Let Them Ask Questions

Why do students ask questions?  Why do any of us ask questions?  I believe we ask questions to find out, to get answers, to learn.  If I wonder about the meaning of a word, I may ask someone what it means.  I may look it up in a dictionary or online.  I ask.  I get an answer.  I learn. 

I recently read a post in LinkedIn that included a question like this: “Why do teachers think we are 'talking back'…when we are just trying to reason things out by asking questions?”  Why, indeed.  What an excellent question…about questions!

I have witnessed this problem in so many different settings.  Questions are sometimes thought of as challenges or attacks during meetings, during professional development, during class.  In all cases, the questions were received with frustration, irritation, and even anger.  And nothing squashes curiosity and interest more than irritation and anger.

I once had another teacher, during a professional development presentation, tell us that she didn’t allow questions during her mini-lessons.  She felt that the students should understand so well that there should be no questions.  But what if there were?

  If a teacher feels challenged or attacked by questions, I wonder if the real problem is a lack of confidence.  I wonder if these teachers are not truly experts in their fields.  And then I wonder if it is OK that they are not experts.  We cannot all be experts, and we certainly cannot be experts in all fields.

Why do people feel threatened by questions?  Perhaps they are afraid to say those wise and intelligent words, “I don’t know.”  Sadly, they are forgetting the even-wiser follow-up words, “But let’s find out together.”  That follow-up opens whole new worlds, whole new possibilities in a classroom.

I spent around 30 years working with middle school students, teaching English/ELA to 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders.  My days were absolutely filled with questions.  Questions led to discussion and searching and researching.  This led to more discussion and, very often, understanding.  To me, and to my students, questions were good.  Questions made things exciting.  But questions often changed the trajectory of the day’s lesson.  Questions took us in directions different from what I may have planned.  And I loved that!

Let me give you a real example of what can happen if we allow questions. 

I was finishing a unit of Greek Mythology with a class of 6^th graders.  We took a look at the Colossus of Rhodes and The New Colossus, our Statue of Liberty.  We read “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus.  Then, because I had read an article about what is inside the Statue of Liberty, I gave my students a chance to read it too.  After they reacted, they began to ask questions.  Their questions were not about the Statue of Liberty.  Not even one.  They asked questions like this: What is inside of ___________________?  Dozens of questions like this, about all sorts of things, from buildings, to monuments, to everyday items. 

Now, I could have become irritated.  These questions had nothing to do with the Colossus of Rhodes or the Statue of Liberty, but they were real questions.  These children wondered.  They asked.  I did not know all of the answers.  They wanted to find answers.  So, we did just that.  I scrapped my plan for the remainder of our two-period block, and we made a list of “What is inside?” questions.  Then, I asked the children how we would find out what was inside, and they suggested that we actually look.  We would open thing up.

Well, we couldn’t look inside of Mount Rushmore or the Arc de Triomphe, or any places that took us away from our school.  We could, however, look inside of apples, peach pits, baseballs, internet cable wires, music boxes, toothbrushes, and more than a dozen other things.  The following day, I brought in a bag of apples, a cutting board, and a kitchen knife.  I “opened the apples” to show the children that there is a star inside each one.  Then, I gave the children an assignment.  They were asked to bring in objects that we could open to see what was inside.  Of course, they needed permission from home for some items. 

Our English classroom turned into a science lab.  I borrowed goggles and magnifying glasses from my friends in the science department.  All things that needed knives to cut were “opened” by me.  Other things were opened by the children using screwdrivers, scissors, and their fingers.  We recorded our findings. 

They asked.  We looked.  We found out.  We learned.  All of us.

It was not what I had planned.  It changed my “schedule” quite a bit.  And that was a good thing.  This was true authentic learning.  It seemed to have nothing to do with English/ELA, but I didn’t care.

I believe that questions are the best way to learn for all of us—children, adults—all of us.  I believe questions are just that—questions.  They are not “talking back” or challenging or attacking.  Questions show a desire to find out, to learn.

So, you may be wondering, “What is the point?”  Good question.  The point is, celebrate questions.  Welcome them.  Ask them yourselves.  Answer them, if you can.  If you cannot answer them, honestly say, “I don’t know.  Let’s find out together.”  The results may not fit into your pre-planned schedule, but it will be worth so much more.