Thinking Habit 01
Ask & Refine
Questions
Ask questions, then refine them as understanding develops.
Driving question
What question would help me understand this better?
Teacher prompts
- What are you trying to find out?
- Which part is still unclear?
- How could you make your question more specific?
- What have you learned that changes your question?
What students do
- Identify what is unclear or worth investigating.
- Ask a question connected to what they need to understand.
- Refine its wording, scope, or focus.
- Revisit the question after encountering new information.
See the habit in the work
A broad question gives a student a starting point. Feedback and new information help the student decide what to investigate next.
Illustrative classroom example · Social studies
Draft question
Why do cities grow?
A starting point
The student has a topic to investigate, but the question could refer to many places, periods, or causes.
A broad question can be useful at the beginning. The next step is to decide which part to pursue.
Draft question
Why do cities grow?
Teacher feedback
Which cities or time period do you mean? What have you noticed in the reading that could help you choose a focus?
The student notices that several early settlements developed near rivers and chooses to investigate access to water.
Draft
Why do cities grow?
Revised
How did access to fresh water influence where early cities developed?
What changed: The student selected a possible influence and shifted from city growth to city location. The revised question gives the inquiry a more specific direction.
Try it in class
Before and after a source
- Before reading, viewing, or investigating, ask students to write one question they want to explore.
- Afterward, have them revisit the question using something they learned.
- Ask them to keep, refine, or replace it—and explain their choice.
Make the revision visible
Have students record their original question, the information that affected it, and their next question.
Look for a purposeful change in focus, scope, or wording. A longer question is not necessarily a more useful one; the revision should help the student decide what to investigate.