As I browse my old worksheets for Depth and Complexity questions, this one really popped out.

How could two experts’ 👓 perspectives regarding information from this reading selection differ from one another?

Yikes. This looks like my college essays where I’d try to stretch every sentence to reach the minimum word count 😆

Clear It Up

So, let’s re-write for clarity. Now, honestly, it’s hard to even know what this question was asking for. But I’ll do my best:

Wordy: How could two experts’ 👓 perspectives regarding information from this reading selection differ from one another?
Clearer: What are two different 👓 opinions people could have about this selection?

Now, I’m not at all happy with my new version. But let’s keep moving! It’ll get better.

Vagueness Disease

The original question suffers from Vagueness Disease. I wrote about that here. That’s when a question isn’t actually about any particular content. You can tell because the phrase “this selection” is meant to apply to literally anything. Which means it applies to absolutely nothing.

The only fix is to make it about something!

About Nothing: What are two different 👓 opinions people could have about this selection?
About Something What are two different 👓 opinions people could have about Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken?

So now we are actually talking about a specific topic. But it’s not a good question yet!

“Two Opinions” is Too Vague

Let’s give students two perspectives rather than asking them to whip them up from scratch.

Original What are two different 👓 opinions people could have about The Road Not Taken?
Better Who would like The Road Not Taken better, a newspaper editor or a novelist?
Or Who would like The Road Not Taken better, Dr. Seuss or Edgar Allen Poe?

Of course, I’d also have to do the work to teach my students how a newspaper editor and novelist think. Or I’d have to expose them to Dr. Seuss and Poe.

But now I”m really starting to ask something interesting, right?

Make A Sequence

Let’s see the progress we made:

Original: How could two experts’ 👓 perspectives regarding information from this reading selection differ from one another?
Updated: 👓 Who would like The Road Not Taken better, Dr. Seuss or Edgar Allen Poe?

Now, you know I’m never going to write a one-off question. We always need to create sequences of questions (more about that here).

Even adding just one more task will give us room to differentiate:

  1. 👓 Who would like The Road Not Taken better, Dr. Seuss or Edgar Allen Poe?
  2. Re-write this selection in that author’s style.
  3. Now, critique the new version from the other author’s perspective. What would Poe think about Seuss’ version (or vice versa)?

I know I’m onto something when I’m very excited to see what my students come up with.

And, yes, I have videos about writing in the style of Dr. Seuss and Edgar Allen Poe over at Byrdseed.TV: