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50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills

Please note, I am no longer blogging and this post hasn’t updated since April 2020.

For a number of years, Seth Godin has been talking about the need to “ connect the dots” rather than “collect the dots” . That is, rather than memorising information, students must be able to learn how to solve new problems, see patterns, and combine multiple perspectives.

Solid research skills underpin this. Having the fluency to find and use information successfully is an essential skill for life and work.

Today’s students have more information at their fingertips than ever before and this means the role of the teacher as a guide is more important than ever.

You might be wondering how you can fit teaching research skills into a busy curriculum? There aren’t enough hours in the day! The good news is, there are so many mini-lessons you can do to build students’ skills over time.

This post outlines 50 ideas for activities that could be done in just a few minutes (or stretched out to a longer lesson if you have the time!).

Learn More About The Research Process

I have a popular post called Teach Students How To Research Online In 5 Steps. It outlines a five-step approach to break down the research process into manageable chunks.

This post shares ideas for mini-lessons that could be carried out in the classroom throughout the year to help build students’ skills in the five areas of: clarify, search, delve, evaluate , and cite . It also includes ideas for learning about staying organised throughout the research process.

Notes about the 50 research activities:

• These ideas can be adapted for different age groups from middle primary/elementary to senior high school.
• Many of these ideas can be repeated throughout the year.
• Depending on the age of your students, you can decide whether the activity will be more teacher or student led. Some activities suggest coming up with a list of words, questions, or phrases. Teachers of younger students could generate these themselves.
• Depending on how much time you have, many of the activities can be either quickly modelled by the teacher, or extended to an hour-long lesson.
• Some of the activities could fit into more than one category.
• Looking for simple articles for younger students for some of the activities? Try DOGO News or Time for Kids . Newsela is also a great resource but you do need to sign up for free account.
• Why not try a few activities in a staff meeting? Everyone can always brush up on their own research skills!

• Choose a topic (e.g. koalas, basketball, Mount Everest) . Write as many questions as you can think of relating to that topic.
• Make a mindmap of a topic you’re currently learning about. This could be either on paper or using an online tool like Bubbl.us .
• Read a short book or article. Make a list of 5 words from the text that you don’t totally understand. Look up the meaning of the words in a dictionary (online or paper).
• Look at a printed or digital copy of a short article with the title removed. Come up with as many different titles as possible that would fit the article.
• Come up with a list of 5 different questions you could type into Google (e.g. Which country in Asia has the largest population?) Circle the keywords in each question.
• Write down 10 words to describe a person, place, or topic. Come up with synonyms for these words using a tool like  Thesaurus.com .
• Write pairs of synonyms on post-it notes (this could be done by the teacher or students). Each student in the class has one post-it note and walks around the classroom to find the person with the synonym to their word.

• Explore how to search Google using your voice (i.e. click/tap on the microphone in the Google search box or on your phone/tablet keyboard) . List the pros and cons of using voice and text to search.
• Open two different search engines in your browser such as Google and Bing. Type in a query and compare the results. Do all search engines work exactly the same?
• Have students work in pairs to try out a different search engine (there are 11 listed here ). Report back to the class on the pros and cons.
• Think of something you’re curious about, (e.g. What endangered animals live in the Amazon Rainforest?). Open Google in two tabs. In one search, type in one or two keywords ( e.g. Amazon Rainforest) . In the other search type in multiple relevant keywords (e.g. endangered animals Amazon rainforest).  Compare the results. Discuss the importance of being specific.
• Similar to above, try two different searches where one phrase is in quotation marks and the other is not. For example, Origin of “raining cats and dogs” and Origin of raining cats and dogs . Discuss the difference that using quotation marks makes (It tells Google to search for the precise keywords in order.)
• Try writing a question in Google with a few minor spelling mistakes. What happens? What happens if you add or leave out punctuation ?
• Try the AGoogleADay.com daily search challenges from Google. The questions help older students learn about choosing keywords, deconstructing questions, and altering keywords.
• Explore how Google uses autocomplete to suggest searches quickly. Try it out by typing in various queries (e.g. How to draw… or What is the tallest…). Discuss how these suggestions come about, how to use them, and whether they’re usually helpful.
• Watch this video  from Code.org to learn more about how search works .
• Take a look at  20 Instant Google Searches your Students Need to Know  by Eric Curts to learn about “ instant searches ”. Try one to try out. Perhaps each student could be assigned one to try and share with the class.
• Experiment with typing some questions into Google that have a clear answer (e.g. “What is a parallelogram?” or “What is the highest mountain in the world?” or “What is the population of Australia?”). Look at the different ways the answers are displayed instantly within the search results — dictionary definitions, image cards, graphs etc.

