Quilting
Today's post is about QUILT – a questioning framework that I find helpful in my own classroom, but have a really hard time finding clear information about online.
QUILT framework for asking good questions
- QUestion: what you are asking, phrased as a question (Why is the sky blue?)
- I Looked In: the search strategy you used before you decided to ask (I googled it, but I didn't understand what Rayleigh scattering meant.)
- I Think: your best guess. This helps the responder understand the gaps in knowledge or conceptualization. (I think the sky is blue because it reflects the ocean!)
When used, this strategy is very effective in getting targeted responses, rather than going back and forth with explanations that don't actually address the asker's gap.
Edited to add that I learned about this format from my colleagues at my current job, so thank you to them. This template is also very useful for asking reddit and StackOverflow questions, if anybody still uses those.
Note: I believe this is different than "QUILT:An Innovative Approach to Effective Instructional Improvement", a 1995 paper written by J. Jackson Barnette, Jackie Walsh, Sandra Orletsky, and Beth Sattes, that describes an in-depth, year-long program for increasing effective classroom questioning, which you can read about here.