Language is a Manipulator

Devising Key Questions

Teacher resources: 

·	Bloom’s Taxonomy (see http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html)
·	Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (see http://www.itcpublications.com.au/examples/Primary_Blooms.pdf)
·	Jamie McKenzie  - “The question is the answer” (see http://questioning.org/Q6/question.html)
·	Jamie McKenzie - “Framing essential questions” (see http://www.fno.org/sept96/questions.html)
·	Jamie McKenzie - “A Questioning Toolkit continued“ (see http://questioning.org/Q7/toolkit3.html#anchor199766)

From their mapped categories students can now devise key questions. Students need to be aware that there are different types of questions (see http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/departments/CIT2/questioning.htm)

Some questions invite the recall of information eg What features do my speakers/ writers use? / What are the effects of these features?

Other questions invite the student to draw conclusions and to form judgements eg How do my speakers/ writers use these features to manipulate the audience?

It is essential that at this level students include at least one question of the latter type as unless they include such a question they will not be able to meet the requirements of the Assessment Schedule (see http://www.minedu.govt.nz/web/downloadable/dl4313_v1/english-3.7.doc). 

Once students have chosen their questions they need to think about how they will find answers to their questions. It may be that they will need to find some more primary sources (see http://www.lib.washington.edu/uwill/research101/basic03.htm) to enable them to do a more in- depth linguistic analysis. 

It may be that they need to consult secondary sources (see http://www.lib.washington.edu/uwill/research101/basic03.htm) for commentary on the language   or to help them find out more about the social/ political or historical aspects surrounding their chosen context. This will arm them with information about why the speaker/ writer might want to manipulate the audience. 

For example, if the context is the inaugural addresses of selected American presidents, the student may need to research the factors affecting  American society at the time. Similarly, if the chosen context is the issue of “Customary rights to the Foreshore and seabed in New Zealand”, some research may need to be conducted into the issue to come to an understanding of the points of view of the different interest groups.

To find this type of information students will need to use keywords (see keywords.rtf) and phrases. 

Now that much of  the research process (see process.rtf) has been modelled for students, they could now choose their own topic to complete the assessment task (see assessment_task.rtf). 

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)