Questioning Answers or Answering Questions

I guess you could say that I had an epiphany. But that sounds too amazing. It also might be considered ridiculous. Either way, it's going to make my life easier and coincidentally, my students' short answer responses better as well.

Before I go on, I imagine that somewhere along the way someone has told me this, I have read it somewhere, or I learned this in college. I'm not really sure if the problem is my memory, but I am dressed up like a grandparent today for Make-A-Wish week. I think I'll blame it on that in this instance :) But seriously, I can't believe this thought has never resonated with me before now!

Here goes - when writing a response to a question that requires a paragraph or more be written/typed : you, or someone else if peer editing,  should be able to cover up the question that was asked and after doing that someone should be able to write the question just by reading your answer. You end up thinking backwards. . Your answer should so clear that you write the question. Genius, right? 

I guess I understand that on my own, but I have lacked getting some of my students to see the value in it as their answers haven't been really answering the questions lately. Maybe it's the summer-itis settling in? Maybe I don't teach it well enough? I guess if my students don't understand it, then it's the latter. 

I love the journey I'm on. Always learning. Gotta get to work.