Slideshow about creating research questions for my fourth grade.

1. Writing Good
Research Questions
Spring Glen School
Grade Four

2. Two types of questions:
•Big Question
• Small Question

3. The Big Research Question
• Begins with Why or How
• Require longer answer to satisfy the question
• Open-ended question
• A good project uses multiple resources
• Gets you thinking and directs your research

4. Examples of Big Questions
• How do airplanes fly?
• Why do butterflies migrate?
• How did George Washington become the first
president of the United States?
• Why did the northern states fight the
southern states in the American Civil War?

5. Smaller Questions
• Support the Big Question in a research project
• Usually start with Who, What , Where, When
• But can also be How and Why questions, if shorter
answers
• Answers support the Big Research Question. They
are RELEVANT.
• NOT a “fun fact”
• Avoid small questions that can be answered with a
Yes or No. (…because the REAL question that follows
is “Why?”)
• Questions that can be answered with a few words
• or Yes/No are called Closed-ended Questions.

6. Examples of Small Questions
• Who invented the first airplane?
• What did it look like?
• Where do butterflies live throughout the year?
• How long does it take to migrate in one
direction?
• What did George Washington study in school?
• What jobs did he have?
• Where did the first battle of the Civil War take
place?
• When did the Civil War end?

7. Your Job today…
• Work in groups of two or three. No more.
• Create questions about Jeff Kinney, the author
and illustrator of the Wimpy Kid series. Put your
names at the top of the paper and write your
questions neatly as a group.
• Ask yourselves “what do we want to know about
him and his work?”
• We’ll look at the questions and ask ourselves how
we’ll find the answers the next time we meet.

8. Credits
• Class Dojo image
• Clip art from ClipArtPanda.com
• Basic idea from
http://www.schooltube.com/video/2bd6901fcc554395a272/The%20Rese
arch%20Question%20Part%20I