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Grade 4 Reading & Writing · World 9: Research Station · Level 72
Open-Ended Questions
Yes-or-no versus open questions, too broad versus just right, and follow-up questions for a topic you choose.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 72
- Welcome to the Research Station! Every research project starts with a question about a topic you care about.
- Yes-or-no questions end quickly: is Mars red? Yes. Done! Open-ended questions start with how or why, and take you somewhere.
- A question can be too broad: what is space? That would fill a library. Or too narrow: how many wheels does Curiosity have? Six. Done.
- A just-right question asks how or why about one part of the topic: how do the Mars rovers search for signs of water?
- As you learn, ask follow-up questions. Rovers found rocks that formed in water. So, what does that tell scientists about life on Mars?
Georgia's K-12 English Language Arts Standards:
- 4.T.RA.1.a — Generate questions about a self-selected topic of interest to be researched, asking open-ended questions to deepen and extend understanding of the topic and related ideas and information. (I)