Estimated In-Class Time 15 min
Estimated Pre-Class Time 20 min
Downloads In-Class Procedure
Pre-Class Preparation
Video Little Red Riding Hood

Students view a 3-minute video that tells the Little Red Riding Hood story in surprising detail. Then they discuss its implications for developing research questions.

Other activities in this series: Activity 1A, Research vs. Regular Questions

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

  • Develop first drafts of research questions.

Relevant Threshold Concepts

  • Information creation as a process.

Suggestions for Use

  • This activity should be helpful in classes where students will be developing research questions.
  • Some students have difficulty thinking of first drafts of research questions. One reason may be that they are not very aware that even simple things, concepts, people, and events are inherently “layered” with detailed information that is not immediately obvious to all of us. This activity is intended to remind them that that not-so-obvious information is potentially there. It should prompt them to consider developing research questions that seek out information they may not have thought of before.
  • You could have students view the video before class in order to save time. However, the video is only 3 minutes long and the benefits of viewing it together and immediately before the discussion argue strongly for viewing it in class.

Pre-Class Preparation

  • View the video.
  • Review In-Class Procedure below.
  • Prepare for leading the discussion, using your own remarks or the discussion in In-Class Procedure below, if it seems helpful.

In-Class Procedure

  1. Remind students that you have been/will be talking about developing research questions.
  2. Ask who among them is familiar with the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Choose one student to quickly tell the story.
  3. Ask whether students consider that a simple or complex story. (Most will probably say simple.)
  4. Tell them something like “Now we’re going to watch a 3-minute video of the Little Red Riding Hood story.
  5. Project the video.
  6. Ask students what they thought of the video to get their immediate reaction.
  7. Ask follow-up questions of a couple of those who made interesting comments.
  8. Conduct the discussion with these and your own questions that get at the idea that there’s a lot of information about things, concepts, people, and events that is not necessarily obvious:
  • Where did all that “extra” information that you saw written and illustrated come from– was it implied all the time and yet never occurred to most of us?
  • Was all the information provided by text on the screen? (Example that wasn’t written is that the hunter took the wolf away, slung over his back.)
  • Was there some information that was not explained, yet enriched the story?(Example is that Little Red lived on Grimm Street, which apparently is pointing out that the Little Red Riding Hood story comes from the Brothers Grimm, two German librarians and professors who published collections of folk tales in the early 1800s.)
  • Was any of the information in the video irrelevant? Irrelevant to whom? Who gets to decide that?
  • What additional information was not in the video but could have been? (Examples are an explanation of a riding hood, including details of what it was made of; more information about Little Red’s mother and their relationship.)
  • One way to think of this video is that it shows what experts in various fields would want to know. For instance, perhaps a medical doctor would be interested in how high the grandmother’s temperature got. What other experts would want to see some of the information in this video? (One answer: the information on the hunter’s rifle would be interesting to the game warden in Little Red’s county.)
  • How can you apply what you learned in this video to developing first drafts of research questions? How might the video help you think in order to make developing first drafts easier?

Relevant Choosing & Using Sources Chapters:

Chapter 1, Research Questions