As proficient readers and learners, we ask questions throughout the reading process. Our questions help focus, engage, and guide us towards meaning. Unfortunately, many students wait until the end of book or task for the questioning process to begin. Questioning for many, means waiting patiently for teachers to ask:
- Who were the main characters
- What were three key events?
- What words were important?
- What did the writer mean when?
For students to be truly successful readers, asking their own questions is key to deep and lasting understanding. Questions set up a dialogue with the author, sparking the interaction necessary for comprehension to occur. When students ask the questions, they are reading "wide-awake." They are thinking and engaging with the text. They are making meaning.
Students comprehension is often calculated by the number of "correct" questions answered after the reading has occurred. Neither the questions we ask or the speed and accuracy in which they are answered indicate engaged, thoughtful learning. It is the questions students are asking themselves that should concern and interest us most. I use the following probes to help discover what those questions are like:
- Did you have a questions before you started to read this book?
- How is asking questions working for you?
- How do you plan to keep track of the questions you asked?
- What is your question , when you hear these words?
- Did you have a question following you through the book?
- How did reading_______change the kinds of questions you were asking?
- What do you notice about these new questions?
- Do you notice yourself asking questions that do not make sense?
- What questions helped you figure out new meaning?
- Do you have any questions you would like to pursue?
- Which question is most important for you as a reader?
- You just finished the chapter;do you have questions still unanswered?
So, take notice this week. Who is asking the most questions in your classroom today?
