Costa’s Levels of Questioning One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. Chinese Proverb
Lesson Plan for Teaching Costa’s Three Levels Students will learn the concept of Higher Order Thinking Students will practice formulating questions of increasing complexity Students will reflect on how questioning skills can help them learn
Level One Knowledge Comprehension Define Restate Repeat Label List Identify Describe Summarize Recall Paraphrase
Level Two Application Analysis Use Analyze Practice Differentiate Diagram Revise Contrast Experiment Construct Generate
Level Three Synthesis Evaluation Combine Debate Organize Conclude Judge Interpret Predict Justify Measure Argue
from above, through the skylight. There are one-story intellects, two story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors, who have no aim beyond their facts, are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize, using the labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, predict--their best illumination comes from above, through the skylight. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Level 1 Questions… Level 1 is like the ground floor- the foundation of a building- important information you need to have, such as definitions, numbers, formulas. The answers can be found in the text or other sources Very concrete and pertains to the text Asks for facts about what has been heard or read Information is recalled in the exact manner/form it was heard
Level 2 Questions… The answer can be inferred from the text Although more abstract than a Level 1 question, it deals only with the text Information can be broken down in parts Involves examining in detail, analyzing motives or causes, making inferences, finding information to support generalizations or decision making Questions combine information in a new way
Level 3 Questions… The answer goes beyond the text Is abstract and does not pertain to the text Ask that judgments be made from information Gives opinions about issues, judges the validity of ideas or other products and justifies opinions and ideas Provoke discussion of abstract ideas or issues
Practice Looking at your picture, formulate a question for each level. Post on post-it chart to share and analyze with class.