- Details
- Written by Olga Sestakova
- Parent Category: English
- Category: English 16-19
- Created: 22 February 2014
Dear Colleagues
I am now working on organizing my learners' research and have come up with the following research questions. Could you please take a look and comment on how to work with them?
At the meeting we came up with the following procedure of the research:
The general topic is "Art", but we split it into 7 sub-categories:
Art of Film Making
Art of Product Launch
Art of Teaching
Art of Photography
Art of Creating a Computer Game
Art of Effective Studying
At the first lesson (Monday, February 17) I showed these topic to my students and they wanted to choose their topics straight away. So, at the lesson they chose the theme. They were asked to specify their theme by choosing a specific person/ object for the research (e.g. film director, photographer, game, etc.) On Wednesday I gave them the article that I found on the Internet about research questions and they were asked to send their research questions to me till this Friday, February 21). Here are these questions. We planned that I prepare some activities concerning my studetns' research questions for tomorrow.
Art of Film Making
1)What Spielbergs films are most popular?
2)What awards Spielberg has won?
3)Why Spielberg is one of the most popular filmmakers in the world?
4)What Spielberg is famous of?
5)What are the main genres of films, which Spielberg have filmed?
Art of Photography Kilian Schoenberger
1)How have your careers as a photographer started?
2)How much time had you been doing these photos in Alpine?
3)Why do you always photo landscapes?
4)How and where do you always find inspiration?
5)Why do you take these places where there are mountains and woods, these places which are very fabulously unknown?
Art of Effective Studying
1) Do you spend on studying much time and do you have to abandon the entertainment or doing sport sometimes?
2) What were the reasons because of which you have started study well?
3) How do you learn the information and do you have your personal strategy of remembering information and doing homework?
4) Which role does additional (out-school) studying play and do you visit some optional courses, maybe not at our school?
5) How can the effective studying aid pupils to compass their purposes and will it help in studying in university or in our everyday life?
Art of Successful Product Launch
1)How Steve Wozniak with his invention helped to Steve Jobs to start his career and give him big experience?
2)Why the first experiences in Successful Product Launch become dangerous to Steve?
3)Why Steve thinks that the end of studying in college did it good in his life?
4)How Steve by means of deception gained huge income and how he did this?
what advice is given by Steve on a theme how to achieve success in life and how they can be useful for us?
Art of Photography
Tim Tadder
1) When Tim Tadder from southern california made a deal with any international brands?
2) On what Tim Tadder based his photo?
3) Where Tim was studed and what courses about photo he attended?
4) Does Tim create with light effect photo more better?
5) Is «Sculpture Athletes» one of the best photos about sport in world?
Art of Successful Product Launch
Created by Ruth Handler
1) Why do Barbie dolls have been existing till now?
2) How are Barbie dolls affecting teenage girls?
3) How have features of dolls now and then been being influenced by people and tendencies of nowadays and of that time?
4) What counties are most crazy about these dolls?
5) How do Barbie dolls attract kids up to 7 years old?
Art of Film Making
1)Why does Tim Burton’s directing style is so recognizable and so strongly differs from other directors?
2)In what genre of movies Tim Burton is interested the most?
3)How did he created an animation in movie “Nightmare before Christmas”?
4)Why did Tim Burton start a collaboration with Johnny Depp?
5)How did appear an idea to create Edward Scissor hands type of character?
The art of studying
1)What methods of studying exist?
2)What are the advantages and disadvantages of these methods?
3)What is the difference between studying at school, university and studying when you are an adult?
4)How does the teacher influences the studying?
5)How does the person’s character influences the studying process?
Art of Creating a Computer Game (Minecraft)
1)What genre of game Minecraft?
2)What you need to do in the game Minecraft?
3)What is the goal in this game?
4)How to start the game?
5)Why this game became famous?
Art of...
1)With whom from musicians has worked Terry Richardson?
2)With wich famous fashion magazines has worked Terry?
3)Wich music videos has directed Terry Richardson?
4)About posing in what he is well known?
5)For wich famous fashion companies Terry has shot campaigns?
Comments
As I understand after talking with you, you are going to offer your students a kind of a marking scale according to which they will be asked to evalute the questions. Could you please upload the scale?
Another thing which I remember from the talk with Alexander was the idea of finding out or coming to the notion of what 'Art of whatever" is about. So, I think you should keep this in mind when you discuss the qiestions with your students tomorrow. Though I am not sure whether you should tell it explicitly to students at this stage or should they come to this at later stages? Alexander what do you think?
Re- questions, I feel that the students have made kind of ' text comprehension questions". I mean for me they sound like the ones you will find in the course books after reading a text, i.e. they require very specific straightforward answers not researching. They read some text/s about the topic, didn't they?
I will probably sound boring, but I miss the aim. When we are thinking about a possible activity with whatever students submitted, the first question is what we want them to learn. My own answer, after looking at what they submitted, is to help them understand the difference between a research question and a non-research question.
I tend to agree with Irina that what they shared with you is not a research question. There's nothing to research there, they are closed and presume the 'right' answer. A research question shouldn't be like this. It should be open and the 'right' answer may not be known at all. This is just one of the differences.
If you agree with this aim, you could offer your students to sort the questions into groups to get them to come to features of questions. You might also add a few questions yourself, e.g. (a few examples according to your topics):
- How can one become 'a great film director'? How is the art of film-making connected with making commercially successful films?
- Is photography an art or a step-by-step algorithm?
- What makes Steve Jobs' product launch presentations different from others presenting new products?
There's another thing I wanted to discuss. What we agreed on during the meeting was actually different from how you started. We never planned reading specific articles on one of the topics and having questions related to them. We had planned a completely different task for your students. Can I ask why you have decided to change it? This is something I am really interested in, so please share.
Since I didn't have much time my students to work out the criteria for a good research question themselves, I simply showed them the article. I chose it because there was the idea that I liked very much: that a good research question should require information and the analysis of it. The link to this article: http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/?p=307