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• Children’s questioning dramatically drops off after the age of 4

• Our current education system does not teach our students how to formulate their own questions

THE IMPORTANCE OF QUESTIONING

The Right Question Institute has a simple, easy process for teaching students how to ask their own questions in order to drive their own thinking and learning.

Authors Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana developed QFT over the course of 20 years of teaching experience.

DEVELOPERS OF THE QUESTION FORMULATION TECHNIQUE - QFT

Dan Rothstien TEDx Talk here

WATCH THE QUESTION FORMULATION TECHNIQUE IN ACTION IN THIS VIMEO

VIDEO

QFT Video

Questions generated by students

• Why do monsters scare people?• Do monsters feel bad about being

monsters?• How do their looks explain their

emotions?• How do monsters feel about being

monsters?• What kind of feelings to do monsters have

towards each other?• Why do monsters behave bad?• What makes a monster a monster?• What makes a monster strong?• What makes a monster scary?• What are the emotions monsters show?• What does a monster love?

RETURNING TO QUESTIONS THROUGHOUT PROJECT

In order to keep the questions at the center of their learning, they were referred to in all phases of the art production.

• I compiled a list of all of the questions each class generated.

• Each student chose 3 questions from the master list that they would use during the design phase of their monster.

• Once their project was completed, they wrote a reflection about their monster including their driving questions and how they shaped their creation.

Here are some of their reflection responses…

I used the question that related the personality ofmy monster with my own.

We are both weird and I thought that I’d portray that into the physical features of my monster. The way I formed his body into his weird/creepy position definitely animated him. My monster’s name is Wesley, but we can call him Wes for short. My monster has shoes and special marks on his body. I think that his shoes give him personality!

One of the questions I chose was: How do you makeit look alive? I made it look alive by giving it humancharacteristics like eyes, ears and toes.

Another question was: How does the color explainhow the monster feels? My monster is a light purple and light orange which are happy colors.

My 3rd question was: How did you make it fityour personality? I made my monster girly by painting it with girly colors.

Does a monster have feelings? Are all monsters bad? Do monsters care?

These questions helped me decide the colors and appearance of my monster. My monster is to represent knowledge. The colors of my monster help to give it the feeling of strength. He is named Tork – he is named that because it sounds firm.

My 3 questions were: what do monsters feel, why do monsters feel, and how do monsters express their feelings?

These questions helped me a lot by deciding what moodmy monster should be in, and how should I make her show that feeling/mood? I animated my monster by giving her a situation. The situation was that she is alittle kid monster and she saw something funny, so she islaughing out loud. I also wanted my monster to have someaction, so she is clapping and swinging her legs.

I chose: What do monsters feel? Do monsters feel they are monsters? Do monsters feel scary?

This shaped my concept which is the transition from human tomonster. Little by little, peopleturn into monsters and one daythey look into their mirror and say, “Wow! I’m a monster!” My Inspiration was the day I realized I was a monster. I was hanging out with some of the worst people ever. We were true monsters. We only gossiped and made fun of others. It took a year of being made fun of by them to have that moment where I realized I was a monster too.

Suggestions for using QFT in your students’ art projects

• Engage students at the beginning of a project by developing their own essential questions using QFT

• Teacher compiles all responses from class for students to choose the 3 questions they want to use to drive their learning

• Students write their 3 questions in their sketchbook and answers them to help them with their design process

• Instructor checks that student has questions and answers along with their preliminary design

• In an end of project reflection, ask the students to elaborate on how the questions helped them design and create their art project

Monster Class of 2013!

RESOURCES

• Miller, C. (N.D.). Artist•Teacher•Journal a blog and website about teaching and making art. Retrieved from: http://artistteacherjournal.com/

• Rothstein, D. & Santana, L. (2011). Make just one change: teach students to ask their own questions. Cambridge, MA : Harvard Education Press.

• TEDxSomerville (May 19, 2012). Dan Rothstein: did Socrates get it wrong? Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JdczdsYBNA

• The Right Question Institute (N.D.). Retrieved from: http://rightquestion.org/education/

Visit my website for a link to this presentation