Can they give an example of a statement disguised as a question?
What makes a good/bad question?
What makes a good/bad answer?
Share ideas with whole group and explain:
Context is crucial - there are good ways and less good ways of phrasing questions
Being curious is good and it’s human. Don’t be too afraid to ask questions – just think carefully about how you ask them
How do you feel or what happens if you don’t get to find out the things you want to ask about?
ASKeR - breaking down difficult questions
When a difficult, sensitive or controversial question is asked, the ASKeR method can be used to help students re-think the way they are communicating.
Write the difficult question on the board and then get the students to analyse it in the following way:
Assumptions - what is the person asking this questions assuming? Where do they think these assumptions come from?
Statement or Question? - is this an honest question or are they trying to find a way to share their views?
Key words - which words stand out? Should any be removed or replaced? Are there words that need to be defined?
Re-phrase - how would they rewrite this question?
Ask me again
Ask students which topics/themes they are curious about, put them into a hat and then ask groups to choose one at random.
Give them 5 minutes to brainstorm (on a large piece of paper) all the different questions they could ask about that theme/topic.
Pass the paper to the another group and ask them to break down the questions (not try to answer them), looking at ideas such as:
- why did the group ask those particular questions?
- are there assumptions made within the questions?
- what can you tell about the writers by the questions they asked?
- who are the questions aimed at?
- how would different people answer them differently?
- is there anything they feel needs more clarifying?
- how could they rephrase the questions?
This is part of a series of activities that help participants identify assumptions within questions and build confidence in asking questions in respectful ways.
For more information on this series or to invite our team into your school, please contact us.
Our education officers run programmes in schools to help young people about faiths, beliefs, identities and society > more info
