In the second part of our series on inferences and worksheets, we looked at the possibilities to make Inferences worksheets more interesting for the students. We also covered the process that is required in creating the worksheets. In this final part of the series, we will look at what questions can be asked in the worksheets.
When I was first considering how to make the worksheets more interesting for my students, the only thing that came to mind was using multiple choice questions. I would ask them questions like: what country do you live in? And what year was this movie released?
Multiple choice questions were actually one of the first things that I tried. These were a big success in terms of making the questions easy for students to answer. The problem with using these types of questions is that they are rather boring and there are only two possible answers for the questions – yes or no.
Another problem with this type of question is that they don’t really give the student an opportunity to think about the question. They just get to choose one of two choices. This means that the student’s answer could be something completely different than the actual question that was asked.
The best solution for my needs was to use multiple-choice questions with multiple answer choices. This makes it possible for the student to explore their answers and decide which one they prefer.
The key is to find questions that have multiple answers and put both choices on the same worksheet. Then use a check box to label the choice.
The way to label a choice is to put the answer that the student chooses at the very top of the sheet. Then put the other answer choices to the left of the first choice.
For example, let’s take a worksheet that has the question: “What is a country that is one of the largest economies in the world?” Then the student would put “United States” at the top of the sheet and then other choices at the left side of the sheet. The options could include: United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, India, China, Australia, South Africa, Netherlands, etc.
