Literacy

East Lothian project - Using questions

An image of a boy waiting to ask a question

East Lothian’s project looked at the use of questions in reading and topic work to encourage pupils to become more critical, thoughtful and incisive.

The challenge was to provide a clear ladder of progressive skills in understanding and use of critical questions and associated techniques for pupils in several stages of a large primary school.

What was involved?

P4: In the P4 class, the concept of open and closed questions was introduced.  Pupils worked in mixed ability groups to prepare questions for an interview.  Pupils were encouraged to formulate open questions in preparing to interview a student teacher.  

P5: Instead of just recognising and using open and closed questions, the P5 pupils were encouraged to use open questions to lead to supplementary questions to elicit more detailed answers. Part of the challenge was for groups to decide whether to ask open or closed questions in order to gather information, and where to use supplementary questions to best effect. This work prepared the pupils to interview an outside speaker. 

P6: Using critical skills, the P6 pupils developed a set of detailed questions for their challenge to find the information needed to organise a Burns Supper for 200 guests. They devised questions and completed interviews in order to prepare for the event. Working in pairs, the pupils peer-evaluated the quality of their questions and the quality of the responses.

P7: This class took the concept of questioning one stage further. Starting with statements, they developed questions, and worked out where to find the answers. Time was spent restructuring questions, rejecting closed questions or adapting them to become open questions. The class narrowed down ‘big’ questions to better expressed questions, which encouraged answers that provided the exact information the pupils were seeking. The purpose of this work on questioning was to gather information from a visitor.

Key findings

The initial lessons took longer than anticipated, but results have exceeded expectations. All the pupils involved have gained an increased awareness of questioning skills and confidence in speaking and taking responsibility for their own learning. Through questioning texts they have become more critical readers and more thoughtful about their responses.

Class outcomes

Pupils in P4 recognised the differences between open and closed questions, and explored the different responses given by each question type. They also became aware of the advantages of using open questions to gain specific information. 

The P5 class progressed to making effective use of supplementary questions to elicit detail or opinion, whether interviewing a speaker or interrogating a text.

In P6, pupils analysed a number of their discussions, before taking complete responsibility for applying what they had learned to their Enterprise project.

P7 were able to use statements and open questions to set tasks in non-fiction reading for themselves and their peers.

Future developments

Other staff in the school will join the group next session to continue developing questioning skills which will then gradually become embedded in the way of working within this school. There are plans to roll out the techniques to the rest of the school staff and to the associated schools group.