categorizing questions

Today they categorized their questions as open or closed. Miscategorizations are in bold. Overall they did really well, with only 2 questions being miscategorized. I think them knowing the pattern for which words usually come at the start of open questions and which come at the start of closed questions really helped them. A couple of times they relied on it too heavily with the questions that began with "what" because the reference sheet I gave them said it could be open or closed, so a few times they just wanted to write open/closed without discussing whether it might just be one or the other.


Table 1:
-Why is Byron the oldest but the badest? OPEN
-Why is the family getting things for the Brown Bomber? OPEN
-Why did they send Byron to Grandma Sand house? OPEN
-Why is Kenny enjoying Byron leaving?OPEN
-How come the littlest look up to the biggest? OPEN
-Is the momma mad at Byron for being bad? CLOSED
-What does the daddy think about byron going to Grandma Sands? OPEN/CLOSED
-How come family have ot lookout for each other? OPEN

Table 2:
-Why is the Grandma in each family the meanest? OPEN
-Why didn't Byron mom and dad then send Byron to the grandma Sands the first time? OPEN
-Why do the dad alway be funny? OPEN
-Why do kid give there family a hard time? OPEN
-Why do people alway say they going to do some but don't? OPEN
-Why is mom makeing Byron go to Grandma Sand? OPEN
-Why do kid used bad word in there family? OPEN

Table 3:
-How do the Weird Watsons work out their problems? OPEN
-Why do the neighbors next door call the Watsons the Weird Watsons? OPEN
-Why do Byron be mean to his mother and father but they try to give him everything not like parents for their kids? OPEN
-What is important about family? OPEN
-Is Kenny going to get picked on when Byron's not there? CLOSED
-Why do Byron be mean to his family? OPEN
-Why do Byron be cursing around his family? OPEN
-Is Byron going to get in fights in Birmingham? CLOSED
-Is Byron really adopted? CLOSED
-Why is Grandma Sands strict? OPEN
-Is Kenny going to get picked on when Byron's not there? CLOSED
-Why do Byron be mean to his family? OPEN
-Why do Byron be cursin around his family? OPEN
-Is Byron going to get in fights in Birmingham? CLOSED
-Is Byron really adopted? CLOSED
-Why is Grandma Sands strict? OPEN
-Is Byron going to pull pranks when he's in Birmingham? CLOSED
-Why is Byron stupid? OPEN
-Why is Byron mean? OPEN

Table 4:
-Why do the Watsons decide to go to Birmingham for their summer vacation? OPEN
-why do Byron be disobedient to his family? OPEN
-Will Granda Sands whoop Byron if he be bad? CLOSED
-Why do people call the Watson family weird? OPEN
-Why is the Watsons different from other families? OPEN
-Why are some families mean to others even if that family didn't do anything? OPEN
-Why do the Watsons tease Byron? OPEN
-Is the Watsons going to get stuck with Byron in Birmingham? CLOSED
-Do Grandma Sands live in Birmingham or Alabama? CLOSED
-How old is Byron? OPEN
-When Byron gets back from Birmingham is he still going to be a juvenile delinquent? OPEN/CLOSED
-Will Byron find a way to get to Birmingham? CLOSED
-Is Byron going to make the boys in Alabama mean and a juvenile delinquent? OPEN/CLOSED

Table 5:
-Can family members always love each other? CLOSED
-Why do some families have bad kids? OPEN
-Why do some family members hate each other? OPEN
-Do familys care about each other all the time? CLOSED
-Why does Byron not like his family OPEN
-Can some family members do bad all the time CLOSED
-Do family all way's love each other CLOSED
-Why does familys have family reunus? OPEN
-Can family members do things that hurts there family badly? CLOSED
-Why family is important? OPEN

Table 6:
-Why is Byron mean and everyone else is nice? OPEN
-What is the Watsons going to do in Alabama? OPEN
-Why do family fight? OPEN
-I wonder if Sands is going to put up with Byrons mess? CLOSED
-Why do Byron sometimes be mean to Kenny and sometimes nice? OPEN
-Why do family do stuff to make people mad? OPEN
-Why do byron do things to make his family mad? OPEN
-Why did Byron do all of those things? OPEN
-Why did Byron say the s word? OPEN
-I wonder if Wilona is going to tell them about the baby? CLOSED
-Why is family important? OPEN
-Why do byron curse and don't get in trouble? OPEN


Students were very successful at switching their open question to closed and vice versa. For the question about how changing the question changes what answers they might get, some general trends from closed to open were:
-"you're saying more than yes or no"
-"it has more words"/"make the statement longer"/"it have a longer explanation to answer"
-"you can say he did this or that"
-"you might answer with a because"

general trends from open to closed were:
-"you might answer with a simple answer"
-"you will say yes or no"
-"your answer will be shorter"