How we ask children to show what they know is incredibly important when gathering prior knowledge. We can’t assume what a student knows. One of our Junior students, Will, chose to draw a map to show his way home. Wow!
The question was ‘open’. Our students could have chosen to build or draw the way to their home. What did we learn? We learnt that Will has an innate sense of direction, ability to visualize and sketch maps.
The ‘right’ questions are the key to finding out what a student knows, so we can plan what a student needs/wants to learn and how best she/he will learn. This is an example of the Kunyung Learning Cycle (picture 1) in action.