#2079. Understanding WH Question Forms

Language, level: Elementary
Posted Sun Dec 10 15:17:05 PST 2000 by Pam Gwynn (speechmajor@aol.com).
Green Holly Elementary School, Hollywood, MD, USA
Materials Required: story cards
Activity Time: 20 minutes
Concepts Taught: who, what, when, where, and why

The lesson is a final stage of teaching student's understanding/usage of 'wh' question forms.

Prerequisite Knowledge: The lesson requires that the meaning of 'wh' question forms previously be taught and students have had practice in providing examples of each type.

Procedures:
1) Have your students match up the correct 'wh' word with the correct 'wh' answer. For example, who = person/animal, what = thing/doing word, where = location/direction, when = time (past/present/future), why = reason.
2) Ask students to provide different examples of each type of question form. If your students have difficulty with completing this step auditorially, then provide pictures and ask them to identify which category the picture belongs to. For example, show them a picture of a person and ask which question form it belongs to.
3) Show your students several picture story cards and discuss the each 'wh' form in the picture
4) Across the top of the board label five columns with each 'wh' word
5) Finally, place an undisclosed picture in a mystery box, or just tape it to the board face down and have your children ask yes/no questions to narrow down each type of 'wh'.
6) Write each of the student's answers in the respective column.
7) circle the correct answer in each column
8) Provide lots of practice
9) when your students can guess the story cards without any assistance from you, then you know your students understand this concept.