the most part, students perceive questioning as an “interrogation”
by others: they are regularly confronted in school with the task of
answering the queries of somebody else: a teacher, a textbook editor,
an exam developer. Researchers argue that in many classrooms the balance
between question-posing and question-responding is badly askew. As a
result, students receive inadequate practice in generating their own
questions about new learning, and instead they relegate their thinking
to a superficial “looking for answers” rather than a thoughtful
engagement with a text.
The Strategy
Question generating is by definition an essential characteristic of
an inquiring mind. Students who are encouraged to pose their own questions
about their learning are being treated like curious individuals who
are attempting to personalize their understanding. They are also being
prompted to engage in an ongoing attempt to make sense of new information
and ideas.
Step 1: Historically, teachers have been urged to ask better
questions during classroom activities. Many of us have been long familiar
with Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, which provides
a framework for teachers to guide students into increasingly more complex
thinking during their learning. Bloom’s taxonomy begins with consideration
of a literal recounting of new learning, and advances student thinking
through translation and paraphrasing, interpretation, application of
ideas, analysis, creative possibilities, and critical evaluation.
Certainly, teacher modeling of “good” questions is a vital
classroom dynamic, as students began to develop sensitivity to the array
of questions worth asking while learning. Yet researchers note that
students receive a disproportionate diet of fact-level questions that
involve primarily a literal, copy-the-answer-from-the-text response,
and infrequent questions that engage them in the deeper levels of thinking
represented by Bloom’s upper levels. Students won’t consider
“what if . . . ,” “what does this mean . . . ,”
“why might this . . .” “what might be other . . .,”
or “how should we regard . . .” types of questions as legitimate
if they lack experiences digging deeper into new learning.
A particularly effective means of modeling more sophisticated questioning
is the “think-aloud,” which features the teacher talking
out loud about the thinking involved with understanding a text under
study. The think-aloud displays how a proficient reader poses questions
at a variety of levels while attempting to truly understand what an
author may be saying. The emphasis during a think-aloud is to acclimate
students to sophisticated questioning by showing them what it looks
like rather than through developing questions that students themselves
are expected to respond to with answers.
Step 2: Students need multiple opportunities to identify their
own questions while learning. Classroom activities that prompt inquiring
minds could appear in a variety of guises. For example, students could
be asked to list five things “they are wondering about”
while reading a passage. Each “I wonder . . .” could be
written on a sticky note and affixed to the margin of a selection. Or
students could be given a “think-mark” — a bookmark
for the chapter with slots for their five questions. Another alternative
is a graphic organizer, with five bubbles for their questions as they
read. Or the “I wonder . . .” prompts could be integrated
into a study guide for a passage.
Emphasize that proficient readers “track” their thinking
as they read, and that one way to accomplish this task is to inventory
the questions that surface during reading.
Step 3: Introduce the concept of “thick” and “thin”
questions. We ask ourselves “thin” questions to clarify
information and ideas. We ask ourselves “thick” questions
to ponder more universal ideas, often which take us far beyond the text
which started our thinking about a topic.
Model thick and thin questions that guide your understanding of a
short text. For example, share a newspaper article on a topic such as
the avian flu. As you read aloud, note to students thin questions that
occur to you: What does the author say causes avian flu? How can it
infect humans? What is worrying public health officials? Questions such
as these are specific to the text and help guide you in clarifying the
author’s message.
Also demonstrate thick questions related to this topic that begin
to expand your thinking beyond the text: Why are governments apparently
not very well prepared to meet epidemic threats like the avian flu?
Are there really effective ways to protect ourselves? Will we someday
experience a pandemic like the Spanish flu of 1918 when millions died?
When are these public health warnings real, and when are they exaggerated?
Will I, or someone close to me, be struck with a disease like the avian
flu?
Sometimes thin questions target clarification of key vocabulary (what
exactly is a “pandemic”?) or clarification of an important
fact (what was the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918?). The author may provide
a direct answer to some of your thin questions; you may have to infer
the answers to other of your thin questions; and some thin questions
may be unanswered because the author is depending on the reader to access
background knowledge to fill in the missing information. Underscore
these different varieties of thin questions as you talk with students;
some excellent thin questions will be unanswerable using the text alone,
necessitating that other sources (such as a dictionary) will have to
be consulted to clarify them.
Thick questions are often the ones we care most about, as we personalize
our understandings and learning. Thick questions represent those upper
layers of Bloom’s taxonomy, when we truly engage with new ideas.
Thick questions lead to rich conversation, divergent viewpoints, and
further exploration of ideas. Are people today becoming more at risk
for dangerous diseases like the avian flu? Why might this be so? What
can be done to diminish such risks? Are we likely to undertake these
necessary steps? Why or why not? What can I personally do?
Step 4: Ask students to code their own questions as thick and
thin as they think about their reading. Because thin questions are often
easier to contemplate, structure the assignment so that both types must
be practiced. For example, students may be expected to generate two
thin questions that are especially necessary for clarifying understanding,
and three thick questions that reflect deeper thinking about a topic
or story.
Advantages
Questioning strategies facilitate a significant “role reversal”
where students become the questioners themselves. Thick and thin questions
cue students into adopting an inquiring mode as readers.
- Students realize that proficient readers ask themselves questions
to clarify information and ideas in a text.
- Students recognize that thoughtful reading goes far beyond identifying
information and details explicitly stated by an author
- Students gain essential practice with and feedback on becoming question-posers
rather than merely question-responders.
Doug Buehl, teacher, Madison East High School
Wisconsin State Reading Association.
Reading Room archives
Posted November 18, 2005