Questions by Teacher & Students

In this activity the students had a piece of a picture and they were having discussion about what was happening in the picture. My teacher called this a document based learning because they were learning  based on what they could see on a document (which in this case was a picture). 

• What kind of assumptions can we make by looking at this picture? 
• Its in Africa because of the dark skin. 
• It was taken along a river because you can see the riverbank on the bottom corner. 
• This is a picture of a poor country because they live in huts and there are clothes out on the line. 
• Most of the people in this place are fishermen, because you can see all the boats. 
• These people mostly travel by boat. 
• Maybe this place has been wiped out by a flood or something and it once was a rich place. 
• Okay, this is only part of a picture. What do you think is going to be in the background of this picture when I give it to you? 
• I think its going to be farmland. 
• I think it will be just an open field.
• So you guys don't seem to think that this is on the outskirts of a city right? 
• No, I don't think it's on the outskirts of a city or there would be more city living here. 
• No, there's no city back there, the city would have already crowded in on these people if there was one. 
• Now that you have the next part of the picture, are you surprised?
• Yes, I am surprised because there is some sort of factory back there.
• Well, I am surprised but maybe these people lived out there and now they are being forced towards the water because of this oil factory. 
• So you think that these people weren't always fishermen but this is what they have had to do because fo the factory? 
• No, I think they were always fishermen. I just think that they had to move to this place so maybe their houses were built quickly and that's why they look poor.

This was just an example of one discussion that the students were in with the teacher.  I thought the teacher did a good job of questioning here because she made the students draw on information they already had and asked open ended questions for the most part.