Because your opinions are so influential, it is very important for the success of the questioning technique that you avoid imparting your own opinions about the works of art.

We suggest that you refrain from mentioning the artist's name, the title of the work, date it was created, or other information until after your students have a fruitful conversation.

MoMA educators and participating teachers have found that restating student responses, periodic reviews, and a final summary help to validate student views, focuses their conversation and dialogue, and often generates additional thoughts and ideas about a work of art.

Always ask your students to quietly look at the image for a few minutes before you begin discussion. Begin conversation with the Core Questions, allowing time for students to respond to one another. Remember that students need to support their observations and interpretations with visual evidence found in the work of art.

"What do you see in this picture?" and "What do you think might be going on in this picture?" are open-ended questions that allow students to come up with multiple interpretations and observations of an image.

The question "What do you see that makes you say that?" gets students to support their interpretations with evidence in the picture.

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