Forming Questions Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: L.3.2

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

It's often said that you can gauge a person's level of intelligence not by their ability to answer difficult questions, but rather by forming the questions that they ask. Now we are not saying you should ask people a million questions, but you should learn to formulate well thought out forms of inquiry that challenge people. The main thing that people don't do when forming a query is run the question through in their mind before they ask the question. Get in that habit and everything else will just fall into place for you. These worksheets will help students best understand the need for putting together solid questions.

Forming Questions Worksheets:

Ws and Hs - The words who, what, where, when, why, how, which, and how much are used to form questions.

The Swarm - Study the picture. Then form questions that begin with each of the question words below.

Question Everything - Read each answer below. Write a query that asks for the information in the answer.

Get to Know Your Neighbor - Create questions that will help you get to know a classmate that you don't know very well. Use the question words as prompts.

Match Maker - Choose the correct word to complete each sentence. These are all sentence starters to help you get going.

Hair Raiser - Look at each picture. Then write three questions about each picture. The pictures are of a lounging alligator, a fisherman than got the wrong catch, and a runaway hair dryer.

Sentence Me - Rewrite each sentence as a question. Follow the example. They are all statements that you will need to reword to form a query.

5 Questions - Think of someone you know that you would like to know better. It can be a classmate, a teacher, a family member, or a friend. Complete each question that you would like to ask them, then get together with that person and ask your questions.

Do, Does, Did - Use do, does or did to write a query to go with each answer. You will reword those thoughts to help you find yourself.

Scramble Gorilla - Unscramble the words to form questions. They are all there, you just need to shuffle those words around.

Pencil Questions - Read each sentence. Then write a question for which the bolded word(s) is the answer.

Do | Did | Does - Read each sentence and fill in the correct word. Write it on the line. Obviously it is one of the bold words at the top of the page.

Centipedes of Questions - Write a query for each word that is found in the body of the centipede.

Being Catty - Read the sentence. Then write 5 original questions whose answers can be found in the sentence. Begin each sentence with the word provided.

Did | Do | Does - Read the sentence. Then write 5 original questions whose answers can be found in the sentence. Begin each sentence with the word provided.

How to Form a Question?

If you want your students to give correct answers, then it's important to put effort into the formulation of the question. There are a few points which you need to follow in order to ensure your question fulfils the purpose. Tips for developing a query include


Planning

Take enough time to plan a question. Identify the kind of information you require in the question's answer. This helps you to come up with relevant words and sentence structure to create a question.


Identify Your Purpose

There is always one specific type of answer you need when asking a certain question. You don't need an analysis where you ask the recipients to describe a certain situation. Before developing a query, you should know your purpose of asking a query.


Stay Focused

Don't ask about too many things in a single question. Avoid adding multiple requirements as this creates confusion for people answering the question. Divide the question into different parts if it's necessary to get information related to multiple areas through one question. The best is to ask about one concept per question.


Be Specific

Try to be very specific when asking a question to receive well-focused answers. For example, instead of asking 'Do you read regularly?' you should ask 'On average, how many hours per week do you read?'


Avoid Jargons

Avoid using specialized language if your question has to be answered by people from different fields. It's important to use the right choice of words to gain accurate information. Therefore, use simple and direct language as much as possible.


Keep the Time Frame in Mind

This is necessary where the audience has limited time to answer questions. For example, exam and interview questions. Don't ask for too much information if the time frame is short. A good question does not require a long essay as an answer within the next ten minutes. Every question should allow the other person to manage time successfully.


How to Help Students Learn Question Formation

The best experience comes from practice. One of the first things to do is to have students begin to interact using preset inquiries about the lives of their classmates. It will not only help them to understand what a proper inquiry is, but it will also help them form a stronger bond with their classmates. I then tell students that we are going to hire a teaching assistant and as part of the process we must develop a series of questions to ask potential candidates. I then task them with developing a single unique query of their own that will gauge whether a candidate is a good fit. The more unique, the more points. Once they are comfortable with this process we get into the grammar of the inquiry process. There are primarily three parts of speech to work over here: the main verb, subject, and auxiliary verb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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