Prompts & Questions
Overview
Providing guiding prompts and questions for students to use when reading or participating in discussions deepens their understanding of texts and gives them space to question and grapple with issues of power, justice, and equity. Depending on the types of prompts, they can raise Socratic questions about the purpose, validity, evidence, assumptions, meaning, and perspectives of the texts.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this teacher empowers her students to share their perspective on a challenging discussion prompt. Students must cite evidence from multiple texts to support their answers as they share their arguments and questions in a Socratic seminar. With time to plan and supports like graphic organizers, the teacher has meaningfully designed different ways for students to engage in the process and share their views.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Starting at 1:35, see how products like ThinkCerca use prompts and questions to push students to reflect on what they have learned and to engage with a digital text during a mini-lesson. The prompts allow for students to make connections, summarize portions, and assess their understanding. This allows students to engage more deeply with the content while also giving helpful feedback to the teacher on student progress.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
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A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole child, in order to empower them to flourish.
