Choose Your Own Question

I know I've been blogging a lot lately, but I am using my vacation as a chance to sort through all of the fun stuff I learned  and did this year. I know some of you may be on break, and not want to read through everything, feel free to bookmark it and come back to it later.

For example, about 3 months ago I was at CUE 2015 and I attended the end of Sean Ziebarth's and David Theriault's talk about questions. Their talk was recorded, and you can view it here, so I won't go through the process of summarizing.

This blog is about how I was inspired to find a way to get students asking more questions.

Do you remember those Choose Your Own Adventure stories? Something about being in charge of the journey  made the story so much better!

My class had just finished reading Things Fall Apart. I was really stuck on an essay prompt that was engaging and in depth, inspired by the talk I decided this was a great time to have students work on their inquiring and let them control a bit of their journey.

PREP

Since this was the first time we tried this I gave students a starting point. I picked three big things we had talked about as we read. For example:

Okonkwo is obsessed with the idea of being strong. 

This could be a no-preparation assignment. Simply ask students to think up as many questions as they can about elements of the story. Or use basic elements: characters, setting, plot, climax, etc.
If you aren't discussing literature, you can still use this to discuss whatever topics you want to cover. If you have a unit on careers why not find out what they want to know?

Step 1 - Think
Students were then given 3 minutes to come up with as many questions as they could. The first time we did the activity the students asked me, "So how many, like four?" This gives you an idea of the attitudes of this specific class. They were very much a "find the C level and achieve that" class. If you want give them a number, I just smiled and said, "As many as you can." Since I was walking round students stayed on task and usually by about two minutes they were into it. They usually started out simple,

• Why is Okonkwo obsessed with being strong?
• Is Okonkwo as strong as he thinks he is?
• Who else is obsessed with stregnth?

And that's fine! They need to start somewhere, but with time their conversations (and questions) get more complex.

• Would Okonkwo be considered strong by today's standards?
• What evidence of his strength do we see?
• Why doesn't he become more violent throughout the novel?
• How does his relationship with his daughter show strength? 
• Who is stronger? Okonkwo or his son?
• Is Okonkwo's obsession a tragic flaw?
• How is Okonwo's obsession different than Oedipus' obsession?

Photo by Oliver Tacke via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Step 2 - Pair
Share. I like this step, but you could skip it. Have students turn to the person sitting near them to share their questions. Are any good? Would they make any more specific? Why? Have them modify and use any questions they like.



Step 3 - Share
Class-wide. You can do this as a gallery walk (have students post their questions on the wall and walk around to see everyone's questions), or just have students volunteer their questions. At this point I still encourage them to make note of any other questions that they like.



Step 4
Personal:
"What question do you want to answer? Adapt it as needed. Write your thesis statement based on the question you have chosen."

Voila! Students created their OWN essay prompts! They found the topic they were interested in and made it applicable to the class. 

Some students compared Things Fall Apart to other works we have read. 
Many wrote about how his stregnth made him weak (they liked the paradox).

All thesis statements did have to go to me for approval. I never rejected a thesis, but each one got a note. Sometimes giving help, "This sounds really interesting! You may be able to find some good examples in chapter 12." Sometimes pushing them to go further, "This is a good start, but very general. Can you think of an area you'd like to address specifically?" Other times suggesting they look another way, "I love the creativity you have with this topic, but I worry you may get stuck finding evidence. Let me know if you need my help, or want to change your topic later, and we'll brainstorm together." 

Most students stayed with their original topic. Some students did change theirs as they found something else they were interested in while starting their essay (or realized they actually wanted to show something else).

Overall I was happy with the way the lesson went and hope to get my student's asking more questions in the future! 

This doesn't have to be limited to essay prompts! So often in language classes we ask students the questions we want to know (or the book requests). Why not have them create the questions? What do they want to know about careers? What situations do they want to ask their classmates about? Having them create questions will make them more focused and motivated, I promise!

Circle of Life - First Day Activity

This is a simple, "Getting to know you," activity that I have also incorporated into my literature classes.

While it was not designed to focus on grammar points it does fit nicely into:
Questions"Is it _________?"
"Do you ____________?"
"Are you _____________?"
Tag Questions (if you wish)
"You're 21, aren't you?"
Simple Present / Simple Past
You have three cats.
You learned to ride a bike at 15. 

