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The Other Stuff: How to Approach High-Level Thinking Questions

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It is important that educators exude a sense of passion for the content that we teach. Whether it be math, science, English, etc., our love for our subject areas helps to engage our students and keep them motivated. While much of our instruction focuses around the content, we are also tasked with teaching skills that allow students to access the content that we are teaching. Depending on grade level and ability, students could be all over the map when it comes to these essential, foundational skills. We must first assess the tools that our students bring with them to the classroom and then be prepared to focus part of our instruction around these crucial basics.

“Dissecting the question” is a practice that students will encounter in EVERY content area throughout their education. Whether responding to a writing prompt, answering a word problem, or following chemistry lab procedures, students must be aware of the end goal when confronting a task. Often times across content areas, questions or practices are framed in wordy, complex, or very involved language. This type of wording has the potential to not only confuse students, but also to discourage them right from the beginning before they have even considered the question. To hone in on an answer, students must first learn how to identify exactly what the question is asking.  

Consider the following prompt: Authors use many different literary devices to convey mood in a narrative. Identify and analyze two devices that J.K. Rowling uses to convey mood in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone using evidence from the text to support your claim.

Now, this prompt is a tall order in terms of a student’s need to focus in on the actual question. Model the process of “skimming the fat” from the question so that only the essentials are present. For example, have students cross off any “fluff” or unnecessary information in the question. This goes for math, English, science, history, etc. For our example above, students could cross off the entire first sentence in the prompt—this simply frames the context of the prompt.

Next, help students to translate or better comprehend the academic language that all content-area questions will use. Terms like analyze, assess, compare, estimate, and classify may seems straightforward to us; however, students often find these directives to be confusing. Have students practice highlighting the common academic language terms as they encounter them in questions, prompts, and tasks. Then, spend time as a class discussing what these terms actually mean—i.e., what actions will we take as readers when we identify and analyze something? What does it mean by devices? Perhaps students need a refresher on literary devices. This is where graphic organizers and other note-taking strategies will come in handy for students needing a quick review of a concept.

Next, help students understand that identify simply means to find, name, or choose two devices that the author uses, while analyze means to explore, examine, or question how these devices convey, or show, mood. Students that are still struggling to begin responding to the question may benefit from a sentence frame or sample starter. This strategy is great for English and math, where teachers are likely seeking complete sentences or full thoughts in the answers and responses. Consider providing students with something like this as their starting thesis statement:

(AUTHOR’S NAME) uses (DEVICE AND DEVICE) to convey a (SPECIFIC TYPE OF MOOD) in (TITLE).

Once they have filled in the blanks for the thesis statement, prompt the analysis piece by asking leading questions. These suggestive questions will help students with the initial practice of analyzing, assessing, or making connections between their claim and their reasoning or support for the claim. Again, this practice takes time and repetition—attacking a high-level thinking question like this is not something that can be mastered in one class period. The key is to provide students with strategies to help steer their thinking in the direction of the actual meat of the question. By helping to define, explain, eliminate, and order the process of the question, students are much more equipped to begin answering.

So remember:

  • Eliminate fluff
  • Locate key terms/academic language that indicate what is being asked
  • Define those terms for students
  • Provide graphic organizers or refresher notes when necessary
  • Consider providing sentence frames or examples for students to use as a springboard

How to Perform a Close Reading: High School

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In terms of critical thinking and close reading skills, high school students are fairly well-equipped to delve into text analysis. They have built a foundation and found some close reading strategies that work for them.  As we advance from reading comprehension and understanding texts to dissecting and analyzing the content (i.e. close reading), we must alter the strategies to explicitly teach students how to examine the finite details. This practice in critical thinking and analysis does not evolve in one fell swoop—it must be practiced.

The goal is to gain a richer understanding of the text by questioning, dissecting, and relating to it. This practice should help to cultivate an appreciation for literature—not stifle a high schooler’s interest with rote exercises. In order to accomplish this while still scratching the surface of building close reading skills, educators and parents can implement different strategies to subtly introduce the concept to their high schoolers.

  • Use movie stills—from films that students may not be familiar with—to up their analytical thinking skills. Cover the image with post-it notes. Then, while slowly revealing portions of the still, ask your high schoolers to describe what they think is happening in this scene of the movie. The key here is that they closely “read” the scenario without relying on the spoken words. This is a subtle way to prompt readers to look at the context clues in an image. Be ready with questions to take the discussion further, such as, “What genre might this movie be categorized as?” Or, “Where do you think this scene takes place based on the background?” Be sure that students explain and elaborate to ensure that they are not simply making blind guesses. The point of close reading is to use all of the clues available, along with prior knowledge and inferencing, to assess the text on a deeper level. Activities and questions like these motivate readers to look closely at the details and draw interpretations and inferences—the same practices involved in close reading written text.
  • Collect song lyrics to use as warm-up practices for close reading and analyzing. Choose from an array of genres or styles and print lyrics for each student. Just like poetry, song lyrics can mean vastly different things depending on the audience. Open up the discussion by asking why certain terms were chosen by the songwriter—does slang play a deliberate role, for example?
  • Provide high schoolers with advanced texts that prompt a more analytical approach. Perhaps the text is of a higher Lexile level. Or maybe you provide them with a period piece in which they would have to decipher an unfamiliar dialect. Whatever the case, high schoolers can further develop their close reading skills by approaching more complex texts. Ensure that they have access to search engines so that they can investigate words or concepts for more clarity. When reading any text, even an article, poem, or short story, there are bound to be some words that a high schooler is less familiar with. Practice recognizing when this happens by asking if she can define the term in her own words. If she doesn’t know, use a dictionary or web search to define the word. This practice allows teens to not only recognize when they are unfamiliar with a word, but encourages them to seek clarification—a skill required for close reading. Enrich this practice by asking high schoolers to create a Frayer model for each new term or find synonyms and antonyms for these newly-defined terms.
  • Introduce the concept of questioning the author’s creative choices by discussing the title of a new book. Again, the subtly of this practice is a great pre-reading strategy that encourages readers to make predictions. Ask why the author may have chosen this specific title? Are there any other titles that might fit the story? Ask students to make inferences about what might happen in the story based on the title. Be sure to ask her why she thinks that. After reading, refer back to initial assumptions or predictions and discuss new findings.
  • Encourage your readers to ask questions while reading. These questions are likely the beginning of the close reading process. Explain that questions may be left unanswered based on the story. Discuss how these unanswered questions allow readers to use their imaginations and draw their own conclusions. Then, encourage students to seek others’ responses to the text. Many academic forums, like databases or anthologies, provide students with examples of close reading pieces written by authors, professors, etc. Viewing samples of the process helps students to recognize what to look for when performing a close reading.
  • Seek clues from uses of figurative language and other creative writing approaches. For example, ask why a certain poem contains repetition. Does it create a sense of urgency? Help to establish rhythm? Solidify the theme or central message? Look into an author’s background to identify influences or common themes. An understanding of the writer helps when investigating the text during close reading.