Robert, I think I understand your concern because I experienced a very similar thing myself. Changing the question to include a restatement of what the student said can be helpful. When you restate for the student, focus on one specific component of the students original statement and ask for an explanation based on course content (textbook, discussion posting, other class assigned reading). For example, ask the student to relate his or her statement to the steps for problem solving described in class reading. I hope this helps. Dr. S. David Vaillancourt