Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote
As a new teacher, I’d often present a famous quotation to students. Something like:
He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Then, I had two questions I might ask:
- What do you think Ben Franklin meant by this?
- What does this mean to you?
Neither question is very good! I regret using these with my students.
The Problems
“What do you think Ben Franklin meant by this?” is obviously super low-level. Students are just summarizing. Maybe that’s Apply on Bloom’s Taxonomy (if I’m feeling generous). Now, this question could be a starting point, but it’s not an ending point.
The second option, “What does this mean to you?“ is particularly embarrassing. The “to you” part means students can say whatever they want! That’s fluff. What if Jimmy writes, “To me, it means it’s okay to borrow a moderate amount of money.”?
I realize that I really wanted from Question Two was, “Rephrase the quote in your own words.” Which is just Question One again! 🤦♂️
How I’d Do It Now
I want to get to some controversy going! (This is a technique I rely on frequently: Find The Controversy!)
- “When is this saying wrong?”
- Show it in its original context. How does that change its meaning?
- Did this same person say or do something that contradicts this quote of theirs? People often change their minds throughout their life!
- Can we prove that the person said this? Quotes are often misattributed.
Any of these directions will lead us towards higher-level thinking.
Leveraging Controversy for Higher-Level Thinking
Now, rather than just rephrasing, “He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing,” I’d point my students towards controversy.
- I’d point out that Benjamin Franklin borrowed money during his lifetime! Is advice still useful if it’s hypocritical?
- Franklin also lent money (thus enabling borrowing!?) but was an early practitioner of “paying it forward,” asking people not to pay him back directly. Does this change things?
- I’d certainly want to give my students context. Franklin wrote this using a fake persona, Richard Saunders, in Poor Richard’s Almanack. This writing was intended to be humorous! Does that change how we understand the quote?
- As an aside: in one year’s almanac, Franklin predicted the death of a rival publisher. He told people to buy next year’s almanac to see if the prediction came true. The next year, Franklin wrote as his rival’s ghost, confirming the prediction had come true. But, no, the rival had not actually died – it was just a Franklin publicity stunt. 😆 Read more.
- Now that we know that Franklin was a prankster, which of his other quotes do we need to investigate next… (list five choices)
Any of these directions would be much more powerful than my original idea: “What does this quote mean?”
Build a Sequence: Einstein Edition
Now, of course, I’m not just going to ask one question. Nor will I ask five unrelated questions! I want to create a sequence of questions that aims high, but is nicely scaffolded.
Let’s take an Einstein quote:
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
- Reword this question for a 5-year-old. (A better version of my “Explain the quote.”)
- When would this saying be wrong? (Notice how this question will stop students in their tracks. They have to think.)
- How could you adjust the saying to fit that situation as well? (Now we are adapting the quote.)
- Write a quick email to Albert Einstein explaining the changes you’ve made and why you made them.
- (want to keep going?) Now, write an email back from Einstein. He disagrees.
I think that’s pretty good! Compare that to my original options: “Explain what this quote means” and “What does this mean to you?
If you want to get specific with this quote, Einstein’s desire for simplicity sort of derailed the end of his career. He was reluctant to follow the rising theory of quantum mechanics because it is bizarrely complicated. Despite its complexity, quantum mechanics has stood the test of time! By putting “simplicity” before “truth,” Einstein wasn’t able to keep up with new ideas in his field.
It is much more interesting to dig into the nuance and controversy of a quote than to merely rephrase it!