User:Murthyseema/fat and skinny question

Fat and Skinny questions is a questioning technique used for the students for gathering information about the topic. Fat question is to be answered by studying the topic in depth, it has to be well thought out, and it requires comprehension of the topic. Skinny question requires simple Yes or No answers; not much information can be gathered about the topic from skinny questions. It does not require much space.

Process

Fat and Skinny questions can be used in any subject, in a group or individually. The objective of the activity is to ensure that the children are able to understand and comprehend the topic thoroughly. The students are divided in a group. A passage or a paragraph is provided for silent reading to the group. Each group is supposed to provide two fat and two skinny questions. Teacher collects the questions from the groups and discusses them in the class. The activity can be made more interactive by asking the other groups to come up with the answers for the questions posed by one group.

Skinny Question Words	Fat Question Words
What is?	Explain why
Who is?	Why do you think
When did?	Give three reasons why
Name	In what ways are ___ and ___ different or alike
Did	Predict what would happen if
Does
Can
Will
Is it true

A Fat and Skinny Question can be used to drive conversation and comprehension in the classroom. The teacher can evaluate the level of understanding of the students about a particular topic. Using this strategy can increase motivation and attention by activating the students' engagement.

Benefits

• encourage students to think more thoroughly about a topic

• help students gather more complete and meaningful information about a topic

• stimulate thinking on a topic for which multiple or complex responses are beneficial

• Make the class very interactive

Study Tool

A Fat an Skinny Questions can be used as a study tool. This may work as a study tool for an individual, group or entire class. It is a way to categorize the knowledge being acquired in the class.

Specific Learners

Fat and Skinny questions can be used with all students, however there are specific groups of students that lend themselves quite well to this strategy, including intuitive learners, sequential and global learner. As the emphasis is mostly on the fat questions it will enhance intuitive learners’ ability of comprehension. The information is presented in a user friendly way that is visually accessible. This method can be used for learners of secondary and higher secondary schools.

References

http://hotandthinkertools.wikispaces.com/Fat+and+Skinny+Questions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KWL_table

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/explor/stanleyrl.html

http://www.nmu.edu/Webb/ArchivedHTML/UPCED/mentoring/docs/teachingstrategies.pdf

See Also

Cooperative learning

Collaborative learning

KWL_table