What Are Blank Level Questions? Understanding Marion Blank's Approach and Its Benefits in the Classroom

To comprehend is to understand. Children need to understand the world around them and later on, the texts that they read. What are comprehension questions? This is a difficult question because it can be answered in so many ways and most educators would answer this according to the system their school uses. Some teachers will think of comprehension questions that relate to strategies (predicting, synthesising and so forth) and students’ abilities to answer direct or inferential questions.

Today, I will discuss one aspect of comprehension that is relevant to the early childhood years. This is ‘Blank’s levels of questioning.’ Marion Blank is an American developmental psychologist who researched reading and the types of questions early childhood students could answer according to their cognitive development. Most of her work is aimed at preschool and early childhood years of education. She has written and co-written many books and won numerous awards.

Marion Blank developed a framework to explain the complexity of students’ comprehension knowledge. This knowledge does not relate to just story book knowledge but also to real-world objects and experiences. She has four levels of questioning which vary from very direct (visible) questions to more abstract questions (those for which content is not often shown and students have to use their prior knowledge to answer). These are the four levels of questioning:

Level 1 – Matching, identifying and naming objects – students are required to answer these questions to items in their immediate environment. Most toddlers (around age 3) can answer these questions. For example; find one like this (matching), what can you hear/touch, what is this, who is this, what is …doing, say this… and what did you see?

Level 2 – Perception – students need to remember objects that are not necessarily visible to them. They are required to group, describe and understand the function of objects. This understanding develops around age four. Questions include; how are these different, who/what/where is…, describe (colour/shape/size/smell/taste/feel), show me one we could use for…, tell me something that is a…(object from a category).

Level 3 – Reordering Perception – students are required to use their knowledge and higher-order thinking as the questions are not about specific objects. Questions include; what could he/she do, find one to use with this, how are these the same, find the things that are NOT…, what is a…(definition), and what will happen next?

Level 4 – Reasoning about Perception – students develop these skills around age five. Children are required to draw on their past experiences, problem solve, predict and explain. Questions include; why is…made of…, what will happen if…, why could…do/use that, why can’t we…, how can we tell…, why did…, what could…do that/use that?

So, why would teachers use this framework of questioning in their classrooms? These different types of comprehension questions can give teachers a guide in each year level. Knowing the appropriate questions to ask for that age range is very beneficial. It is a useful starting point, in the very least.

I have used this framework in previous kindergarten classrooms where students are aged between 3-5. Students arrive at school between three and four years of age and turn four to five by the end of the year. Marion Blank’s levels of questioning cover this age range! In my very early teaching years, I used this simply as a comprehension tool that I was required to complete. Job done, tick the box! I did the assessment and filed it away. It did give me some insight into my students but then, there were rarely any surprises. I knew who was struggling and who was a high-achiever. A few years on, I worked out that I could use this information to plan how I taught and improve this level of comprehension for the students I taught. I was spending a lot of time on this assessment too, so it made sense to use it.

It can be useful to place students into groups according to what they needed to work on. If I had a group of students who were working on level one, I could provide some small group intervention and plan activities that would require them to find items, match items, and tell me what they saw. Many of these students lacked the vocabulary and this is important to note. If students do not understand the words used in the questions, they are not going to be able to answer the questions. I did a lot of modelling for these students.

I always had the dilemma of having students spread across all levels of questioning too. I decided to say they were achieving the level if they were between 75-80% correct (a typical mastery level) in their responses. If they had a gap in one of the levels, I simply went back to that level for a few weeks and planned for opportunities to develop these skills. This difference just demonstrates that students do not always perform in a perfectly linear fashion and that their vocabulary and life experiences greatly influence the questions they can answer.

As a teacher, I have used these questions over a broad range of learning opportunities. Story times, everyday classroom activities, Science lessons and so much more, even fruit times. During story times, I could ask students who were working on Level 1 questions, questions such as, “What do you see?” I would point to the picture in the book so they could see it. If they could not answer the question, I would say the object and ask the question again. Sometimes, I found using a puppet a great tool for this. For students with learning disabilities I would (and still do!) ask the puppet the question, have the puppet answer correctly, and then ask the student. This gives them the scaffolds that they need. Eventually, I would remove the puppet as a scaffold and simply ask the question.

Quick tips:

• Conduct an assessment (use my packs available through my shop section) to decide what level the student is working at and needs to target (where are the gaps?).
• Plan a program that targets questions the student could not answer.
• Provide modelled examples of how to answer the question (using puppets or peer role models) then ask the child once they have seen how they can answer the question.
• Ask questions for semantic categories that the student knows to begin with (there is no point asking them questions about dinosaurs and volcanos if they have no understanding or links to these concepts or vocabulary).
• Plan specific questions to work on over a short time period (for example, I will model and focus on object function questions for the next four weeks). Plan how you will include this into your program. Will you do this in formal lessons, small group work, 1-1 work, transition times and so forth.
• Include lots of vocabulary instruction (provide examples, non-examples) of the words used within questions and semantic topics used.
• Re-test after you have conducted the plan and plot the student’s progress.

It is very important to note that teaching the students the vocabulary of questions is essential. Students may not understand question words, such as; who, what, when, where, why and so forth (especially students with learning difficulties). A lot of modelling is required and students need opportunities to understand each concept. Asking questions is not necessarily going to assist students to be able to answer them. Students will need to be taught how to answer them, what the questions words mean and develop their semantic categories.

In a nutshell: Blank Level questions progress from easy (concrete) questions to more complex (abstract) questions. Students generally demonstrate gradual comprehension of these concepts. The Blank Level questions can be used to gain an understanding of what teachers/practitioners can teach for students to progress in this area.

I have developed learning packs to assess students’ understanding of the Marion Blank levels of questioning. These packs can also be used for small group or one-to-one learning activities. The questions are scripted and take the workload off the educator or therapist. At the moment I have three packs (but more will be coming!) and they include; general mixed-theme pack, food theme and animal theme. These are useful if you know what your students need, in terms of semantic (theme based categorical) gaps and also to engage their interests.