Harvard course deadline
The registration deadline for RQI’s online course with the Harvard Graduate School of Education is October 11. (Our previous newsletter said it was October 7.)
The course, Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique, is our most comprehensive course on the art and science of using the QFT to drive student inquiry — building young people’s ability to ask questions for learning and life.
Students as heroes in their own story
Danny Delgado, a veteran educator from Georgia, asks us to think about Obi-Wan Kenobi, the teacher figure in Star Wars, who serves as a mentor to Luke Skywalker.
Delgado notes that Obi-Wan is “the guide, not the hero of the story” — an important distinction that inspired his own teaching. He asks, How can we help students become the heroes in their own stories? Delgado explores this question during a summer program where campers get hands-on experience with robotics.
Legal empowerment fall webinar series
RQI’s Legal Empowerment Program works with people on the front line of direct services — attorneys, social workers, adult educators, advocates, activists, social service providers, and others — to foster greater client agency and a more just legal system. This fall, we’re offering a series of webinars on how to strengthen clients’ sense of agency and voice as they navigate the legal system and other systems:
- October 26: Fostering client agency by building self-advocacy skills.
- October 27: Building the self-advocacy skills of youth and families.
- November 30: Legal empowerment in practice.
- December 1: Legal empowerment and criminal justice.
What we’re reading
Here are some stories that caught our eye over the past month.
- Many Adults Did Not Learn Media Literacy Skills in High School. What Schools Can Do Now — Education Week
- Shop Class Sometimes Boosts College Going, Massachusetts Study Finds — The Hechinger Report
- How Youth Sports Became a Feast or Famine World — And What Parents Can Do About It — MindShift
- 25 Reasons to Get Excited About Teaching — Education Week
Upcoming learning opportunities
October 6-7: An Experience in the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). Online in partnership with First Step Discovery Project at UC Berkeley.
October 18-November 7: Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions: Best Practices in the Question Formulation Technique. Offered through the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Register by October 11.
November 3: Community of Practice: Question Formulation Technique from the Right Question Institute. Online in partnership with the New Mexico Public Education Department.
November 20: Foster Curiosity, Fuel Collaboration: Teach Students and Faculty to Ask Better Questions with the QFT. Part of the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention.
December 2: Student Questions (QFT) + Primary Sources (TPS): A Revolutionary Combination for Embracing Hard History. Part of the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference.
Coming in 2023: RQI will be conducting an online learning experience with PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization). Find more details in upcoming newsletters. Until then, check out PLATO’s free middle school online ethics and philosophy series, addressing animal ethics, environmental ethics, and the philosophy of science. (Sign up by September 30.)
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.