May Newsletter: Tips for Using the QFT with Early Learners | Legal Empowerment Webinar

Using the QFT with early learners

Early learners, from pre-K to third grade, are brimming with questions. Using the QFT to leverage this energetic curiosity can lead to powerful learning experiences. However, it can take a deliberate approach, and a few thoughtful adaptations, to work with students who may still be learning to read, write, and work with peers. A group of four elementary school teachers in Birmingham, Alabama, used the QFT in clever ways with young learners, and they offer some practical insights and advice.

Podcast: “Flipping the Script on Questioning”

Why is questioning such an important skill? What are some mistakes to avoid when using the Question Formulation Technique? What would education look like if schools treated questions as important as answers?

Those are some topics discussed in a recent episode of the Teaching Today podcast, hosted by Roberta Lenger Kang and Cristina Compton from Teachers College, Columbia University. They were joined by RQI co-founders Luz Santana and Dan Rothstein, along with Sarah Westbrook, RQI’s director of professional learning. The podcast touched on a number of topics, including the origins of the QFT, the birth questions as a foundation for learning in Ancient Greece, and practical tips for using the QFT in the classroom.

Listen to to the podcast.

You can also read this reflection about questioning and the QFT on the Teachers College website.

Webinar: Foster client agency through building self-advocacy skills

Join our Legal Empowerment Program on June 20, at 1 p.m. Eastern time, for a free webinar about building people’s capacity to advocate for themselves in the legal system and beyond. This webinar is for people working on the front lines of legal services, criminal justice, adult education, or other direct services — at community-based organizations, public agencies, and more.

Learn more and register.

Harvard course in July

Our online course, Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique, begins July 9, and the deadline to register is July 1. Offered through the Harvard Graduate School of Education, this is our most comprehensive introductory course, exploring the art and science of using the QFT to put students’ own questions at the center of learning — building a key lifelong skill for critical thinking, civic participation, and more.

Learn more | Register by July 1.

What we’re reading

Here are a few stories that caught our attention recently.

Reflections from the Field: Flipping the Script on Questioning — Teachers College, Columbia University

Crossing the Line: Segregation and Resource Inequality Between America’s School Districts — New America

Older Students Who Struggle to Read Hide in Plain Sight. What Teachers Can Do — Education Week

Iowa Superintendent and Former Olympian Bested in Footrace by 5th-Grader — KQED MindShift

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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