You might think that as homeschool consultants, we spend our days answering questions. However, if you have ever chatted with us online or called us, you know that we often start by asking you more questions. And good questions. It’s like getting the fifth degree from a news reporter! Asking good questions helps us help you. And helping you is our goal in asking questions. We often need some more information about your student, how they learn, and how you interact with them. So, what makes a good question? One that leads you to the answer you need to move forward.
It follows then, that a bad question leads nowhere. Or it might lead you in the wrong direction. We often think of the main question words as who, what, where, when, why and how. These first few are basic comprehension questions and a simple answer will tell us what we need to know. Did the student read the passage? Did it make sense to them? These simpler questions, however, do not tell you if your student can do something with the information. For this, you need to ask a question that will lead to a more complex answer. This includes the questions of why and how. These can also lead to questions like, “What would you change?” If you were that character, would you have done something differently? What did you like about the ending of the story? Compare this character with another person in another book. Maybe compare real people in different eras in history. Now we are asking questions that lead to what we want to know – can they do something with this new information.
If you have ever used a literature guide, you will find that most open with simple comprehension questions and work up to the deeper questions. We do this with you on the phone as well. If a consultant came at you with, “Why did you follow that path?” instead of, “Tell me what you have used for math before now” your reaction would likely be defensive. Instead, we ask non-threatening questions – Does your student like math? What did you use last year? How did that go? Ah, that last question requires you to assess what did or did not work about your math last year. Interesting, eh? From there, we might ask about your student’s goals after high school. These questions tell us where you have been and where you are headed. Now we can focus on how to best get there.
By asking your students good questions, you are modeling/teaching your students to ask good questions. As they learn this skill, they become aware of how they learn and how to gain the information they are looking for. Curious kids become curious adults. This leads to a lifetime of learning and a depth of learning they can share with others. It only takes a moment to rephrase a less effective question into a good one, and once you start, you will be surprised at the changes that come your way. ~ Sara
