Questioning

Notes
Stump the Teacher

Purpose
This game, based on Reciprocal Questioning (ReQuest) and
Question-Answer Relationships (QAR), can be used to review and
practice QAR. The teacher and students take turns posing,
answering and identifying the four types of questions in QAR
while at the same time practicing turn-taking, listening and
responding. Through the reciprocity, the teacher is able to model
strong questions and positive social behavior for the students.
Gradually the modeling (and teacher-student turn-taking) is
reduced so that students have more turn-taking opportunities.
Stump the Teacher adds a play-like aspect to the way students
can practice QAR as well as practice the social interaction of
asking and answering questions. Middle school teachers note how
the game can be a backdrop for providing learning opportunities
appropriate to middle school studentsresolving disagreements,
constructing thoughtful and relevant questions, and listening and
responding to others in an effective way.
Materials
Texts to read, at first something fairly simple, gradually
increasing in difficulty over time as students have had
opportunities to practice and gain capacity with questioning
Paper (or the QAR Types of Questions handouts)
Overhead, chalkboard or butcher paper to record scores on
Process
1. Arrange students into heterogeneous teams of no more than
four students each.
2. Everyone reads a passage together.
3. Teams collaborate to create at least one of each type of
question based on the passage that they just read.
4. The teacher creates questions also (this can be done ahead of
time).
5. The teams are allowed to use their books as references during
the game. The teacher is not, except to resolve disputes over

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Questioning
answers and types of questions. (This gives the students a
possible competitive advantage, but more likely levels the
playing field, and adds excitement to the game.)

Notes

6. The first team then asks a question of the teacher, and identifies
the type of question that was asked.
7. The teacher answers the question. If the teacher's answer is
incorrect (it happens!) the group posing the question calls on
another team to answer. If the teacher's answer is accepted as
correct, the teacher poses a new (of his or her own) question to
another team, and identifies the type of question.
8. The new group answers the question, and then poses a new
question to the teacher, identifying the type of question.
9. Rounds of questioning continue with the teacher and students
taking turns until all the questions are asked or the game is
exhausted or the bell rings, whichever comes first! In later
games, the teacher may take fewer turns and eventually no
turns at all as it becomes clear that students are asking good
questions and understand the relationships between questions
and answers.
10. Record points as the game is played. Points are earned as
follows:
The team or teacher posing a question earns one point for
each correctly identified type of question.
The team or teacher earns one point for each correct answer
to a question.
An incorrectly identified type of question results in no
point for the team posing the question and one point earned
by the answering team or teacher.
An incorrectly answered question results in no point for the
team posing the incorrect answer, and one point earned by
the correctly answering team or teacher.
11. All disputes are resolved through the following process:
The class re-reads the passage in question.
The team that posed the question identifies evidence from
the text that supports their answer or defends the type of
question.
The class discusses the text-based evidence and decides (by
consensus) whether the answer the team sought actually
answered the question as asked, or whether the question
was actually the type of question the team thought it was.

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Questioning
Notes
The point is assigned to the winner.
The teacher is the final arbiter.
Scaffolding
Very competitive teams may want to develop tricky or nitpicky questions. Explain the purpose of the game (e.g. to
practice good questions, to have fun, to think critically) and ask
if they like being asked these types of questions themselves on
quizzes or for homework. If that does not change the tone of
the game, the teacher might pose a few ringers to the offending
team or teams to put the shoe on the other foot, so to speak. A
final solution that usually ends this type of bullying play is to
suggest that these types of questions be collected and added to
the next quiz.
Students often want prizes for the points (no surprise!).
Teachers may want to consider prizes, as well as using this as
an assessment, and offering some grade incentive based on
points earned to underscore the academic nature of the task.
Occasionally, students become involved in heated discussions
about answers or types of questions in the quest to earn points.
Two classic arguments surround the multiple possible answers
that might be acceptable for Text and Me questions and
confusions between types of questions. These discussions can
be valuable, but it is important to bring them to a close.
~ Ask students to support possible answers with evidence
from the text (a great skill to work on at any time!) and rule
out answers based on how convincing they are. Explain that
more than one answer might be accepted, choose which
ones are and move on.
~ Questions that can help clarify the differences between the
four types of questions are these: What did you have to do
to answer that question? and How could you rephrase
that (Pulling It Together) question so that it was really an
(Author and Me) question? Come to an agreement about
the type of question based on the relationship between the
question and what the reader has to do with the text and/or
their background knowledge to answer the question.

WestEd 2002 All rights reserved.

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