Quite a few years ago when I was getting my first training on GT kids, the presenter shared the idea of having a “the answer is…” bulletin board.
The idea is that the teacher provides the answer, and the students come up with the question. I’ve always loved the idea because it can be adapted for any grade level, and the students can come up with a simple question or a much more complex.
In my classroom, I first put up the bulletin board and left it open for the kids to come up with questions without any instruction. Afterwards, we reviewed what they came up with and talked about what a good question would look like.
They knew that the main thing I was looking for was relevance to what we were learning. The ones who had the most creative question, most relevant question, or the most complex would get their question displayed on the planter I created for my library.
(If you want to know how I made it, check out my post from Wednesday.)
My students put questions on the board after they were done with morning work or anytime they had just a couple minutes of extra time left before moving on to something or going somewhere.
Any other ideas on what to do to promote higher level thinking when students are done? I’ve never been a fan of just making kids read or offering them lower level thinking busy work. I’d love to hear your ideas!
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