Asking Powerful Questions

Session 3

Conduct the interview.

• On the day of the interview, invite students to ask one of their questions, if they wish to do so. If more questions are desired than are volunteered orally by the students, the teacher could make the questions available to the guest in print form.

Debrief the interview.

• After the interview is finished, discuss what students learned. Ask students which questions they thought generated the most interesting responses.
• Revisit the previously developed list of criteria, adding or modifying items to reflect the lessons learned from this experience. Post the revised list of criteria for powerful questions in the classroom for future reference.

Assign individual summative assessment task.

• Ask students individually to identify their two most powerful questions from the list originally generated. Ask students to provide a rationale for their choice. The student could provide this information by using the Student Self-Assessment Checklist or through a personal conversation with the teacher. Individual student work can be evaluated using the Teacher Rubric.
• The actual questions selected by the student are not as important as the reasons for selecting the questions.