Dates for your diary

M T W T F S S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

Questioning

Practical Strategies to Encourage Questioning


‘Philosophy for Children’

What is it?

  • listen to each other with respect (see rules below)
  • build on other peoples’ ideas
  • challenge one another to supply reasons and justifications
  • draw inferences  

Photographs - can be used to generate questions and discussions quickly and simply 

a) Abstract photos or unusual photos of the local environment (one school group generated 168 questions based on one photo of the rainforest!);
b) Interesting photos showing a range of colours can be used to discuss topics such as different emotions;
c) Extending photographs- provide a number of different photos and ask the group to choose 1 which they think is particularly interesting. Place it in the middle of a blank A3 sheet of paper and ask the pupils to extend the photo realistically or using their imagination;
d) Photos can be uncovered gradually or covered with cut-out windows. Pupils are asked to comment on what they see, what they think will come next; ask questions about what they see. (Photos which include lots of people or different activities are particularly useful for this.)
e) Photos of people can also be used. Students could be encouraged to put questions they would like to ask on post-it notes and stick them up around the photo. The questions could then be used as a starting point for discussion, emphasising that there is no right or wrong answer and that the group might not be able to answer some of the questions.

The photo shows the number of questions generated by ONE photo of a person, used as part of our World War II programme!


Odd One Out (Reasoning)

Why is this a good activity?


 

Page 1 . 2