A Culture of Coverage

Questions start the thinking process, and answers often end it.—Warren Berger

Last Thursday we spent time experiencing close reading of a Doug Reeves article on effective grading practice.  For close reading to be used well takes time and preparation.  Students need to read, reread, discuss, and struggle with important questions.  The picture below serves as a visual reminder of our work last week.

Close reading does take time, and some of the discussion I heard last Thursday reminded me of keynote speaker I heard several years ago.  Tony Wagner works for Harvard’s Innovation Lab and is a former schoolteacher.  He gets out into classrooms often, and he reported that he often hears message from teachers similar to this: “We don’t have time for student questions because that will take away from the number of answers I have to cover.”  Teachers aren’t happy with this, Wagner said.  He referenced one California teacher who stated, “I have so many state standards I have to teach concept-wise, it takes away from what I find most valuable—which is to have students inquire about the world.”

At one point in his address, Wagner said, “Somehow, we’ve defined the goal of schooling as enabling you to have more ‘right answers’ than the person next to you.  And we penalize incorrect answers.  And we do this at a pace—especially now, in this highly focused test-prep universe—where we don’t have time for extraneous questions.”  Does this sound familiar?

Many of you in the classrooms of HSE likely feel this same pressure to “cover material.”  Time is limited, so we speed through content without delving as deeply as we want and without letting or even requiring our students to ask and answer important questions.  Warren Berger, the author of A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, points out that giving time for students to ask questions can be difficult and even threatening to teachers:

Questions challenge authority and disrupt the established structures, processes, and systems, forcing people to have to at least think about doing something differently.  To encourage or even allow questioning is to cede power—not something that is done lightly in hierarchical companies or in government organizations, or even in classrooms, where a teacher must be willing to give up control to allow for more questioning.

Are we willing to give up some of our time asking questions to allow students to do the inquiring?  Is it possible for us to find a better balance between coverage and depth, by taking the time to read, discuss, and think deeply? 

A Place to Start: Close Reading and Questioning Strategies

We just spent time looking at close reading, and I see this class activity as a great place to start creating better balance.  In close reading, a highly engaging text covers key content and is read purposefully and carefully to uncover rich layers of meaning.  Students discuss and answer strategic questions about the text.  The results include both coverage and depth of understanding.

In daily discussions, you might also consider using questioning strategies to delve deeper—and to have some fun.  See what you think of these approaches.

·         Repeatedly ask “Why?” of your students and get them to ask you the same question:  When students give you an answer, follow up with another “Why?”  After they answer, repeat “Why?” again.  Watch what happens when you repeat the question.  Robert Burton, a neurologist writes about our “certainty epidemic,” the tendency of people (and students are people) to question less than they should.  Show students how to use this important word and teach students to use it often.  You may have to prompt them often.

·         Hold a discussion where only questions can be asked: The goal is to ask questions as answers to questions.  The discussion doesn’t have to be long, but Warren Berger claims this activity is “fundamentally subversive, disruptive, and playful.”  See what kind of questions your students will ask—and how a follow up responses can be both an answer and a question.  You may be surprised, and you will be fascinated to watch the brains at work as they try to phrase questions rather than statements. 

·         Use exit tickets that require students to ask questions:  If you are using exit tickets anyway, try having them write down an important question they still have or a question that they think is the most important one for them to answer from the day’s lesson.  It will give you feedback, and it gets students to think in terms of asking key questions.

Albert Einstein once said, “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”  That is a bit cynical, but I do believe we can contribute to this miracle.  Will these activities end the “culture of coverage” and revolutionize formal education?  Nope.  But they are ways to let students see that we value the questions more than the answers.  Oprah Winfrey was right when she said, “Ask the right questions, and the answers will always reveal themselves.”  It certainly worked out well for her!

 Why will you have a good week, HSE? 

Phil