To start I make a large circle on the board and put random numbers in it. For example 32, 29, 4, 1, 18, etc. To add some variety you can add words or sketches as well.

Then I have students guess what these numbers are. A sample interaction could go like this:
Student 1: "You are 32 years old."
Me: "Great guess, but nope. I am not 32 years old yet."
Student 2: "You have 32 boyfriends."
Me: "No, that's far too many."
I let this continue as long as students are interested. If the questions start dying down, and no one has the correct answer, I tell them "I've travelled to 32 countries"

Then we continue with the next number.
29- I am 29 years old
4- My parents had four children.
1- I have one cat.
18- I crashed my car at 18.

Make sure your example has variety! If everyone just has their address, and how old they are it gets old very fast! However, if you have some unique experiences, it makes this a lot more fun.

Some numbers my students used:
How many times they had been to the USA.
How old they were when they first left the country.
How many years they have studied English.
When they started studying English.
How old their pet is.
How many languages they speak.
etc.

I have students first make their circle at their desk on a notecard or scrap paper. Then I ask for volunteers who would like to present.Note: When I do this it is very rare that the entire class presents. You could also do it in small groups if you want to make sure everyone presents, but I don't like forcing students to the front of the class on day one. This is a good way to see what students will be volunteering, what students will be asking questions and what students may need a little prodding.

Students like this way of getting to know one another. It is more dynamic than just standing up and introducing themselves!

This is also a great activity to use when talking about characters. Students (or the teacher) can use it to get the rest of the class to guess what numbers are significant for any character from a novel, or an author. I like to put students in small groups and assign each group a different character. This lets them collaborate.

This activity is great because it creates disequilibrium. The random seemingly unrelated numbers and words don't make a clear patter. Students are forced to create equilibrium by creating sensible patterns and associations for them. Even when students guess incorrectly they are still forced to reason and more likely to remember the real numbers significances. This process makes the answers stick in their brains more effectively than if they were simply told all the facts at the beginning.

You can adapt it in MANY ways. Get specific. Tell them that they have to make the circle about their family, school, summer vacation, favorite movies, etc. Students will be able to do this on almost any topic if you give them guidance.

What's your favorite, "Get to know you" activity to use with your students?

Pumpernickel! Another word guessing game!

 Have your students learned adverbs of frequency? (usually, always, sometimes)
Can they ask questions?
Do they know different locations?
Do they know lots of different verbs?

Then they are ready for this game!

I've always called it pumpernickel because I think that's a fun word to say! If you have a better word to say (maybe something that your students struggle with and need help pronouncing) then you should use that instead.

The rules of the game are easy, you have to answer questions about your verb without actually saying it. And the rest of the class has to ask questions about your verb. Instead of saying your verb we use the word, "pumpernickel."

So one way we can play it would be:

1. The teacher puts different words that they have practiced in a hat and pulls one out.
2. Student 1: Do you pumpernickel every day?
   Teacher:  Yes, I pumpernickel every night.
3. Student 2: Do you like to pumpernickel?
  Teacher: I LOVE to pumpkernickel.
4. Student 3: Do you pumpernickel in your bathroom?
    Teacher: No, I don't pumpernickel in my bathroom; it would be dangerous.
5. Student 4: Is it sleep?
    Teacher: Yes it is sleep!

Now student 4 can pick a word and the rest of the students will continue asking questions about pumpernickel.


Adaptations: 

• Some teachers have students guess in a particular order. Other teachers choose from volunteers. Whatever works best for your class.
• Now, some teachers play where students come up with their own verbs. That's awesome! An easy way to make this a no-prep game. However, I teach high school students. I can think of quite a few verbs I would NOT want them to use. 
• If you have lower level students you can make more verbs by adding locations. For example, "go" can be, "go to church," "go to the dentist," or "go to the zoo." Eat can be, "eat dessert," "eat fast food" or "east vegetables" etc.
• Pick a verb tense. You can use this to review a specific verb tense by making all questions in that tense
• Future: Will you pumpernickel tomorrow?
• Past Perfect: Have you pumpernickeled in a kitchen?
• Past Progressive: Have you been pumpernickeling since you were little?
• etc.
• You can use nouns and adjectives instead of verbs, but verbs make this game extra fun!

I LOVE word games!  If you are looking for other word games try: ink-pinks or guess the rhyme.

If you end up using this in class let me know how it goes and if you changed it. If you don't use it in class I'd love to know about what other word games do you like?