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However, the deeper questions didn't happen in a vacuum.  Students have spent hours learning the art of questioning.  Here are ten things I've done in class to encourage students to ask better questions:

Recently I've come to the idea that the question "how do you differentiate?" is the wrong question to ask (or at least coming in the wrong sequence). The essential question should be "what do you differentiate?" By differentiating instruction I am changing something for some group of students. To do this I have to ask myself "what can I change and what do I need to keep the same?" What follows are three cases of differentiation, all of which change a different facet of learning.

"increasingly, some educators are calling for more attention to the career part of the equation - and questioning whether a traditional four-year college degree is necessarily the best path for everyone. A new report released by Harvard Wednesday states in some of the strongest terms yet that such a "college for all" emphasis may actually harm many American students - keeping them from having a smooth transition from adolescence to adulthood and a viable career. "

"In Intelligence Reframed Howard Gardner contends that "literacies, skills, and disciplines ought to be pursued as tools that allow us to enhance our understanding of important questions, topics, and themes." Today's readers become literate by learning to read the words and symbols in today's world and its antecedents. They analyze, compare, evaluate and interpret multiple representations from a variety of disciplines and subjects, including texts, photographs, artwork, and data. They learn to choose and modify their own communication based on the rhetorical situation. Point of view is created by the reader, the audience and the medium."

In general, I think that different approaches for that situation may be a safer bet.  Such approaches include lesson planning which create tasks with access points for students at all levels, or structuring group-work and assigning status such that all students know they have skills to help others as well as something to learn from others.