Sunday, October 7, 2012
Strategies that work: Questioning
I believe that in this chapter Harvey does a good job of showing us how to teach children to question their reading processes and to question text as they read in various ways. All students need to know that their questions matter and that they are probably not the only ones who have these particular questions when they read. They need to observe us asking questions as well. For example, during a read aloud or guided reading, teachers may ask questions to themselves similar to questions that they know their students might have or ask. It places everyone in the same mind frame. Lets the students know that they are not alone in their thinking. At the same time as asking the questions we should answer them. They need to see us answering questions too as well as how we arrive at the answer to those questions. When we model this students will pick up on it and try this approach while they read on their own. Questioning therefore helps comprehension. Questioning can also improve or reinforce other strategies. For example, asking about a character's goals, motivations, or plans can also be considered inference or prediction. Questioning can also help student reinforce identifying the main ideas or key events. What are some other strategies or knowledge that questioning improves or helps? What are some ways to model questioning for students?
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ReplyDeleteAndrew,
I agree that Harvey does a great job of reminding us as adult readers the questioning process that young readers go through. This is important because as adult readers we naturally do and eliminate parts of this process so we don’t even think about them. It is important that we teach our students that questioning and challenging text is key to educational growth because without questioning only surface learning occurs, when a reader questions and challenges reading takes on a deeper meaning, both depth and width wise. The best way for a student to learn this process is through modeling, making it our job as teacher to always take the time to question text, even if we are doing a simple “time-filler” read aloud because this shows that questioning is always important. I am often in charge of the time-filling read alouds in my classrooms and don’t get to preview the text most of the time, however I always try to put myself into the place of a first grader as a I read and question and pose my questions to my students. I really like some of the ideas presented by Harvey especially the webs with a central questions because I feel like this is something young students like ours could do as a whole group but build upon as they grow and mature into something deeper. Andrew I know that you are focusing on using graphic organizers in your unit, would you consider some of things ideas presented by Harvey, do you think they would work for your students?
Emily
I think its great to teach students to question. I believe that to gain further knowledge and deeper knowledge we need to question. If we start the students off at a young age and teach them how important it is, they will hopefully continue it later in their education. I know that we usually take about questioning when it comes to reading, I have been working with my students in our oral language unit as well. We have been working on questioning what type of stories we can write so that they are the best stories possible. I model this to the students every time we have "writing". I know that my students are still young so its going to take them a while to understand questioning but I can see some of the students doing it a little so I know its possible. I also like that this is something that can easily be added to reading street. We can question with anything so for a reading program that is very strict in what it wants you to do, this is a way to add what we think is important.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with all of the things you guys have already said. Questioning is natural and needs to be encouraged in readers, the younger the better! As teachers, we are constantly showing students what we expect from them and the only way to clearly establish that questioning a text is a good thing is model questioning a text to your students. I love all of the different styles of questioning Harvey puts together in this reading. It's very important, after getting students used to the concept of questioning a text, to show the students that there are different styles of questioning that fit well with certain styles of text. I never thought about all of the different styles of questioning text before doing this weeks reading and it got me thinking about the importance of introducing questioning styles while teaching the genres that they specifically go with. For picture book readings, introduce the idea that some questions you have may be answered, some may not. For informational texts, introduce the concept that the more you learn, the more you question. Getting students to question while reading is a great accomplishment, but to get students to ask questions that directly relate to the genre they are reading, I think, is just as important.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has shared such wonderful ideas about questioning, which Harvey really highlights well in this reading. I always have trouble asking open ended questions while I'm reading with students because I always feel I need to have them answer in a particular way to see their comprehension of the text, but after reading this I am more aware of many different styles, and that not all questions have to be so open ended in order to understand student thinking. I really like your ideas Kelly, about genre specific questions or strategies that work better for certain genres. I think when first modeling for students in which ways to question a text this may be a good starting point that students could easily pick up on, but I think you would have to be careful and explain that these are not restricted to just that specific genre. These different questioning strategies are something I want definitely want to work on!
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