• Watch the video How Does Google Know Everything About Me?  by Scientific American. Discuss the PageRank algorithm and how Google uses your data to customise search results.
• Brainstorm a list of popular domains   (e.g. .com, .com.au, or your country’s domain) . Discuss if any domains might be more reliable than others and why (e.g. .gov or .edu) .
• Discuss (or research) ways to open Google search results in a new tab to save your original search results  (i.e. right-click > open link in new tab or press control/command and click the link).
• Try out a few Google searches (perhaps start with things like “car service” “cat food” or “fresh flowers”). A re there advertisements within the results? Discuss where these appear and how to spot them.
• Look at ways to filter search results by using the tabs at the top of the page in Google (i.e. news, images, shopping, maps, videos etc.). Do the same filters appear for all Google searches? Try out a few different searches and see.
• Type a question into Google and look for the “People also ask” and “Searches related to…” sections. Discuss how these could be useful. When should you use them or ignore them so you don’t go off on an irrelevant tangent? Is the information in the drop-down section under “People also ask” always the best?
• Often, more current search results are more useful. Click on “tools” under the Google search box and then “any time” and your time frame of choice such as “Past month” or “Past year”.
• Have students annotate their own “anatomy of a search result” example like the one I made below. Explore the different ways search results display; some have more details like sitelinks and some do not.

• Find two articles on a news topic from different publications. Or find a news article and an opinion piece on the same topic. Make a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences.
• Choose a graph, map, or chart from The New York Times’ What’s Going On In This Graph series . Have a whole class or small group discussion about the data.
• Look at images stripped of their captions on What’s Going On In This Picture? by The New York Times. Discuss the images in pairs or small groups. What can you tell?
• Explore a website together as a class or in pairs — perhaps a news website. Identify all the advertisements .
• Have a look at a fake website either as a whole class or in pairs/small groups. See if students can spot that these sites are not real. Discuss the fact that you can’t believe everything that’s online. Get started with these four examples of fake websites from Eric Curts.
• Give students a copy of my website evaluation flowchart to analyse and then discuss as a class. Read more about the flowchart in this post.
• As a class, look at a prompt from Mike Caulfield’s Four Moves . Either together or in small groups, have students fact check the prompts on the site. This resource explains more about the fact checking process. Note: some of these prompts are not suitable for younger students.
• Practice skim reading — give students one minute to read a short article. Ask them to discuss what stood out to them. Headings? Bold words? Quotes? Then give students ten minutes to read the same article and discuss deep reading.

All students can benefit from learning about plagiarism, copyright, how to write information in their own words, and how to acknowledge the source. However, the formality of this process will depend on your students’ age and your curriculum guidelines.

• Watch the video Citation for Beginners for an introduction to citation. Discuss the key points to remember.
• Look up the definition of plagiarism using a variety of sources (dictionary, video, Wikipedia etc.). Create a definition as a class.
• Find an interesting video on YouTube (perhaps a “life hack” video) and write a brief summary in your own words.
• Have students pair up and tell each other about their weekend. Then have the listener try to verbalise or write their friend’s recount in their own words. Discuss how accurate this was.
• Read the class a copy of a well known fairy tale. Have them write a short summary in their own words. Compare the versions that different students come up with.
• Try out MyBib — a handy free online tool without ads that helps you create citations quickly and easily.
• Give primary/elementary students a copy of Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Citation that matches their grade level (the guide covers grades 1 to 6). Choose one form of citation and create some examples as a class (e.g. a website or a book).
• Make a list of things that are okay and not okay to do when researching, e.g. copy text from a website, use any image from Google images, paraphrase in your own words and cite your source, add a short quote and cite the source. 
• Have students read a short article and then come up with a summary that would be considered plagiarism and one that would not be considered plagiarism. These could be shared with the class and the students asked to decide which one shows an example of plagiarism .
• Older students could investigate the difference between paraphrasing and summarising . They could create a Venn diagram that compares the two.
• Write a list of statements on the board that might be true or false ( e.g. The 1956 Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia. The rhinoceros is the largest land animal in the world. The current marathon world record is 2 hours, 7 minutes). Have students research these statements and decide whether they’re true or false by sharing their citations.

