thoughts on the direction to go with questions + mini-lit review of inquiry

This was from last week, most of the post-its were inspired by the video we watched on the relationship between cowboys and the Transcontinental Railroad.  Others are miscellaneous.

Here they are transcribed:
-How much cargo fills a car? -Vianey
-Who was the 1st ever cowboy?
-Why are they running when no one is chasing them right now.
-Why did they set there clock by the sun.
-Do people get 5,000 dollars for killing male cows.  Tremayne Miles
-Did these people build trains in the citys
-Why do the shoot the guns in the air and almost kill people. -Anyah 
-Are cowboys vegetarians? -Vianey
-Why would he like guns? -Vianey
-Do all cowboys have a western accent? - Vianey
-What is terrain -Vianey
-Where there moms helping the babys. Emon
-How do cowboys survive -Vianey
-What do cowboys protect cows from? -Vianey
-What do the cowboys protect cows from? -Vianey
-How come cowboys get $1 a day and they risk many things? -Vianey
-How did they put up the barbed wire without herting thereselves? -Dameko
-Do cowboys EVER kill their cows (the ones they are protecting?) -Vianey
-Why didn't the slaves go to Chicago instead? -Vianey
-Why did he make the barbed wire -Kamari
-What do cowboys eat for lunch? -Vianey
-How many cowboys do they save in a day -Vianey
-Was Christopher Columbus a cowboy? -Vianey
-What is a dolphin doing liveing in the river of a swamp
-Why do the Proboscis monkey have big noses
-How old do you have to be to be a cowboy? -Vianey
-Why did they moved the hands? -Zion
-Do cowboys have uniforms? -Vianey
-Why is the woodchuck having these dreams -Malik
-Why is cowboys walking were those thinks are. -Emon
-What is carnige? -Vianey
-Is cattle safer in texas than mexico? -Vianey
-Did cowboys live in trains -Vianey
-I want to ask you did the people's was working hard Because if I was wroking on the trains it will take a long time. tremayne
-Why didn't they build cars to so it can be faster.
-how long did it take to build a city
-I wonder why the cowboys was going to fast? Kashira
-Why did he have fire in his hand
-Why do they sometimes make noise on the horse? -Anyah
-If they had barked wire how could we still have beef? -Malik
-Why did they try to heart they cowboys? -Kim
-Why is he selling clocks? and geting mony.
-do they eat I mean cowboys? Emon
-why did a lot of cowboys kill the cows -Kim
-Why do the cowboy keep on saying woohoo? -Kim
-why do they keep shooting? -Kim
-why is he selling watchs. -Kim
-Why is cowboys being mean to the farmers? -Kim
-Why are they killing there own kind and other people.
-Did the railroad destroy habitats? -Vianey
-Can you get diseased by nitroglycerin? -Vianey
-What is a railroad salary? -Vianey
-wasn't that last town  a divisional station? -Vianey
-What are locomarkets? -Vianey
-Don't the cowboys eat beef? -Vianey
-Why did he want the cows to go away instead of killing them and eating them? -Vianey
-Demarrion wrote a question but it was illegible


-I learned that a rover is a robot on wheels.  -Zion
-Cowboys learned to shoot guns by learning by themself. -Anyah
-I learned that when you dig holes in vocanoes lave comes out. -Zion
-I know that cowboys have every thing they need. -Zion
-I know that they are listing so they can cach it. -Emon
-I know how the painting on the ceiling look.  Because I found it in the dictionary. -Kim
-I learned that you have to do alot to publising. -Kimmy Jones
-A lot of cowboys were Native Americans. -Donnell


So, it was definitely time consuming to transcribe all those post-its, but at the same time it was enlightening and amusing at times.  It gave me a nice window into how my students think, what they wonder about, who is questioning a lot, etc.

Vianey was a very prolific questioner, she is also the highest academic performer in the class.  I wonder how strong the correlation is between academic performance and inquisitiveness?  In Sir Francis Bacon's words: "He who questions much, does and discusses much, shall learn much."

As I transcribed the questions I noticed that I had a range of responses: amusement, bemusement, embarrassment, excitement, admiration, etc.  I want to have more moments of astonishment and admiration when I read students' questions.  In other words, I want my students to ask more good questions.
My question: what makes a good question?
-it's not necessarily a question that falls into a higher level of thinking according to Bloom's taxonomy.  For example, there were a lot of analyzing questions like Kim's question: "why is he selling watches?" that don't really take you to anywhere that's intellectually interesting or surprising.  So a good question needs to require an answer that is not obvious, it needs to have a level of abstraction, application, analysis, creation, or comprehension, that pushes thinking.  That being said, what's to say that Kim's question isn't a good one for her?  It may push her thinking to comprehend concepts about the importance of keeping time for farmers and train employees in the 19th century.
-topical/relevant to topics that we're exploring
-builds on prior knowledge to heighten the complexity of the question (Vianey's question on habitats, divisional stations, etc.)
-uses high level vocabulary

These characteristics are consistent with what cognitive scientists believe make up "communities of practice".  "Cognitive scientists define inquiry as the process of accessing, building, extending, and using knowledge consistent with what is thought and known in a discipline." (Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry by Jeffrey Willhelm pg. 11)  Said another way: "Inquiry inducts students into a community of practice; they come to think and act more like people who work with the disciplines of math, science, social science, ethics, literature, philosophy, government." (pg. 24)