One of my favorite part of honoring week is listening to the questions students ask after the presentations. There are times when the question and answer period is longer than the presentation itself. Students' build off of one another's questions and their enthusiasm snowballs. They are curious about everything.
The fourth graders are audience members for many of their peers' presentations and they know that they have an important role to play. They spread themselves out among the younger students and model being an engaged audience. They try to ask questions specific to the topic. They sometimes surprise themselves, sharing later how they weren't expecting every presentation to be so interesting!
To me, honoring week is a week full of starting points. The students' questions reveal the potential of the topics, any of which would be rich enough for a theme. The seeds for many future projects are planted while listening to an honors or 4th grade project.
We live in a world in which infinite answers are at our fingertips – it's knowing how to ask the right questions that is the key to success.
The Rookery 
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