Reflect on How You Ask Questions

"Rather than using questions to lead a child to a particular revelation, or to direct a child's thinking towards content knowledge that we've determined has merit, we ought to ask questions that are useful for the child's course of exploration — which is to say, for the child's development as a thinker.” So writes Ann Pelo, co-author of the popular book, From Teaching to Thinking, in her article, “Finding Questions Worth Asking,” that forms the basis for an Out of the Box Training Kit of the same name.

"When we reshape our intention from teaching to thinking, our exchanges with children change,” Pelo explains. “They become authentic conversations, and we ask our questions with the mutual aims of understanding a child's thinking and of supporting a child's search to make meaning.”

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