Questioning Skills

To practice students’ questioning skills, choose a student to be “it”. The questioner asks a number of “wh questions” (who, what, when, where, why) and the student who is “it” must answer the “wh question” with “bananas”. The aim of the game is for the student who is “it’ to make the questioner laugh (e.g., if the questioner asks, “Who is your favorite athlete?”, the student who is “it” would answer “bananas”). The student who is “it” can think of anything. The object is to see how many “wh questions” the questioner can think of (e.g., the student can show a number, like five and challenge the questioner to ask at least five “wh questions”; the next questioner would have to think of six “wh questions”, and so on).

I thought this would be of interest to some of my readers.

Brainwriting

This strategy has been around for some time now but it is still an effective strategy to utilize in any subject area. It is called “Brainwriting”. 

Brainwriting is an alternative to brainstorming that involves having group members interact through reading and writing rather than speaking and listening.

Brainwriting typically includes the following steps:

1.   Identify a topic that students will be studying.

2.   Assign students to groups of no more than four.

3.   Have students record what they know about the topic for a given period of time.

4.   When time is up have students pass their writing to another group member.

5.   Assign a period to time for students to review each other’s writing, adding more and/or asking questions in writing.

6.   Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all students in a group have reviewed each other’s writing. Each group should then review all the ideas generated through the process.

This is a great strategy to introduce the 5 Ws to your students.

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Use this center idea to introduce your students to the five Ws of a newspaper article-Who? What? When? Where? Why? 

Stock the center with current newspapers, index cards, highlighters, and pencils. Instruct each student to look through the newspapers and cut out one interesting news article. 

Have the student read the article and use a highlighter to mark the article five Ws. 

Next, instruct the student to write the article's headline at the top of an index card, then write the article’s five Ws on the index card. 

Post the cards on a bulletin board tilted “News in Brief”.

Celebrating Black History

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 Kindergarten – 2nd grade

At this level, focus on poems and picture books. It’s never too early to introduce children to the poetry of one of the most well-known African-American poets, Langston Hughes, or newer poets such as Nikki Giovanni. Start with a few of these texts:

• April Rain Song by Langton Hughes 
• Covers by Nikki Giovanni 
• Laughing Boy by Richard Wright 
• The Flower Garden by Eve Bunting 
• The Hat that Wore Clara B. by Melanie Turner-Denstaedt 
• Ruby and the Booker Boys by Derrick Barnes 

3^rd grade – 5^th grade

Kids in upper elementary school can start to read short biographies of famous African-Americans. They will also appreciate short stories and novels that focus on African-American history and start to subtly tackle controversial issues. Consider some of the following pieces:

• Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis 
• Hip Hop Speaks to Children by Nikki Giovanni
• Mariah Keeps Cool by Mildred Walter 
• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe 
• The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles 
• Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs Series by Sharon Draper 

6^th grade – 8^th grade

In middle school, as kids begin to work out their own identities, they begin to resonate with the stories of others seeking to find themselves. At this stage, introduce them to novels, poems and informational texts that feature issues they can relate to and that help expand their worldview. Great works to begin with include:

• The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton 
• Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson 
• Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff by Walter Dean Myers 
• Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor 
• Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis 
• Hoops by Walter Dean Myers