The Question Storm:
A Strategy for Creating Culturally Sustaining Learning Partnerships
In my teaching experience, one of the greatest strategies for creating culturally sustaining learning partnerships is the Question Storm.
A Question Storm is the opposite of brainstorming. In a brainstorming session, participants list all of the information that they already have about a topic. In a Question Storm, participants list all of the questions they have about a topic. The activity itself asks students to tap into their “funds of knowledge” — what is it that they don’t know about a topic? What do they wonder and want to know more about?
In person, students can list their questions in groups. I give them some guidelines (must list all questions, no discussing the questions, give note taker time to write) and then give them an awkward amount of time to do it (i.e., the longer the time, the more “out there” the questions become). Virtually, I’ve adapted this to have individuals place sticky notes on a Jamboard. Then we work together to group similar questions and narrow them as needed.
Here’s how I’ve incorporated this strategy into my unit design.
Science Fiction Elective
For my semester elective Science Fiction course, the questions posed in the Question Storm become the “Essential Questions” of the course. I give the students “humanity” as their topic. “What do you wonder or want to know about humanity?” I ask. In a ten minute session, a class can generate 30–100 questions. Examples include, “How did humanity begin?”, “Can a person lose their humanity?”, and “Will humans ever live on Mars?” Sometimes the class develops inside jokes like, “Does Ms. Mehls have humanity?” or the one time when we asked, “Will robot woodchucks ever exist?”
Now, here’s the best part. This list of silly questions is student-generated, but Science Fiction authors have worked to answer these same questions for decades. The genre is a study of humanity and our existence in this universe! No matter what questions end up being on the list, after each SF story that we read, I direct the students back to our EQs. “Which questions did this story attempt to answer?” I ask, “Can you find at least three?” Every single story addresses at least three of those questions — sometimes answering them directly (no, there are no dinosaurs on Mars) and other times hypothesizing (Asimov postulates that robots will become sentient, yes).
Sophomore English
In my yearlong Sophomore level English course, the question storm takes a different form. In a literature circle unit in which each book offered includes an act of violence, the students pose questions about violence. At the start of this unit, we take the time to ask any and every question we can think of, before working to combine the questions into our areas of focus (usually a top 3–5 questions also referred to as the “Essential Questions”). Each year, the questions end up being similar: Why are people violent? Is violence caused by fear, power, or hatred? Can some violence be justified? These questions give our reading focus. We can look for “answers” in the books and then discuss our insights in Socractic seminars or write about them in focused paragraphs. Having the lens of the questions takes the focus of the discussion away from “I think” and places it on what the author has offered (“According to [this book], violence is caused by… I know this because…”) The Question Storm allows us to tackle challenging issues, while giving students insight and ownership into what we discuss. Could I easily just provide students with a list of focus questions? Yeah, sure, but the questions are most meaningful as the students had a voice in creating, narrowing, and ultimately choosing which ones to focus on.
Reflection & Implementation
Reflecting on this practice, I like to think that using Question Storms in my classroom helps students to know that their voice matters. I genuinely care about their questions, and I want to help them find answers. An activity like this helps to flatten the power hierarchy. I’ve determined the texts, but they ultimately weigh in on the direction the discussion and analysis takes. Additionally, this activity truly helps us dig into humanity (both literally and figuratively). To have a “belief in humanity,” we must understand our different motivations (in addition to the societal and historical context) — and working through these concepts together further cultivates our understanding of community (and therefore, humanity!).
When I first learned about the Question Storm practice in 2015*, I wrote it off as something kind of silly. Of course, students have questions about the topic; isn’t that the whole point of me teaching about it? But introducing this strategy into my design practice and planning has been transformative. It’s a fun, easy activity that gives students considerable voice and gives me ample space to truly listen.
Another perk? Once the questions exist, it’s up to you how you use them. Need a quick writing sample, an end of unit reflection, or formative assessment? Need an activity for a last minute sub? Having a hard time helping students narrow their research questions? In any of these instances, students can revisit one of the Question Storm questions and write about what they’ve learned so far.
*There’s actually an entire professional text written around this strategy. It’s called Make Just One Change by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, and I’ve admittedly only read a few chapters of it. Based on my composition of this blog post, however, maybe that’s all that needed?
