Project Zero at Harvard The ASK Process Consensus by Underlining

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Students do NOT innately understand how to conceptualize and develop open-ended questions. Q and A is a staple in most videoconferencing sessions, so here is a list of great resources to assist in preparing students for videoconferencing connections.

 

Project Zero at Harvard

Visible Thinking details many concrete supports to assist students in formalizing questions and understanding.

Read the full paper at Thinking Routines: Establishing Patterns of Thinking in the Classroom.

 

The ASK Process

Developed by Dr. Raymond Kettel, University of Michigan-Dearborn

 

You may also view each step in order along with tips and annotations.

Step-by step instructions

1. Read the book. For elementary school age students it may be helpful if you read the book to the class while your students read along. (More Detail)
2. Keep a journal. When you have finished reading for the day, you and your students should individually write down your thoughts. It might be a scene that you can identify with, or an idea that you care about. It might be an event that upsets you or a passage that piques your curiosity. Respond to a part of the story that makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you want to keep reading. Don't summarize a segment, but tell how it makes you feel. Enter the world of voice journaling. (More Detail)
3. Write questions. When you have finished reading the book and made your final journal entries, it will be time to start writing questions. Students should write the chapter and page number that corresponds with each question. By reviewing their journal entries, the students should be able to write questions about those parts of the story that most interested them. The purpose of this exercise is to better understand the story. (More Detail) 
4. Show examples. As the teacher, you should also write some questions and show them to the students so that they can see how it should be done. (More Detail)
5. Place the students in pairs and encourage them to select their best four questions. Each pair should select only four questions that will be presented to the class. (More Detail)
6. Conduct a round robin elimination process. When your students have selected their best four questions, ask each group to read their questions to the class. Eliminate duplicate questions among the groups. (More Detail)
7. Revise the questions. When the elimination process is completed, each student should have at least one unique question to ask in the interview. It is okay if the question has been rewritten to include aspects of duplicates that were eliminated. (More Detail)
8. Place the questions in order. Based on the chapter and page number of each question, place the questions in order so that the interview is being conducted, the class and the author are essentially working through the book. (More Detail)
9. Conduct a practice session. Have each student stand and read his or her question in a confident manner. This is very important. This practice session will prepare the students to interview the author or expert.(More Detail)
10. Conduct the Interview. One the day of the interview, introduce the author/expert to the class. Each student should stand and ask his or her question so that the guest can see and hear the student clearly. Before beginning the interview, ask the guest to repeat the question before answering. (More Detail)
11. Debrief after the interview. Take some time the day after the interview to review and debrief with the students. Ask them what they learned and what they liked about the interview. (More Detail)
12. Write a letter of thanks to the author/expert. (More Detail)
13. Cross-curricular extensions. Teachers should of course relate the literature selection to other curricular areas they wish to include such as the arts, creative or expository writing, poetry, mathematics, science, sports, social studies, etc. (More Detail)

 

 

Consensus by Underlining

 

1. Students form groups of 3-4 students.

    

2. Give a prompt or time to think of questions for another class or the expert.

    

3. Each student thinks for one minute.

    

4. Each student writes down 3-5 questions on a sheet of paper.

    

5. Have students pass their list to the student on their right.

    

6. On the new paper, each person underlines something that they are interested in hearing the answer to.

    

7. Pass to the right again.

    

8. Repeat step 6. If the student would like to hear the answers to the questions that are already underlined, they underline it again. If it is something that has not been underlined, they underline it for the first time.

    

9. Continue this process until each student has his own paper again.

    

10. Each group then lists their top two questions.

     

11. As a class, the teacher records the questions. After recording the first question, the teacher asks the next group if their first question is like the first one or different.

     

12. If different, add it to the list.

     

13. Continue until all groups have contributed.

     

14. Have students then vote for top three questions.

15.  

 

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