Staying Organised

• Make a list of different ways you can take notes while researching — Google Docs, Google Keep, pen and paper etc. Discuss the pros and cons of each method.
• Learn the keyboard shortcuts to help manage tabs (e.g. open new tab, reopen closed tab, go to next tab etc.). Perhaps students could all try out the shortcuts and share their favourite one with the class.
• Find a collection of resources on a topic and add them to a Wakelet .
• Listen to a short podcast or watch a brief video on a certain topic and sketchnote ideas. Sylvia Duckworth has some great tips about live sketchnoting
• Learn how to use split screen to have one window open with your research, and another open with your notes (e.g. a Google spreadsheet, Google Doc, Microsoft Word or OneNote etc.) .

All teachers know it’s important to teach students to research well. Investing time in this process will also pay off throughout the year and the years to come. Students will be able to focus on analysing and synthesizing information, rather than the mechanics of the research process.

By trying out as many of these mini-lessons as possible throughout the year, you’ll be really helping your students to thrive in all areas of school, work, and life.

Also remember to model your own searches explicitly during class time. Talk out loud as you look things up and ask students for input. Learning together is the way to go!

You Might Also Enjoy Reading:

How To Evaluate Websites: A Guide For Teachers And Students

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10 Replies to “50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills”

Loving these ideas, thank you

This list is amazing. Thank you so much!

So glad it’s helpful, Alex! 🙂

Hi I am a student who really needed some help on how to reasearch thanks for the help.

So glad it helped! 🙂

seriously seriously grateful for your post. 🙂

So glad it’s helpful! Makes my day 🙂

How do you get the 50 mini lessons. I got the free one but am interested in the full version.

Hi Tracey, The link to the PDF with the 50 mini lessons is in the post. Here it is . Check out this post if you need more advice on teaching students how to research online. Hope that helps! Kathleen

Best wishes to you as you face your health battler. Hoping you’ve come out stronger and healthier from it. Your website is so helpful.

Comments are closed.

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• Working scientifically: research

In primary science research enquiries, children get to use a range of secondary sources to help them find the answers to ‘big questions’.

Explore the trust

Research enquiries are a great opportunity to use science lessons to practise reading and listening skills developed in English; children get to use a range of secondary sources to help them find the answers to their ‘big questions’. Alternatively, children could plan research tools, such as questionnaires and interviews, to collect their own data. They are also an ideal type of enquiry to encourage collaborative learning in children, both in the researching and sharing of information, but also in presenting their findings to a variety of audiences. Research enquiries help to develop children’s scientific literacy, as children learn to compare and evaluate information from different sources. As children learn to recognise the differences between fact and opinion, and consider the concept of bias, they develop life skills that will support them in being citizens of the twenty-first century.

The video below gives you an introduction to research enquiries; below the video you will find a useful resource to download which includes suggestions for some of the ‘big questions’ that pupils might explore through a research enquiry. A full transcript of the video can also be downloaded below.

We also have a range of research cards and resources looking at ideas over time which can be found on our resource pages via this link.

Published: 5 October 2021

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How to help your child develop research skills

Remember your own school days, when researching a homework project meant going to the library and looking through books to find the facts you needed?

It’s easy to assume that research is a far easier task for today’s children, with the internet at their fingertips. But in reality, the vast amount of information that they have access to can make it harder to find what they need.

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From the start of KS2, you’re likely to find your child is given research-based homework tasks on subjects ranging from the Great Fire of London to Ancient Egypt , and the skills they gain from these projects are vital for their future learning.

