How do you involve students in generating and refining driving questions?

In my experience of working with English Language Learners, it's important to consider if students know what makes an effective question. Consider the implications of asking an AI an ill-formulated question. The output doesn't make sense and is irrelevant. Students experience similar issues, so providing opportunities to practice asking questions as a class may be helpful. If there are diverse linguistic backgrounds, an interesting activity may be asking students how questions are formulated in their native language. A student may provide an example, and then translate the question into English (also bringing in the exciting practice of translanguaging). Dissecting the similarities and differences can lead to fruitful discussion.

In my experience, tailoring students to focus on 'quantity' over 'quality' can be a mixed-bag. Sometimes it's hard for them to want to produce anything less than what they deem 'perfect.' I usually begin with discussing the idea of quantity over quality, and in what instances is it best to produce more. This can lead into learning about brainstorming techniques. I find that incorporating multimedia tools are helpful. For example, allow students to choose between working with physical sticky notes, or an online white board with sticky note functionality.

A classroom/organizational tool that I have found to be quite useful in sorting and selecting questions is allowing students to come together as a class. For example, with one student's or group's work, allow collaborators to engage in discussion centered around the question 'What themes or patterns are recognized?' After that, allow collaborators to vote on their favorite questions, using the metrics of 'most feasible', 'most innovative', or something else that aligns with your metrics.

Para refinar preguntas, inicio con una discusión abierta sobre el tema y pido a los estudiantes que propongan preguntas. Luego, trabajamos juntos para eliminar redundancias, mejorar la claridad y asegurarnos de que cada pregunta sea relevante y desafiante.

Cuando revisamos preguntas, divido a los estudiantes en grupos y les asigno un conjunto de preguntas para analizar. Luego, cada grupo presenta sus sugerencias de mejora basadas en la estructura, la relevancia y la profundidad de la pregunta.

Es crucial considerar el nivel de comprensión de los estudiantes, la conexión con el contenido curricular y el estímulo del pensamiento crítico al involucrarlos en la generación y revisión de preguntas. Mi experiencia me ha demostrado que esto fomenta un aprendizaje más profundo y significativo.