What is Your Favorite Food?
… and Other Impossible Questions
My 8th grader came home earlier this week, fretting about a question on a test that was impossible to answer. Visibly distraught over not being able to come up with an answer, my desire to soothe their distress and professional interest were simultaneously piqued.
The question was: What is your favorite food?
I immediately realized that this was not a formal “test,” as my 13 year old had understood the task, but rather an informal data collection. A data collection so many teachers use (including myself!) at the beginning of each school year to elicit students' personal interests to get to know each new student.
The challenge to this budding epicurean who takes food very seriously, who also has a tendency to over-analyze everything, the category of ‘food’ was just too large. It was an impossible task to identify only one, single favorite. So my developing connoisseur of all-things-tasty explained as follows:
What is my favorite food? Well, for a regular dinner, roast chicken with mashed potatoes is my favorite. For a special dinner, Salisbury steak with baked potatoes, or mashed potatoes. I just love potatoes. Maybe potatoes would be my favorite side dish? Holiday dessert would have to be baked chocolate pie. Special dessert, like for birthdays, is German chocolate cake, clearly. The best fun meal is chicken tenders with honey mustard. Oh, BBQ, has to be Dad’s tri-tip! Truck food has to be that delicious pancit. Restaurant food would be chicken wings, just not too spicy. My favorite fast food is a cheese burger, with cheddar, but any cheese will do. Cookies would be your chocolate chip cookies, of course! Drink would be root beer - is that food?
I captured a small portion of a very long, conversational list of favorites. Each new, creative category of food that had me laughing long before it was exhausted.
All this classification and consideration was hidden in the space of thought, and what was written on the paper in class? Nothing. Nor had any subsequent item had been answered. It was returned to the teacher half blank.
What does this illustrate about a student getting stuck during a test?
A blank or totally off-topic response does not always indicate lack of understanding, nor is a guarantee of disengagement, disinterest, or defiance. Sometimes the way a question is formulated does not align with the student’s understanding of the concept. The subsequent cognitive dissonance between question and knowledge produces what appears to be an impossible task within the defined confines, explicit or implicit. Once presented with a perceived impossible task, resilience is required and the student will either possess enough to push through the challenging item or will be stopped dead in their tracks.
Additionally, identifying one’s favorite food is certainly a low-stakes situation to an adult. However, to this student there were enough restrictions, explicit and implicit, that writing out a list of favorite foods was outside of acceptable responses. Imagine how high-stakes situations further inhibit students’ perception of what is and is not an acceptable form of response!
Had they felt free to respond outside of the short, fill-in line on the worksheet, so much could have been gleaned and the teacher would have really gotten to know this student: How instructions are interpreted literally; how information is grouped into creative experience-based sub-categories; how thoughtful and self-aware they are of their own preferences (at least in terms of food). But instead, the worksheet was half blank, and other inferences will be gleaned based on this student not completing the seemingly simple task.
When a blank or completely off-topic response is provided by a student to a question, this is an opportunity to probe a bit further with compassion:
Can you describe what you think the question is asking? This may uncover an issue with the question itself and/or dissonance between the way the question is phrased and the student’s knowledge of the concept.
How do you want to respond to the question? This may uncover other ways the student could respond to the question, possibly expanding expected ways students may demonstrate their knowledge and understanding that was not considered in the creation of the question.
What would help you move to the next question? If the student is stuck, it may uncover something as simple as giving permission to skip a question or a logistical challenge keeping the student from moving forward.
None of these questions necessarily compromise the construct of the question, or the idea, process, or knowledge being tested. Each could be asked in any test situation without giving the student an unfair advantage, as long as subsequent conversation from each prompt does not reveal the correct answer. Rather, the intention is to uncover challenges, real and perceived, and bolster a student’s resilience with gentle guidance.
Plus, what a rich world could be discovered and how much better could we tailor instruction to our students if we can make visible that hidden space of cognitive processing!
