June Newsletter: Asking Questions About Tomatoes | Harvard Course in July

July’s Harvard course: ‘flexibility’ with the QFT

One thing educators gain from our online course with Harvard is an expanded sense of what the Question Formulation Technique can do.

As Jennifer Brickey, a teacher-librarian who already had experience using the QFT, wrote after taking the course, “I realize now that the QFT has more flexibility,” and, “I learned the importance and value of remixing the QFT to keep students engaged with questioning and to open up fresh opportunities for questions.”

The course, Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique, starts on July 11, and the deadline to register is June 30.

Learn more | Register by June 30

Read Brickey’s post: Remixing the Question Formulation Technique: Four Explorations and Revelations.

‘Test tube tomatoes’ and questions

Retro Report, a nonprofit education and news organization, produces video-based classroom resources to engage students. A recent lesson plan covers the topic of genetically modified foods, and it uses the Question Formulation Technique as a way for students to begin thinking like documentary filmmakers. As part of the lesson, students ask questions about a 2013 documentary covering the first mass-market genetically engineered tomato — and how the film should be updated to reflect new developments over the last decade.

See the Retro Report lesson plan.

Here are some other QFT lesson plans that might interest you:

Factory farming, sustainability, and the food industry (high school ESL 4 lesson)
Melting glaciers (high school science lesson)

Learn on your own time with these self-paced modules

You can use the Question Formulation Technique with students to engage their curiosity about history and sharpen their ability to analyze primary sources. We offer a series of free online modules, developed through a creative partnership with the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, that you can take on your own schedule and at your own pace. You’ll learn how to use the QFT, find compelling primary sources in the Library of Congress digital archives, and bring them together into a lesson plan.

See our online modules

Spanish-language resources for social services

If you work in social services, you can help people sharpen their ability to ask questions and participate in decisions that affect them. We have resources in Spanish and English, including templates and facilitation guides.

Upcoming events

Here are some upcoming opportunities to learn with us:

July 11-31: Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique. Registration deadline: June 30

Sept. 12-Oct. 2: Questions at the Core: Extending the Question Formulation Technique to Sustain an Inquiry-based Culture in Schools. Registration deadline: September 1.

What we’re reading

Here are some recent stories that caught our attention:

Writing for change in the A.I. era — Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine

TEACHER VOICE: In real life, ‘Abbott Elementary’ wouldn’t have many seasons — The Hechinger Report

Does delaying kindergarten benefit children academically and socially? — KQED MindShift

When should you let your kid quit? — KQED MindShift

If the teacher does all the talking, who’s doing the learning? — Classroom Q&A with Larry Ferlazzo, Education Week

What your gifts mean

When you make a gift to the Right Question Institute, 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. Thank you for your support.

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