‘Once they get to secondary school , children are expected to be able to research things independently, but there’s not always time to teach them how to do it,’ explains Tricia Adams, director of the School Library Association . ‘Once they develop these skills, they’ve got them for life, so the sooner we can start to introduce them, the better.’

How to start researching a topic

Children often leap into research-based projects without stopping to think about what is actually required of them. For example, they might be asked specifically to find out about homes in Saxon times , but end up gathering facts not just about homes, but also about jobs, food, leisure time, and so on. They then either produce a piece of work that doesn’t meet the brief, or end up having to discard all the extraneous info they’ve uncovered.

The first step is to help your child identify what’s actually being asked. Some teachers, particularly in lower KS2, will give children clear prompts, such as a bullet-pointed brief with questions that they have to answer, such as:  

• When did the Saxons live?
• What did their houses look like?
• What were they made of?

In this case, encourage your child to read through all of the questions before they even start researching. It can be helpful to give them a sheet of paper for each question so they can write down information in rough as they find it.

Other times, and more commonly in upper KS2, the brief may be more general: ‘Find out how people lived in Saxon times'. In this case, the onus is on your child to think about what they’re being asked to do. Encourage them to plan their work by coming up with subheads or a paragraph plan; this will help focus their mind on the specific areas they need to research.

Researching using the internet

Most kids automatically use the internet as their first (and often only) source of information. ‘There’s a lot of fantastic information out there, but there’s also a lot that’s unhelpful and even inappropriate,’ says Tricia. ‘If your child is going to use the internet for research, the first thing to do is make sure you have really good parental controls in place so they can’t access anything harmful.’

When they’re using the internet for research, there are six key skills that your child needs to develop.

Using the right search terms. ‘Children need to learn that to do a successful search, they need to put the right words into the search box,’ says Tricia. If their wording is too specific, they may not find the information they need, but if it’s too loose, they’ll find too much irrelevant detail. Spelling mistakes can also throw a search off kilter.

One good way to help your child get to grips with using the right search terms is to get them to underline the keywords in the brief they’ve been given: for example, ‘Find out how people lived in Saxon times’. These will often be the words that form the basis of their search.

Sit with your child and demonstrate how using the right search terms can make their research more productive. Get them to look up information using three different terms ranging from the general to the specific, for instance, ‘Saxons’, ‘Saxon life’, and ‘Saxon houses’. The first will throw up way too much information, while the last may be too narrow. This will help them understand the sort of terms they need to use to get to the information they need.

Using search engines. ‘When they’re using the internet for research, children typically go straight to Google, and then use the first two websites that come up,’ Tricia says. ‘The problem is that the top hits are often ad-based or influenced by their past search history, and may not be the best sources of information.’

Tricia recommends encouraging your child to experiment with search engines other than Google. ‘Different search engines use different algorithms, so you won’t necessarily get the same results,’ she explains. ‘Get your child to compare and contrast them with Google, and say which they think is more useful.’

It’s also important to encourage your child to look beyond their first couple of hits, especially as one of these is likely to be Wikipedia, which isn’t always accessible for children, or reliable. Using a website further down the list not only opens the possibility of finding different information, but also means their final piece of work won’t be a carbon copy of everyone else’s.

Assessing reliable and unreliable sources . One of the trickiest parts of using the internet for research is developing an understanding that not all sources are reliable. ‘Being able to tell whether a source is reliable is a real skill, and is something that students are still developing at university level,’ says Tricia.

Talk to your child about good and bad sources of information, and how to tell them apart. For example, the information on websites produced by museums, well-known charities or institutions like the BBC or NHS is likely to be reliable, while those run by lesser known organisations or individuals may not be. ‘Encourage your child to look at the About page, and help them make a judgement about whether the people behind the website are likely to be trustworthy,’ Tricia says.

You can also encourage them to look for other clues that point to a website’s reliability. For example, does it look well designed? Are there spelling mistakes? When was it written?

Cross-checking. Children often skip this stage of research; they simply find the information they think they need, and then move on. But knowing how to cross-check is an important skill as they get older, and helps to confirm whether the information they’ve found is reliable. If two or more websites are saying the same thing, they can be confident that it’s accurate, whereas if they find contradictory information, they need to dig deeper to find out which is right.

