In the context of a project, a group of young children might think of questions which span the whole range of what it is possible to ask about anything. There are many stories of amazing questions asked by three year olds which are already a serious challenge to their parents general knowledge. On the other hand some sixth grade students can ask very simple and basic questions. In one school I visited in Iowa, I was given a list of questions a group of fifth grade children asked about the topic of BOOKS. Consider the following examples of children's questions.

Questions about Books

1. Why are books called books?
2. What are all the things that make a good book?
3. Why do books have to be different?
4. Why do books have chapters?
5. Why don't books have numbers on the pages with pictures on them?
6. Who invented the first book and why?
7. Why are the pages always made of paper?
8. How do they color the pages?
9. How do they put the picture on the back cover?
10. Why do books get wrinkled when they're wet?
11. Why do people dedicate books to people and they don't get them?
12. Why do some books have pictures in them?
13. What are some techniques used to make books?
14. Why are stories called stories?
15. How do you make paper from wood?
16. How many books are in our library? Compared with other schools?
17. How does a book get published?
18. How long does it take to make a book?
19. How do they get awards for books?
20. Do they have pictures in books in the middle school library?

When I first read this list, I realized how much I talk with children when they are expressing curiosity about a topic. In our discussion, I help them to see the significance of what they already know and help them to organize their current knowledge under subtopic headings in a web, before I invite them to list or suggest questions for investigation. After some discussion and exploration of what they already know about the topic, fifth grade children can usually write their own questions, or they may work in pairs or small groups and record a list to share later with the whole class.

Considering the above list of questions, there are some which seem to be about the nature of language (#s 1 and 14). It would be interesting to question those children to find out what they had in mind with their question. This can be done by getting them to guess a couple of possible answers so that you get a better idea of what they are thinking about in asking the question. However, they may not be about the nature of language, and how objects get their names. Maybe the question being asked is a philosophical one: like `how did the leopard get his spots?' Perhaps the question presupposes # 6, with the idea that if someone invented a book he/she must have given their invention a name. In any case, a good etymological dictionary can be helpful to show children of this age how language evolved and how people have studied and recorded the development of our language, which itself is made up of words which came from other languages.

Some of the questions are very basic and practical. Books are physical objects which can be handled and analyzed in terms of their parts. I suspect that children who had undertaken project work since their kindergarten years would not be asking such questions at grade five. They would already have drawn part-whole pictures of books and labeled the parts.

The questions which seem to seek information of this kind are #s 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, & 15.

Once the mechanics of book-making are dealt with, the child may want to know more about the purpose of books and what goes into them. Some questions addressing these concerns are #s 2, 3, 4, 11, & 12. These are about the authoring and design of books and what has to go into them. Here, on the one hand, there is basic knowledge, like what is the minimum required of an object before it can be called a book. Then on the other hand, knowledge of the very many optional extras which make books such interesting and varied sources of information, ideas and pleasure.

Then there seem to be some procedural questions about what you would have to do if you wanted to write a book and get it published. These questions are #s 17, 18, & 19.

#6 consists of two historical question about the invention or development of books and their purposes.

There are also a couple of practical questions about the number of books in a library, the two parts of #16.

Questions which are particularly satisfying for teachers are those which are researchable: information and explanation questions in my taxonomy. We normally value especially, those questions which children can take to the library and look up in encyclopedias, specialist books and other reference material. We should actively help children to ask these kinds of questions.

We should also value the discussion questions. Seeking answers to these may enrich children's understanding of the cultural significance of things by encouraging them to ask different people for their views. It might be possible for children to interview their parents on what they find books most useful for. Carrying out surveys and studying the results can help here. Maybe people of different ages see different kinds of value in books. A study could be made of three generations of readers, children, their parents and their grandparents. There could then be theoretical speculation about the reasons for any differences found.

I see questions being on a continuum from most specific to most speculative. Here's how a graphic organizer for the analysis of questions might look:

Information questions: `one right answer,' trivia, researchable, either/or,

can look up in an encyclopedia, can be answered through investigation of primary or secondary sources of information, `what?' `who?' `when?' `where?'

Explanation questions: If-then? reasoning, logic, `how?' questions, questions relating different ideas, about how information fits together, involving calculation.

Discussion questions: Views, feelings, perspectives, promotion, persuasion, argument, defense, values, politics.

Speculation questions: `What if?,' prediction, anticipation, imaginative, creative, elaborate processes of thought.

Philosophical questions: Questions for which it is not possible to prove the answers, but about which many people are most sure of the answers for themselves as individuals, based on attitudes, ideology, culture, religion.

The questions which have been traditionally most valued in our education system have been the first two kinds, information and explanation questions. Discussion questions have sometimes been addressed in class discussion, as have also some speculation questions. On the whole, however, philosophical questions, because the answers have their roots in ideology, culture and religion, have not usually been considered the responsibility of the school.

STUDENT EXERCISE: As an exercise you might want to think about all the possible information that a child might have had in mind when each question was formulated.

Questions about books (Grade 5 class)

1. Why are books called books?
2. What are all the things that make a good book?
3. Why do books have to be different?
4. Why do books have chapters?
5. Why don't books have numbers on the pages with pictures on them?
6. Who invented the first book and why?
7. Why are the pages always made of paper?
8. How do they color the pages?
9. How do they put the picture on the back cover?
10. Why do books get wrinkled when they're wet?
11. Why do people dedicate books to people and they don't get them?
12. Why do some books have pictures in them?
13. What are some techniques used to make books?
14. Why are stories called stories?
15. How do you make paper from wood?
16. How many books are in our library? Compared with other schools?
17. How does a book get published?
18. How long does it take to make a book?
19. How do they get awards for books?
20. Do they have pictures in books in the middle school library?

 (Given to me by a teacher in Cedar Rapids, Iowa)