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- Pick an everyday object or topic and brainstorm a
list of questions about it.
- Look over the list and transform some of the questions
into questions that challenge the imagination. Do this
by transforming questions along the lines of:
| - What would it be like if…
- How would it be different if…
- Suppose that ...
- What would change if ...
- How would it look differently if …
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- Choose a question to imaginatively explore. Explore
it by imaginatively playing out its possibilities. Do
this by: Writing a story or essay, drawing a picture,
creating a play or dialogue, inventing a scenario, conducting
an imaginary interview, conducting a thought experiment
- Reflect: What new ideas do you have about the topic,
concept or object that
you didn’t have before?
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Purpose: What kind of thinking
does this routine encourage?
Formulating and exploring an interesting question is often as important
than finding a solution. This routine encourages students to students
create interesting questions and then imaginatively mess around
with them for a while in order to explore their creative possibilities.
It provides students with the opportunity to practice developing
good questions that provoke thinking and inquiry into a topic.
Application: When and Where can
it be used?
Use Creative Questions to expand and deepen students’ thinking,
to encourage students’ curiosity and increase their motivation
to inquire. This routine can be used when you are introducing a
new topic to help students get a sense of the breadth of a topic.
It can be used when you’re in the middle of studying a topic
as a way of enlivening students’ curiosity. And it can be
used when you are near the end of studying a topic, as a way of
showing students how the knowledge they have gained about the topic
helps them to ask ever more interesting questions. This routine
can also be used continuously throughout a topic, to help the class
keep a visible, evolving list of questions about the topic that
can be added to at anytime.
Launch: What are some tips for starting
and using this routine?
Before using Creative Questions you might want to ask students what
they think makes a good question. Then, when you show the Creative
Questions, explain that this routine is a tool for asking good questions.
Start the routine by providing a topic, concept or object–
Sudan, medieval punishment, a stethoscope, genetic engineering.
Ask them to use the Creative Questions to generate a list of questions
about the topic or object. Initially, it’s best to work together
as an entire group. Once students get the hang of the routine, you
can have them work in small groups, or even solo.
After students finish generating questions, ask
them to pick one of the questions to investigate further. Encourage
students to explore it by imaginatively playing out its possibilities.
Writing a story or essay, drawing a picture, creating a play or
dialogue, inventing a scenario, conducting an imaginary interview,
or conducting a thought experiment are just some of the possible
ways for students to find out about their questions. At the end
of the exploration process be sure to take time to reflect on new
insights and ideas about the topic, object or concept.
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