Divergent Responses
I found the examples used by Zwiers in Chapter 6 to be very helpful to begin to imagine how a question can turn into a good question that encourages academic discussion. I particularly liked the open ended questions that “connect to students’ lives and allow for personalized, divergent responses.” I like that it allows for more imaginative responses while still having students think about the content from various perspectives. A few of the examples were “If you were a colonist, would you have…? Why? Would you have done what the main character did? How would you like to be a whale? How would you use geometry to build a house?” I have tried to think about how to make these types of questions relevant in a visual arts classroom and have come up with a few questions:
If you were a curator, would you include this artwork in your exhibition? Why?
What would you have done if you were trying to shock the art community at the time?
How would you like to be a clay sculpture going through the firing and glazing processes? Why?
If you could be a colleague of another artist in a period of art history who would you be friends with? Why?