Setting the Q
Guidance for teachers - Supporting children to pose their own TF questions
Once children have been introduced to the Thinking Frame Approach and have some experience of the processes involved, it can really help to engage them if the teacher gives them the opportunity to pose their own question(s) that they would like to solve via the Thinking Frame.
The video shows Mark Townsend, an Advanced Skills Teacher from Harrison Primary School, motivating children by encouraging them to set their own question for the Thinking Frame during the group discussion whilst he demonstrates the "Floating & Sinking Oranges" experiment.
In this video notice that;
- Mark first introduces the context of floating oranges to children with no question set.
- During the discussion he uses open ended questions and gives the children thinking time so that they can explain their ideas
- As the demonstration continues, through discussion Mark makes it clear that there are a range of ideas and opinions amongst the group and that it is "alright not to be sure".
- He gives the children an opportunity to work in pairs to come up with the wording for their own question that they would like to solve via the use of the Thinking Frame.
- The group vote on the question that they would like to solve.
Although the pupils want to solve the question "Does the skin act as a lifejacket?" Mark adds a second question "Why?" to this before getting the pupils to engage in their Thinking Frames. A video showing their Brainwaves can be found in the Brainwaves section of this site.