Asking Questions

Two Kinds of Questions

Closed-ended
Open-ended

questions

questions

Closed-ended Questions
Closed-ended questions are common on tests and
quizzes. Such questions usually require a simple
answer from the student, often with a single word
or a simple phrase, and require only basic thinking
skills. True-False questions are closed-ended
questions.

Closed-ended Questions

Encourage simple answers (yes or no or a

short phrase).
Require only recall thinking skills.

Closed-ended Questions

Asking a closed-ended question is fairly simple.

To make a closed-ended question, think of a
sentence from your reading that contains a fact
or a piece of basic information. Then, use one of
the question words to turn the sentence into a
question. Some common question words for
asking closed-ended questions are who, what,
when, and where.

Closed-ended Questions
Ask:

1. Who?
2. What?
3. When?
4. Where?

Closed-ended Questions
What score did you get on the test?
Who is the president of your country?
What time is it?
When does the movie start?
Where are you from?

Closed-ended Questions
In the September 2007 Ensign, Elder David A.
Bednar gave a talk on Seek Learning by Faith.
Who?
What?
When?
Where?

Closed-ended Questions
In the September 2007 Ensign, Elder David A.
Bednar gave a talk on Seek Learning by Faith.

Who gave the talk?

Elder David A. Bednar

Closed-ended Questions
In the September 2007 Ensign, Elder David A.
Bednar gave a talk on Seek Learning by Faith.
Who gave the talk?
What was the subject of his talk?

Seek Learning by Faith.

Closed-ended Questions
In the September 2007 Ensign, Elder David A.
Bednar gave a talk on Seek Learning by Faith.
Who gave the talk?
What was his talk on?
When was the talk given?

September 2007

Closed-ended Questions
In the September 2007 Ensign, Elder David A.
Bednar gave a talk on Seek Learning by Faith.
Who gave the talk?
What was his talk on?
When was the talk given?
Where can we find the talk?

September 2007 Ensign

Open-ended Questions
Now, lets look at some open-ended questions. Open-ended questions
require the following:

Longer answers
More thinking and reasoning
More than one-word answers

Open-ended Questions
When answering open-ended questions, remember to do
the following:

Explain
Discuss
Describe

Asking an open-ended question is not difficult, but it requires some thought. First,
think of a word or idea from the reading that needs to be explained, discussed, or
described. Then, make a related question that cannot be answered with just one word
or phrase.

Open-ended Questions
Here are sample open-ended questions:

How are the two situations different?

How can we solve this problem?
Why do you think this happened?
Why do you like this course?

Open-ended questions are common prompts for group discussion. These questions
encourage people to talk. Consider these sample questions. Do they make it possible
for people to continue the conversation? They do. Thats what open-ended questions
do.

Open-ended Questions
Example One:

Last night I dreamed I was in class when a large

lion wandered into the room. All of the students
ran, but I was not able to escape. I awoke as the
lion bounded toward me.
Open-ended questions often come to mind from the things that we read. Here is a
story of a dream about a lion. What open-ended questions come to your mind about
this dream?

Open-Ended Questions
o
o

How would you interpret this dream?

Why do you think students dream about going to
class and dentists dream about dental work?

Here are some sample questions that you could ask about the dream. Notice that
these questions require answers of more than just a word or phrase. Each open-ended
question allows you to answer in a way that opens a conversation.

Asking Questions
Lets review. We have learned that questions are basically of two types. Closed-ended
questions let us give short answers, and help us recall specific facts and details.
Open-ended questions require a little deeper thinking and require longer answers.
Learning to ask closed-ended and open-ended questions will help us become better
readers.

Closed-ended

Memory / Recall

Open-ended

Higher-level thinking skills