I’m making a help/cheat sheet for my kids that are learning how to make original questions. I started out with just writing out question words, but immediately hit a snag. I’m not sure what words I should add or how certain question words should be grouped.
(We make questions about a picture or story, and then the students ask each other the questions)
– When & What time. With the exercise we’re doing, I think it’d be more useful to have What time instead of When, but When is considered a basic question word.
– What for & Why. We’ve used both of these in class before. I’m not sure if I should put them together because they’re different question words, but they have same meaning.
– How is just a total mess. I’m not sure if I should just type out all the How’s or not.
2 comments
What’s the level of the students? What’s the target you’re aiming for? Is the intention to teach these questions or just remind students that they exist?
With regards to ‘what time’ and ‘what for’, my gut feeling is that students can often learn these “for free” with not a lot of teaching, just by seeing example sentences in a context that makes their meaning clear. Maybe ‘what for’ is non-intuitive enough that some kind of noticing activity is helpful, but it shouldn’t need a full-on lecture.
If your intention is to teach them, personally I would only focus on the question words that are new and achievable at the level your students are at. There is no need to be comprehensive. If your intention is to remind students of question possibilities, then grouping can be flexible, and really all that matters is that your design is neat to read and fairly intuitive for the user.
But keep your students’ level in mind. For example, unless your students are quite advanced, ‘what for’ is going to be a pretty superfluous alternative to ‘why’ (and if your students are advanced enough to be able to intentionally choose ‘what for’ for register purposes, I wonder what the need is to make a question word cheat sheet in the first place). If you’re for example trying to help students prepare for Eiken, I would avoid information clutter.
Who:
Who is the main character?
Who took the picture?
What:
What is the story about?
What is happening in the picture?
When:
When did the event occur?
When was the picture taken?
What time:
What time did the party start?
What time should we meet?
Where:
Where did the story take place?
Where was the picture taken?
Why / What for:
Why did the character make that decision? / What was the decision for?
Why is the person in the picture smiling? / What are they smiling for?
How:
How did the character solve the problem?
How did the people in the picture feel?
You can also include some variations of “How” based on the specific needs of your students and the types of questions they will be asking:
a. How many:
How many people attended the event?
How many animals are in the picture?
b. How much:
How much time did it take to finish the project?
How much money was raised?
c. How often:
How often does the character visit the park?
How often do you see this event in the story?
d. How long:
How long did the journey take?
How long is the story?
By grouping the question words in this way, you provide your students with a clear and concise cheat sheet that they can refer to when creating their own questions. Feel free to modify the groupings and examples to better suit your students’ needs and the specific exercises you’re working on.