Question Splash: Engaged the Reader through Questioning
By Kathryn E. Jennings, M.S.Ed. 
October 10, 2017

Just a few short years ago, my third grade Title I reading group and I played a game I called Question Splash, nothing fancy--just a splash of questions on the board. 

I said, "Ask me a question. Ask me a question about anything, anything in the entire world." The responses I got were silly at first, but then the questions started getting interesting. We wrote this list up on the board, and then we narrowed down the list to three choices. The students then chose the most interesting question.

The result:

What is a volcano?

I then took my students to my computer and told them to ask me more questions about volcanoes. They could ask any question that we could research the answer to. This was the list they proposed. 

What is a volcano? What is it made of?

What is molten rock?

What is the study of volcanoes and what is the name of scientists who study them?

How many volcanoes are there?

How tall is a volcano? How wide?

Where was the first volcano? Where is the closest volcano to Illinois?

Where are most of the volcanoes?

What is the oldest known volcano?

How are volcanoes named?

Where is Pompeii and what does it have to do with volcanoes?

How do they form?

How do they erupt? What volcano has erupted the most?

Why when volcanoes erupt do they make landforms?

What is lava? What happens when lava cools? How long does it take for lava to cool?

How do volcanoes make ash fall?

Why would a volcano be dangerous? What kind of damage do volcanoes make?

What volcano caused the most deaths?

After the students formed their list, we categorized these questions, as you see above. We put them in a logical order--that if we answered the questions, the story would make sense.

Next, I taught my students to highlight each question they wanted to answer and using the comments tool in Google Docs, they were to research and post the answers to each questions. Finally, because I didn't want them to not give credit for another person's work, they were shown how to insert the hyperlink.

We did a couple questions and then it was time for my 30-minute reading session to end. The students were so excited and were upset it was time for PE. They wanted to keep learning.

I shared the document with my students and told them they could access it in their Google Drive. I told them we would continue working on the document the following day.

Later that day, I pulled open the document and found that my students, my third grade students, had already answered most of the questions we had listed. Several had posted more questions because they were interested in something they had learned while reading independently.

By the time, I had these students back in class to START our lesson. They had already finished it. They took upon themselves to learn the lesson. It was their learning goal: "What is a volcano?"

If we, as educators, could give kids this kind of freedom each day, could you imagine what that classroom could be? The experiences our children could have are endless. The raw imagination drives a child to do incredible things, make incredible discoveries, and accomplish incredible new possibilities!

I am floored by my students and their work. 

I hope you can QUESTION SPLASH your way into new discoveries too!