Primary Source Analysis Tool: Forming Meaningful Questions

Do your students love to ask questions?  Or would they rather just have the answers?

The ability to form meaningful questions is important to critical thinking and a foundation of an inquiry-based classroom, but it’s a skill that can get lost.  Using the Primary Source Analysis Tool is one way to help your students refine this skill – or, in the case of reluctant questioners, get them started.  It may also help you address standards, as students learn to extend their understanding of key details and explore the historical context and significance of an item through questioning.

What belongs in the “Question” column?  Basically, what you’d expect – it’s the part of the analysis process where students share any questions they have as they observe and reflect on a primary source.  Once they’ve begun asking questions, you can guide them towards deeper questions that will lead to more observations and reflections, using questions selected from the Teacher’s Guide to Analyzing Primary Sources.

Tips for using the “Question” column:

• As students observe and reflect on a primary source, ask, “What do you wonder about?”
• If needed, model by asking your own question related to the primary source.
• Display sentence starters (Who, what, when, where, why, how…?).
• Help students see that the analysis process is circular:
  • Encourage students to look back at the primary source by asking, “Do you see any clues in the primary source that would help address that question?”
  • Encourage students to consider using prior knowledge by asking, “Does anyone already know anything related to that question?”

Learning to ask clear and appropriate questions is part of critical thinking, but as importantly, helps students be more fully engaged in the learning process.  Do you have a tip for encouraging students to ask questions?  We’ll talk more about encouraging and responding to student questions in a future blog post, and we’d love to share some of your ideas.