What are 3 Levels Of Questions

By asking them to respond to three different kinds of questions about a text, the Levels of Questions strategy aids students in understanding and interpreting it. factual, inferential, and universal. Students have the chance to master the fundamental concepts of a text using this scaffolded approach, and then they can use this understanding and “evidence” in discussions about more difficult abstract ideas or intricate historical events. This strategy can be used to meet the needs of various learners because you can direct students’ attention to the level of questions that corresponds to their reading proficiency. As a tool for evaluation or to get students ready for a discussion or activity in class, you can also use the Levels of Questions strategy.

Level 1 Questions

Deal with the factual information that is printed in the document, story, or other items.  Normally, there is just one right response. 

Level 1 Questions often…

• clarify vocabulary or basic facts
• check for Understanding 
• ask for more information

It is often difficult to ask or answer Level 2 Questions without plenty of Level 1 information!  

Examples:  At the Battle of Gettysburg, who commanded the Confederate army? Abraham Lincoln passed away when? How many people perished during the Civil War from illness or other non-combat causes? Where is Antietam?

Level 2 Questions

Deal with factual information but allow for more than one justifiable response. Despite the fact that there can be more than one “right” answer, you should support or refute your arguments with details from the story or related materials. 

Level 2 Questions might… 

• require “Processing” of Information—analyze, synthesize, evaluate, articulate
• require making inferences from the text
• seek understanding from someone who knows more or has larger perspective
• challenge the author (why did you include this but not that, or why was this phrased a certain way?)

Level 2 Questions are often the Meat & Potatoes of Social Studies, and require Level 1 information as support. They look for expert advice. They are frequently the questions, ideas, or responses we wish our students were able to articulate. They actually remind us of the questions, thoughts, and responses we wish other adults could ask and provide with maturity.

Examples:  Why did the North prevail in the Civil War? During the war, was Lincoln’s decision to suspend some rights justified? How much of the war’s root causes were slavery’s actions? How and why did the North’s war objectives evolve throughout the conflict?  

Level 3 Questions

Deal with ideas that are unrelated to the text but may be stimulated by the narrative, document, or other source.  These types of questions can be “launched” from the assigned material, but the material itself must be significantly expanded upon in order to be adequately answered.

Level 3 Questions are useful as…

• “Big Picture” Questions, to make connections 
• interest-builders, discussion-starters, and thought-provokers
• ways to get your teacher off topic so you don’t have as much work to do

English Teachers love Level 3 Questions, but in the We apply them more carefully in social studies. Discussions with your parents, pastor, or closest friends may be more appropriate in some cases. They are the most crucial questions at other times.

Examples:  When is war ever justified? Ascended to Heaven did Robert E. Lee? What would make you willing to kill another person? Does the White House still have a ghostly presence from Abraham Lincoln? How might the United States today differ if the South had prevailed in the Civil War?

The amount of information you have access to or are able to access can sometimes determine what “Level” a question should be answered at. Avoid obsessing over the proper categories and instead focus on encouraging students to ask more challenging questions.

I would never give my children grades solely based on how well they classified questions. However, I do want to get them to consider how crucial it is to know WHAT kind of question is being asked, whether we’re looking back in time or trying to solve problems of the present. When we’re not even debating the same issues, we frequently mistakenly believe we are in an argument. 

Global warming is a good example. To discuss global warming and what, if anything, to do about it, we first need to determine what facts are available. Even though we may disagree on the details, we will at least be dealing with the same problem. That’s Level One information, and it matters in this discussion.

We also need to figure out the best way to interpret those facts, once agreed upon. What they signify, the reasons behind their existence, etc.? Again, we might not agree, but at least we’d be talking about the same thing. That’s a Level Two conversation.

Finally, what should we do about the facts and our conclusions? Is the problem critical? What will probably occur if we pursue Course A vs. Course B versus Course C versus just ignoring it? That’s a whole other type of conversation to have – a Level Three issue.

Too frequently, we never move past the point where one person is arguing about the changes that need to be made while the other hasn’t yet agreed to the fundamental facts being used as evidence. Or we debate what the facts actually mean while really debating the nature of reality or the morality of hoping that the supernatural will eventually step in. 

Consensus cannot be guaranteed by discussion at the same level, but it is a necessary prerequisite for any significant advancement toward greater comprehension or potential agreement. 

On a smaller, ‘let’s just pass high school first then worry about that other stuff’ scale, Interest is increased by engaging in inquiry. It improves understanding and retention of crucial information. It is the cornerstone of critical thinking. Final words: Cornell Notes, Dialectic Journals, Annotation, Think-Alouds, etc. are essential components of effective reading., all build on the idea that reading is an interaction with the text, and that questions are an essential part of that interaction. But that’s for another page

Final Thoughts

The majority of students’ thinking and engagement should be focused at Levels 2 and 3, whether teachers are planning discussion-based activities, project-based learning, or independent inquiry. The ability of students to apply new knowledge or skills to different contexts isn’t really assessed by tests that ask students to recall simple facts (like the date of a historical event, the name of an author, or the solution to an equation). Students would be forced to connect pieces of basic knowledge in a Level 2 or Level 3 question. For instance, a more open-ended question might ask students to predict, based on the historical period in which a specific event occurred and a similar sociopolitical climate, the likelihood of it reoccurring. In a similar vein, a teacher might ask students to present an argument for how a famous author would write about a particular contemporary issue rather than simply recalling the names of well-known authors. 

James Baldwin outlined the educational paradox in “A Talk to Teachers” as follows: “One starts to question the society in which they were raised as they become more conscious.” Level 2 (and primarily level 3) questions are designed to elicit this response from students by getting them to slant their heads, take a second look, point out inconsistencies, challenge the status quo, find problems with existing institutions, and come up with creative solutions. These are the inquiries that drive us to ponder new inquiries, examine our own thought processes, and advance both as individuals and societies.