Skimming and scanning. Being able to skim-read a piece of information to determine whether it’s going to be useful is an important skill that saves children the effort of reading vast amounts of text in detail, only to discover that it’s not what they need. ‘This is a skill that children develop over time, and they need to be confident readers before it can happen,’ says Tricia.

Taking notes. Your child needs to learn to take the information they’ve found, extract the key facts, and put them into their own words. The finished piece of work is likely to be far better if they take notes, rather than trying to write the final version as they do their research. Encourage them to use pencil and paper, rather than copying and pasting the information from websites; this means they’re more likely to use their own words.

Researching using books

The internet may seem the easiest place for your child to do their research, but this isn’t always the case. ‘The main problem is that the text isn’t often pitched at primary-school level,’ says Tricia. ‘There’s some brilliant information on museum websites, for example, but it’s usually aimed at an adult audience.’

Although using books might seem time-consuming, it can actually be more efficient than wading through the vast amounts of information online. ‘The benefit of books is that they’re focused on the specific topic, so you can find everything in one place,’ Tricia says. ‘It’s also easier to find books that are pitched at the right level: it’s fairly obvious from the vocabulary, typeface and format to tell whether your child has the right book in their hands.’

Some schools have a library where children can either use books in situ or take them home. There may also be a school library service, where schools can borrow books relating to the particular topic the class is studying, although budget cuts have meant that this service has disappeared in some areas.

‘I would also always encourage parents to take their children to the public library, where they can find information that’s tailored to their age group,’ adds Tricia. ‘If you can’t find what you’re looking for, the librarian will always be happy to help.’

Avoiding plagiarism

The idea of a primary school child being pulled up for plagiarism may seem far-fetched, but it’s important that they get used to putting information into their own words. Not only will this avoid them getting into trouble later on in their education, but it also means they’ve understood the information they’ve found, rather than just copying and pasting it.

A good way to explain plagiarism to your child is to get them to do a really good piece of homework, and then say, ‘Right, we’re going to give this to your friend, and they’re going to get all the marks for it.’

‘Children instantly recognise that this isn’t fair, and it’s a brilliantly simple way to demonstrate what plagiarism is, even to very young kids,’ Tricia says.

It’s also a good idea to read through your child’s work, and if there are words or phrases that you suspect they’ve lifted straight from a website or book, ask them what they mean. If they can’t explain it, chances are they’ve copied it, and you can ask them to go back and put it into their own words.

TheSchoolRun recommends some of the best reference books for children as well as offering primary-school-friendly guides to history, geography, science and religion homework topics in the free Homework Gnome section .

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Writing a research question

Subject: Whole school

Age range: 5-7

Resource type: Other

Last updated

24 November 2017

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July 12, 2017 32 Comments

82 Questions to Ask about Art

Inside: Why classroom art discussion is a vital part of art education and 82 questions about art you can use in your classroom.

If you are stumped about how to lead a discussion about a work of art, use this list of art questions to give you some ideas!

As art teachers, we know the importance of creativity and the joy of making something with your own hands, but we also know the power of looking at the artworks of others.

Looking at art is an emotional, independent experience. Each person looking at a work of art will view it through the lens of their life and draw different meanings based on what they see. Talking about art allows us to break free of our solitary interpretations and uncover new insights.

Classroom art discussions are a launching pad for creativity, collaboration, and cognition. By exposing our students to works of art, giving them the space to examine their reactions, and opening a dialogue to share their thoughts, we help them develop empathy, connect with history, flex their critical thinking and observation skills, and consider the human spirit.

If you haven’t done it before, starting a classroom art discussion can be intimidating, but the benefits are worth overcoming the nerves. Below you’ll find 82 questions you can use to start and extend conversations about works of art with your classes. If you’d like more guidance, check out my five tips for leading a meaningful classroom art discussion .

Grab this art questions list and an artwork from 10 Artworks Perfect for an Art Criticism Lesson for older students or 20 Great Artworks to Look at with Young Kids for younger children, and start talking about art with your students!

Pair these questions with art cards  for a variety of engaging art appreciation activities! Learn how to make a DIY art collection and start a weekly masterpiece presentation in your classroom in this post .

Want all of these art questions plus printable question cards in a free PDF download?

