The Craft of Questioning

1. The Craft of Questioning Adapted from a PowerPoint by Christi Edge

2. Evaluating Questions • Is Jonas the main character of The Giver? • The last Giver was chosen __ years ago. • What is Jonas’ father’s job and why is it sometimes difficult? • How does the language of the novel work? • Why is reading The Giver important? Edge, 2010

3. Questions you don’t want to ask: • Yes/No Questions • Fill-in-the-blank questions • Double Questions • Vague Questions • Loaded Questions Christenbury (2006) p. 247-48. Edge, 2010

4. Bad Questions Quiz Christenbury, 2006, pp. 249-250 a. yes/no question c. double question d. loaded question b. fill-in-the blank question e. vague question • Does the short story we just read have a climax? • How is foreshadowing used effectively in Oedipus Rex? • Why is the study of dialect important? • The purpose of figurative language is _____ • How does this image work? • Can you tell me his name? • What is happening in this paragraph and why do you think it is occurring now? • Is the main character murderous? • What are the central issues and how do they relate to the piece as a whole? • The best word to describe this section is what? Edge, 2010

5. The Questioning Circle • The • Individual’s • Experiences, • Values, and • Ideas • (the reader) • The Subject • of Discussion • Or Questioning • (the text) The experience, history, of other people or cultures (the world) See also Burke, p. 261. Christenbury 2006, p. 245 Edge, 2010

6. Meaningful Connections Edge, 2010

7. Example: “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;   5 Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, 10 And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. 15 I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. 20

8. White Questions Matter: What is the rhyme scheme of this poem? Personal Reality: When have you made a difficult choice that made all the difference? External Reality: When is it beneficial to make a different decision that the norm?

9. Shaded Questions • Matter and Personal Reality:Based on Frost’s description of the two paths, which one would you have taken and why? • Personal Reality and External Reality: Do you have friends who often choose different paths than you would have chosen for them? How are the paths different? • Matter and External Reality: Can you think of a time that a political leader was faced with a comparable situation to Frost’s? Explain the situation, the result and if “made all the difference”.

10. Dense Questions • Matter, Personal Reality, and External Reality: Which path do you think most members of society would have taken? Are Americans followers or original? Explain. Christenbury, 2006, p. 246

11. Create your own? • Find a free will passage that you marked in The Giver • Create a shaded or dense question about that passage Edge, 2010