K-2 Testing Forum: Six Questions to Ask Your Child about School

From the K-2 testing workshop I mentioned earlier:

One action step parents can do to see how their child is doing in school and what they're learning is to ask questions:

Yeah, I know...usually, when we as parents ask our children questions, the conversation may go something like this:


Parent: What did you do at school today?
Child: Nothing
Parent: Well, what did you learn?
Child: Nothing much.
Parent: How was lunch?
Child: Fine

You’ll see this conversation is going no where. But depending on the kinds of questions you ask your child, you can actually learn more about how their day was and what they did.

Here are some suggestions:

• “Tell me about the best part of your day.”
• “What’s your favorite time of day at school?”
• “Who did you sit with at lunch today?”
• “What was the hardest thing you had to do today?”
• “Who did you play with today? What did you play?”
• “Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?”

Move beyond "fine" and "nothing" answers by asking your child to describe his world. The key is to ask about things that are specific, but still open-ended.