Free Resource!

82 Questions About Art

82 questions you can use to start and extend conversations about works of art with your classroom. Free download includes a list plus individual question cards perfect for laminating!

Questions About Art

• What’s going on in this artwork?
• What was your first reaction to this artwork? Why do you think you had the reaction? 
• Does your opinion about the artwork change the longer you look at it? Why?
• Describe the lines in this artwork
• Describe the colors in the artwork
• Which area of the artwork is emphasized by the artist? Why?
• Which area of the artwork is most important? Why?
• How did this artist use space? ( Space in Art Examples )
• How did the artist use balance?  ( Artworks that Use Balance )
• How did the artist use proportion?  ( Examples of Proportion in Art )
• How does your eye move through the artwork? What choices did the artist make to make that happen?
• Close your eyes and describe the artwork from memory. Why did you remember what you remembered? Why did you forget what you forgot?
• How would you describe this artwork to someone who has never seen it?
• What elements of this painting seem real?
• What adjectives would you use to describe this artwork?
• What verbs would you use to describe this artwork?
• What elements seem dreamlike or imaginary?
• What is strange about this painting?
• What is mysterious about this artwork?
• What is normal about this artwork?
• What is boring about this artwork?
• Why is this artwork not boring to look at?
• What is exciting about this artwork?
• If this painting had sound effects, what would they sound like? ( More activities about art senses )
• If this artwork was a brand, what would be its slogan?
• What is missing from this artwork?
• If this artwork were music, what would it sound like?
• If this artwork could dance, what song would it dance to?
• What do we know about the artist after viewing this artwork?
• If you could ask the artist a question, what would you ask him/her?
• Who do you think was this artwork created for? Why do you say that?
• How do you think the artist feels about the final product?
• How do you think this artwork was made?
• Why do you think this artist created this work?
• What do you think this artist is trying to say in this artwork? What is the meaning or message?
• What’s the story being told, if any?
• What do you think happened before this scene?
• What do you think happened next?
• What emotions do you notice in the artwork?
• What emotions do you feel when looking at this?
• How do you think the artist was feeling when he created this artwork?
• How did the artist use line, shape, and color to contribute to the mood or meaning?
• What is the title? How does the title contribute to your understanding of the meaning?
• What title would you give this artwork?
• What symbols do you notice in the artwork?
• What juxtapositions do you notice?
• Put your body into the pose of some element of this artwork.  How does it feel to be in that position?
• What would it feel like to be in this artwork?
• What does this artwork remind you of? Why?
• How do you personally relate to/connect with this picture?
• How can you connect this artwork to your own life?
• How might you feel differently about the world after looking at this artwork?
• Why do you think you should be learning about/looking at this artwork?
• Do you want to see this artwork again? Why?
• What do you want to remember about this artwork?
• What do you want to forget about this artwork?
• Who do you know that would really like this artwork? Why would they like it?
• Who do you know that would really hate this artwork? Why would they hate it?
• What do you like about this artwork?
• What do you dislike about this artwork?
• What is beautiful about this artwork?
• Why would someone want to steal this artwork?
• If you could change this artwork, how would you change it? Why?
• What does this artwork say about the culture in which is was produced?
• How do you think this artwork was used by the people who made it? What was its function?
• Was this intended to be a work of art or not? Why do you think that? How does that impact your understanding of the artwork?
• What does this painting say about the world in which we live?
• What does this artwork teach us about the past?
• How does this artwork teach us about the future?
• What was happening in history when this artwork was made? How does that change your understanding of the artwork?
• What are the values and beliefs of the culture in which this artwork was made?
• How might your interpretation of this artwork be different from someone in another culture?
• If you could ask this artwork a question, what would you ask it?
• If this artwork had eyes, what would it see?
• If this artwork were a person, what would they want to eat for lunch?
• If this artwork were a person, what would they look like?
• If this artwork were a person, what would their personality be?
• If the art could talk, what would it say?
• What would this artwork want to do when it grows up?
• If this artwork could travel anywhere in the world, where would it go? Why?
• If this painting were a person, what job/career would it want to have?
• What is this artwork afraid of?

