Asking questions

[Christine]

I've asked before, but I'll ask again.

 

Is there a resource out there that honestly teaches *how* to ask questions?

 

And, I'm probably asking / phrasing this wrong, which is yet another perfect example of why I feel I fail in this area! :confused:

 

The point I'm trying to get to is I really want to "evaluate" my children's knowledge.

 

I can super-duper easy come up with M/C questions, or matching, or T/F, as I grew up with those. However, from personal experience, I can tell you one can pass such tests with knowing very little, and I don't want to give my kids that sort of "opportunity".

 

Am I making a lick of sense???

 

I have this lovely Bloom's Taxonomy chart. It's printed on card stock and it's terribly "pretty". It's also a fabulous dust collector and / or coaster for drinks as I don't have a clue how to use it otherwise. My big "block" is WHAT to ask WHEN.

 

So, is there a resource that could help me with the application of asking appropriate questions?

[MIch elle]

 

Is there a resource out there that honestly teaches *how* to ask questions?

 

And, I'm probably asking / phrasing this wrong, which is yet another perfect example of why I feel I fail in this area! :confused:

 

The point I'm trying to get to is I really want to "evaluate" my children's knowledge.

 

My big "block" is WHAT to ask WHEN.

 

So, is there a resource that could help me with the application of asking appropriate questions?

 

It's a wonderful homeschool resource. Reading Strands is another good one.

[Ali in OR]

For understanding literature (and maybe you could adapt it somewhat to other subjects), the Teaching the Classics booklet has a great list of Socratic questions in Appendix A. Questions are in categories like Where does this story happen? When does this story happen? Who is the story about? What does the protagonist want? Why can't he have it? Within a particular category is a list of questions that start out easy and get harder. So within Who is the story about? the first few questions are:

 

Is the character a man or an animal?

How old is the character?

What does the character look like?

 

and eventually progress to questions like:

What does the character think is the most important thing in life? How do you know this? Does the character say this out loud, or do his thoughts and actions give him away?

 

Is the character a type or archetype? Is he an "Everyman" with whom the reader is meant to identify? Are his struggles symbolic of human life generally in some way?

 

Anyway, it's a resource I'm glad I have though I haven't made great use of it yet. And the booklet itself is inexpensive (the DVD course is great but more costly). Even though it is aimed at literature, you can learn a lot about question patterns. You can learn to progress from strictly factual information to questions at a deeper level.

[mom2abunch]

Thanks for asking this because I came on the board today to look for the very same thing but did not know how to word the post :lol:!

[Cedarmom]

WTM has excellant questions. I don't have the book in front of me now, but I think it is in the literature section of logic stage. They are general questions. Also, the DVD Teaching The Classics, was very helpful in teaching me what questions to ask.

[Christine]

I'm thinking more along the lines of history / gov't / econ and such things.

 

As I said, I want to evaluate what they've learned. (Think test essay-ish questions.)

 

For example, today I thought of comparing / contrasting Romans and Greeks. You could further specify that to military / religion / government, etc. Course, none of my kids are studying ancient times. . . .

 

I do own TTC and use it for lit. Never once did it occur to me to try to re-word the questions for another subject. I'll have to give that some thought.

 

I also own Reading Strands. I recall reading it eons ago, but I don't actually remember anything it said.

 

I've never heard of Critical Conditioning.

 

I don't know. I guess I'm looking for a guide that teaches how to ask questions that require "long-ish" answers. That will help you ask more than just "knowledge" based questions, but to defend your position or apply it to another area.

 

I feel all I ever ask is just. . .base. Make sense?

[Christine]

WTM has excellant questions.

 

Okay. . .

 

Does WTM have questions for subjects other than lit? I recall it having questions (read it some time ago), but I thought they pertained more to lit. I'll have to do a brain refresh. . .