Lisa Orta

Questioning Circles
My approach to developing questions related to the literature we are reading for class is
to teach students how to develop discussion, reflection, and exam questions based on
the Questioning Circle developed by L. Christenbury and P. Kelly.
The goal of developing clear, shaded, and dense questions is to show students how their
experiential knowledge factors in to their interaction with, and appreciation and
understanding of the literary work. Strong readers make connections between what they
know, or have experienced, and the material. Looking at the content, personal
experience, general knowledge of the world, and the experience of others becomes an
equation that leads to critical thinking. Practice making these connections comes from
considering three levels of questioning.
According to Christenbury and Kelly, there are three areas of knowledge that students
bring to their reading and writing.
1. Matter/text knowledge of the text of the subject of discussion or questioning
2. Personal reality your personal response to the text, including your experiences,
ideas and values
3. External reality your knowledge of the world, including history, and concepts of
other peoples and culture
Picture a Venn diagram. These three elements form three
overlapping areas. Each circle contains one element these
represent clear questions. Where a circle overlaps with
another circle, this overlapping area represents shaded
questions. Where all three circles intersect, dense
questions are formed.
There are seven different types of questions. There is no
questioning hierarchy, or correct sequence of questions. But
students must engage in a questioning process that moves in
and out of all three levels.
Clear Questions (about one element only)
1. Text
2. Personal Reality
3. World Reality
Shaded Questions (incorporate any two elements)
4. Text and personal reality
5. Personal reality and world reality
6. World reality and text
Dense Questions
7. These questions involve all three elements text, personal reality, and world
reality - and are the most important. They answer so what questions that help
us locate and evaluate the controlling idea or thesis.

Questioning Circles
Steer Toward Rock by Fae Myenne Ng
Read these examples of the different types of questions based on Part I: Report, and
then write your own for each of the other four parts.
Clear Questions (about one element only)
1. Text
Joice and Jack sit on a park bench and observe see a young mother with a sack
of groceries and two young children in tow. That was my mother, Joice said. But
it wont be me (22). What plot points in Part I illustrate what Joice means by this
statement?
2. Personal Reality
Describe a time when someone told you something you did not want to believe
what were the consequences to your eventually having to face the truth?
3. World Reality
What risks does Jack take by deciding to participate in the Chinese Confession
Program?
Shaded Questions (incorporate any two elements)
4. Text and personal reality
Ng uses Jacks voice as the first person narrator for most of Part 1. She switches
to the INS officers voice during the Confession. Think of a time when you had a
conflict with a person in authority. Write a paragraph in your voice and a
paragraph in the voice of the person in authority. How do these voices differ?
5. Personal reality and world reality
Jack takes Ilin on a drive through San Francisco and shows her major tourist
spots outside of Chinatown. If you were to take someone on a drive through your
hometown what sites would you pick? How do your choices compare with Jacks
choices?
6. World reality and text
At the wedding banquet Gold Szeto has a deliberate seating chart. What does
this seating chart indicate about his expectations for the future?
Dense Questions
7. These questions involve all three elements text, personal reality, and world
reality - and are the most important. They answer so what questions that help
us locate and evaluate the controlling idea or thesis.
There are specific rules and restrictions enforced on Jack by his paper father.
Which of these does he disregard? In a similar situation, would you take those
same risks? What might be the consequences?
Christenbury, L. and P. Kelly. Questioning: A Path to Critical Thinking. ERIC
Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills. Illinois.