Questions about Art PDF Contents:

• 82 Questions About Art (List)
• 82 Questions About Art (Printable Index Cards)
• Links to Artwork Suggestions

Printing Instructions:

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Download the Printables

This list is available to download in two formats. The first is the list formatted to print in a pdf (2 pages). The second is the questions formatted to print on cardstock to cut out and laminate . (They are designed with this Avery (8577 using Template 8387) Postcard template , so you could also buy the Avery cards and print on them to make it easier).

If you are a member of The Curated Connections Library , you can get this lesson and all of my other resources for one monthly  fee. Find out more information at this link .

This article was originally posted on August 31, 2015.

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Reader Interactions

32 comments.

February 7, 2016 at 7:51 pm

Thank you, Cindy. As a middle school art teacher, your prompts are GOLD!!!

February 8, 2016 at 1:57 pm

Thank you! 🙂

April 25, 2024 at 4:44 pm

This is very cool 👍

April 29, 2024 at 7:07 am

Awesome! Glad you’re finding it useful.

September 30, 2017 at 12:52 pm

Great guiding questions. Thank you!

October 1, 2017 at 6:01 pm

You’re welcome!

November 25, 2018 at 1:42 pm

Thank very much for the 82 question. I will take time to look at each one of them.

May 11, 2020 at 1:46 am

Amazing thank you soooo much

October 18, 2021 at 1:15 pm

All docents at the Tucson Museum of Art are receiving a “post Covid” refresher course – these 82 questions are required homework. The effort and insights of the author (Cindy?) are appreciated and currently being put to good use. Thank you.

October 22, 2021 at 8:17 am

That is so awesome to hear! Thank you.

July 21, 2020 at 9:27 am

It’s interesting to know that appreciating art can be an emotional and independent experience. I’m taking Engineering courses right now but visiting a museum once with my friend made me realize how wonderful art is, even if it doesn’t have any direct relation to my chosen degree. It might be a good idea to look into realistic sculptures and start studying art from there.

October 29, 2020 at 10:21 am

Hi These are great! Can’t seem to download can you help?

October 30, 2020 at 8:49 am

I will send you an email to help you get this downloaded.

January 17, 2021 at 10:24 pm

I am interested with this training because this would be a great help for me to enhance my skills in English efficiency.

January 20, 2021 at 12:21 pm

So glad you enjoyed it!

January 18, 2021 at 11:24 am

Hi Cindy! I have tried to download these and keep receiving the art appreciation free resources. I am hoping to utilize them for some parent engagement with my students’ artwork. If you are still able to share the questions about art cards, I would appreciate it tons! Thank you!

January 20, 2021 at 12:40 pm

Check your email, I am sending the download!

March 7, 2021 at 9:52 am

Hi there! LOVE these questions, but the download button doesn’t seem to be working (?)

March 9, 2021 at 12:29 pm

The glitch is fixed! You can now download using the button.

March 21, 2021 at 9:43 pm

It helps me a lot. Thank you.

March 23, 2021 at 11:46 am

Awesome! You’re welcome.

August 4, 2021 at 7:10 am

Thanks for your valuable resources keep sharing the information like this…

October 3, 2021 at 8:29 pm

Hey there, thanks for creating such a great resource. But I cant seem to download it, any help is appreciated. Jess

October 8, 2021 at 7:15 am

Thanks for letting me know! I emailed you.

March 2, 2022 at 1:53 pm

i look forward to read these for my project at school very helpful

March 4, 2022 at 8:20 am

Great, Brianna!

May 8, 2023 at 4:59 am

I can’t get the resource to download 🙁

May 12, 2023 at 6:42 am

I emailed you! Please check your junk/spam if you don’t find my email in your inbox.

September 22, 2023 at 5:16 am

The great resource !

November 9, 2023 at 6:16 am

very informative blog thanks

November 16, 2023 at 11:26 pm

It’s blissful, insightful and enjoyable. This work is artistically done and I appreciate your creativity. Thank you!

November 28, 2023 at 3:27 pm

So glad you found us!

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Free Worksheets!

*Free Bundle of Art Appreciation Worksheets*

In this free bundle of art worksheets, you receive six ready-to-use art worksheets with looking activities designed to work with almost any work of art.