Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Unanswered Questions

Unanswered questions are difficult for many gifted students.  They often want answers and they want the right answers.   This week we have been talking about the Unanswered Questions Depth and Complexity icon in class.

As an introduction to this icon, we discussed the unanswered questions in the Disney movie, Frozen. We asked questions like, "How did Elsa get her powers?" and "Where were their parents going when they were killed in the shipwreck?"  We then discussed how these unanswered questions make the movie more interesting because it allows you to imagine and create situations that may or may not have happened.   It is because of these unanswered questions that Frozen is so intriguing and fun to watch.

We then watched this wonderful short film from The Literacy Shed, one of my favorite websites for writing prompts and critical thinking.  It is called Dangle and can be found on YouTube as well.  It's a perfect video to encourage students to ask questions and wonder.



After watching, I asked students to blog their questions...no answers, just questions.  Here are a few first grade blog posts...




And here are two of my fifth grade students' blog posts...



I was impressed with some of their questions and the number of questions that some of them had.  I hope that this activity encouraged them to ask questions and understand that unanswered questions should be a part of every learning experience.  

Image result for unanswered questions depth and complexity icon
Image Source:  mesmarian.blogspot.com

We use the Depth and Complexity icons to take our learning to a deeper level.  If you would like to learn more about the icons, check out the following resources:



Teachers Pay Teachers - Depth and Complexity Literature Circles

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