Asking Thin & Thick Questions
Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students will practice asking thin and thick questions. These questions could later be used for an inquiry project, or this could be a standalone activity to practice asking questions.
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Social Studies
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Upper Elementary
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Students will understand the difference between thin and thick questions. Students will be able to identify thin and thick questions. Students will be able to write their own thin and thick questions.
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A way to project/share questions created as a group A physical or digital way to record and share individually created questions Possible YouTube videos to share:
Thick and Thin Questions graphic
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One to two class periods
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INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURE
Note: I first came across the idea of thick and thin questions in relation to questions students could ask about reading material. Many of the resources I have encountered about thick/thin questions are from this lens. I thought thinking about questions this way was also a great fit for inquiry. As such, some of the resources included that are created by others are from that original lens but can be adjusted for inquiry.
Open discussion: What is the purpose of a question? Each student thinks of their own answer. Call on random students to share their thoughts.
Think/Pair/Share: What are the most common words that start a question?
What is the difference between a thick and a thin question?
Share one or more of the YouTube videos suggested in the Materials section.
Project the Thick and Thin Questions graphic.
Thick Questions
- Cannot be answered with a Google search
- Can have multiple right answers or no specific right answer
- Require more details and description to answer
- Make us think more deeply about our subject and/or develop opinions based on our research
Thin Questions
- Do not require much research to answer them
- Have one right answer
- Can be answered in a few words or phrases
- Provide important background information about a topic that helps us understand it
Pick a topic to use that is related to an upcoming inquiry project or connected to a subject being covered in the classroom. Then select an example that students may not choose themselves from that focus. If students will be working on projects about an animal, select an animal that will unlikely be selected.
Think out loud, showing students examples of two thin and two thick questions by writing them on a piece of paper or a document visible on a shared screen.
Example: Red Panda
Thin: Where do the red pandas live in the wild? What does the red panda eat? What does the red panda look like?
Thick: What is causing red pandas to become endangered? How can people make sure red pandas can continue to live in the wild? How do red pandas affect their environment?
Share additional questions and ask students to identify which are thin and which are thick questions.
Ask students to talk with a partner/table group, to create additional thin/thick questions on the given topic. Make sure each pair/group has a chance to share one example. Share examples on your screen.
Guide students if they make a misidentification of a thin/thick question. Talk through the reasoning as to why they made those selections. Rework any questions as needed before adding them to the list. Keep this list visible for students as they complete their independent work.
Students can choose their own topic within a larger selected category (like for the animal inquiry project), or they can pick their own topic of interest. When doing this activity with my elementary students, they already had specific topics for their inquiry projects, so they used those. My 6th graders picked any school-appropriate topic that interested them.
Grades 3–4: Each student creates two examples each of a thin/thick question.
Grades 5–6: Each student creates three examples each of a thin/thick question.
Students can work independently or with input from their table group. They can also use the questions created in the group activity as a guide, if needed.
Students write their completed questions in their library journals. These can also be turned in electronically through a variety of tools.
This can be a standalone lesson where students are practicing asking questions, and the shared/guided/independent steps can be repeated throughout the year with different topics. This activity can be extended by having students use resources provided by the library (databases or print books) to locate the answers to their questions. These answers can then be used to help craft an end product to be shared with their classroom teacher and/or classmates.
DIFFERENTIATION
For additional support, students can be given question stems to help guide them. For older students, at least one of the thin and thick questions can be of their own creation.
ASSESSMENT
Provide feedback to students on the questions they created by pointing out well-crafted questions as well as giving suggestions for reworking questions that do not fit thin/thick models.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Get more ideas about engaging students in the process of questioning in Courtney Pentland's editorial, "The Art of Asking Questions" and in her Middle School–High School lesson, "Using Sources to Guide Questioning."
About the Author
MLA Citation
Pentland, Courtney . "Asking Thin & Thick Questions." School Library Connection, November 2020, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/2256749.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/2256749
Entry ID: 2256749