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Question Stems
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Teaching a student to craft open-ended questions as well as concrete "fact" questions is often difficult. Based upon an elementary tool we created, this table below offers question starters to model the difference between asking surface fact vs. deep meaning questions. Notice how the columns move from fact to meaning and deep meaning, left > right.

I wonder…

Define

How…

What

Describe

What if…

When

Explain

Should…

How

Identify

Why…

Who

Where

Could…

Where

Which

Would…

Which

Predict

Is there…

Digging Deeper for Meaning:

Topic:_____________________________________

Brainstorm Concrete Questions:

_____________________________________________________________________

Brainstorm Meaning Questions
Cause and effect; Compare; contrast, use question prompt words: How, should, why, could, etc.

______________________________________________________________________

I wonder…

Define

How…

What

Describe

What if…

When

Explain

Should…

How

Identify

Why…

Who

Where

Could…

Where

Which

Would…

Which

Predict

Is there…

Paige Jaeger

Select Citation Style:
MLA Citation
Jaeger, Paige. "Question Stems." School Library Connection, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/content/article/1990283.
Chicago Citation
Jaeger, Paige. "Question Stems." School Library Connection, November 2015. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/article/1990283.
APA Citation
Jaeger, P. (2015, November). Question stems. School Library Connection. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/article/1990283
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/article/1990283?learningModuleId=1990283&topicCenterId=0

Entry ID: 1990283

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