ABSTRACT
The prompts which most effectively allow students a way in to new content offer the latitude for student choice in the phrasing of the response and an availability of choice in the prompted topics. In this chapter, the author explains how prompting provides opportunities for students to explore and consume ideas in their own language. Understanding what to expect from student writing and thinking requires a definition of question types and the general parameters for prompting that will inspire thoughtful, successful writing. Prompting this kind of writing, writing which students always characterize as"easy," helps students process learning while permitting a wrestling with ideas at a very individual level. Questions come in differing levels that correspond to Bloom's taxonomy of thinking, which begins with the lowest level of recall and moves onto the higher levels of comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
