An Experience in the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

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Katy Connolly

Education Program Coordinator

Right Question Institute

Cambridge, MA

rightquestion.org

Talk with your table partners

Share with a neighbor:

• One thing that sparked your curiosity yesterday

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Agenda

1. Introduction to the QFT
2. Small group work: Developing a question agenda using the QFT
3. A look inside the process

What is the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)?

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The Origins of the QFT: Questions, Agency, and Self-Advocacy�

“We don’t go to the school because we don’t even know what to ask.”

Parents in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1990

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

Individuals learn to:

• Produce their own questions
• Improve their questions
• Strategize on how to use their questions
• Reflect on what they have learned and how they learned it

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QFT in the Classroom

“The way it made me feel was smart because I was asking good questions and giving good answers.”

-Boston 9^th grade summer school student

QFT + Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS)

rightquestion.org/primary-sources

https://rightquestion.org/primary-sources/

Small Group Work:

Developing a question agenda using the QFT

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Rules for Producing Questions

1. Ask as many questions as you can

2. Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss

3. Write down every question exactly as stated

4. Change any statements into questions

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Produce Questions

1. Ask Questions
2. Follow the Rules
• Ask as many questions as you can.
• Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss.
• Write down every question exactly as it was stated.
• Change any statements into questions.
3. Number the Questions

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LGBTQ+ history must be taught.

LGBTQ+ history must be taught.

AIDS Quilt, Washington, DC

https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.13502/

Categorize Questions: Closed/Open

Definitions:

• Closed-ended questions can be answered with a “yes” or “no” or with a one-word answer.
• Open-ended questions require

more explanation.

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Directions: Identify your questions as closed-ended or open-ended by marking them with a “C” or an “O.”

Discuss

Discuss

Improve Questions

• Take one closed-ended question and change it into an open-ended question.

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• Take one open-ended question and change it into a closed-ended question.

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• Add these as new questions at the bottom of your list.

Closed

Open

Closed

Open

Prioritize Questions

Review your list of questions

• Choose the three questions you consider most important.
• While prioritizing, think about your Question Focus: LGBTQ+ history must be taught.

After prioritizing consider…

• Why did you choose those three questions?
• Where are your priority questions in the sequence of your entire list of questions?

Prioritize Questions

• Now add your initials to one or two questions that you personally would like to explore further as you look at the collections today

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Optional step: Build context, repeat steps

Origins of the quilt, from the National AIDS Memorial website:

“The Quilt was conceived in November of 1985 by long-time human rights activist, author and lecturer Cleve Jones. Since the 1978 assassinations of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, Jones had helped organize the annual candlelight march honoring these men. While planning the 1985 march, he learned that over 1,000 San Franciscans had been lost to AIDS. He asked each of his fellow marchers to write on placards the names of friends and loved ones who had died of AIDS. At the end of the march, Jones and others stood on ladders taping these placards to the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. The wall of names looked like a patchwork quilt.”

Additional views of the quilt

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalaidsmemorial/albums/72157714564567748/with/49967434381/

Additional views of the quilt

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalaidsmemorial/albums/72157714564567748/with/49967434381/

Action Plan

From priority questions to action plan…

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In order to answer your priority questions:

• What do you need to know? Information
• What do you need to do? Tasks

Action Plan

In order to answer your priority questions:

• What do you need to know? Information
• What do you need to do? Tasks

Share

1. Questions you changed from open/closed
2. Group priority questions, personal priority questions
3. Rationale for choosing priority questions
4. Your action plan

Reflect

• What did you learn?
• How can you see applying what you learned in your work today or going forward?

A Look Inside the Process

The QFT, on one slide…

1. Question Focus
2. Produce Your Questions
• Follow the rules
• Number your questions
3. Improve Your Questions
• Categorize questions as Closed or Open-ended
• Change questions from one type to another
4. Strategize
• Prioritize your questions
• Action plan or discuss next steps
• Share
5. Reflect

1. Ask as many questions as you can
2. Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer
3. Record exactly as stated
4. Change statements into questions

Closed-Ended:

Answered with “yes,” “no” or one word

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Open-Ended: Require longer explanation

Source: The Right Question Institute rightquestion.org

Three thinking abilities

with one process

Thinking in many different directions

Narrowing Down, Focusing

Thinking about Thinking

Metacognition

Virtual Classroom Example: 7^th Grade

Teacher: Melissa Lawson, Folsom, CA

Topic: Japanese American Internment during World War II

Purpose: To help students engage with primary sources to begin a research process.

Question Focus

Lange, Dorothea. (1942) Oakland, CA, Mar. 1942.

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A large sign reading "I am an American" placed in the window of a store on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to evacuate from certain West Coast areas.

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[Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a24566/.

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Selected Questions

1. Why is the car there?
2. Who was the owner of the car?
3. Is that a BMW or something?
4. Where is this?
5. Who took the photograph?
6. Why is there a sign that says, I am an American?
7. Who is “I”?
8. What does "Wanto Co.," mean?
9. Who wrote the "I Am an American" sign?
10. Was the 'I am American' because the owner was of Japanese heritage and defending him/herself from prosecution? (after Pearl Harbor)

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11) When the picture was taken, was the store open or closed?

12) Why was this picture taken?

13) What year is this from?

14) Who decided to close the store?

15) What happened to the store after this?

16) What happened to the Japanese Americans?

17) Did they ever get full fledged justice?

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Asking and Answering via Padlet

Student Reflections

• “I learned that we cannot draw conclusions just by looking at a picture once. You can look at it and ask questions to learn more. I am wondering if we can use this technique on other things.”
• “Not only did I learn about the picture we were analyzing, but I learned that asking questions makes me want to think more and it makes me curious. Once I started asking questions and reading other peoples responses, I was very interested and curious about the questions that were posted.”
• “I learned that I should have been using this for my History Day paper.”

Make Your Own Padlet

Access the QFT Padlet Template Here:

https://padlet.com/sarahwestbrook1/QFT2

Access all of RQI’s Virtual Learning Resources:

https://rightquestion.org/remote-learning-resources/

Questions and Democracy

“We need to be taught to study rather than to believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.”

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– Septima Clark

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Chapter 6 on Septima Clark in Freedom Road: Adult Education of African Americans (Peterson, 1996)

Access materials from this session:

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Explore our free Resource Hub for Using the QFT with Primary Sources at rightquestion.org/primary-sources

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