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April Newsletter: In Alabama, studying the QFT & early learner literacy | Legal Empowerment in Atlanta | & more

April 29, 2024

Benefits of the QFT for early learner literacy

What happens when kindergartners and first-graders — who are just beginning to develop literacy skills — use the Question Formulation Technique?
Cora Causey, from the University of Alabama Birmingham, and Amelia Spencer, from Birmingham Southern University, worked with early learner educators at Use Your Noodle, a summer enrichment program in Birmingham, Alabama. They found that early learners who used the QFT “exhibited a substantial increase in the number and quality of questions posed” and “demonstrated significant gains in phonemic awareness and oral story retelling.”

Legal empowerment spotlight: supporting formerly incarcerated people in Georgia

“I love that questions get people to advocate for themselves. That is the best way to give people autonomy,” according to James Richardson, Jr. James is the executive director and co-founder of 4Horsemen Rehabilitation Services, a nonprofit organization in Atlanta that supports formerly incarcerated people as they transition back to their communities.
James spoke to us as part of our frontline worker series. During our conversation he talked about his 30-year career in the United States Army, why he started 4Horsemen, the challenges facing justice-involved individuals, and how he adapts the Right Question Institute’s educational strategy in his work, to help his clients solve problems and develop skills for self-advocacy.
As part of this series, we invite frontline workers and service providers from across the country to speak about the importance of their missions and their experiences with client empowerment.

Upcoming event

Here’s an opportunity to learn with us this July.

July 9-29: Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique. Offered through the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Registration deadline is July 1

What we’re reading

Here are a few stories that caught our attention recently.

These Kids Want to Go to School. The Main Obstacle? Paperwork — The Associated Press

Growing Up, He Struggled to Read. Then a Young Teacher Saw His Potential — KQED MindShift

Photos: The Solar Eclipse Is the Ultimate Science Lesson — Education Week

Earth Day 2024 — National Council of Teachers of English

To Better Serve First-Generation Students, Expand the Definition — Hechinger Report

The difference you make for the price of a coffee

The Right Question Institute is a small, independent nonprofit organization. When you make a recurring monthly gift of any size — the price of a cup of coffee, perhaps — you help bring free resources to teachers and schools. Plus, you help equip people in low-income communities with skills and strategies for solving problems, participating in decisions, and making their voices heard — contributing to a more inclusive educational system, society, and democracy. Recurring monthly donations help provide stability and predictability that make this work possible. Thank you for your support.

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