Jan,
One of the most important, if not the most important, way to teach children
how to ask meaningful questions is to modeling the types of questions that you
would like them to ask. This can be done by using a think aloud mini-lesson in
which you show the children the types of questions they should be asking
themselves as they read. After the mini-lesson you can have the children read
independently and ask their own questions about their books. You can conclude
by having children share their questions with the class. Having children share
their questions is important because it inspires other questions. The process
of modeling how to ask good questions should be done continuously throughout
the year to reinforce the concept.
It is important for children to understand the importance of asking
questions before, during, and after their reading and how asking questions
helps them become better readers. Students need to understand that asking
questions is important for their comprehension of a text. Also, when asking
children questions, it is vital for teachers to provide time to think before
expecting an answer.
The best types of questions are those that allow for more than one right
answer. The unique answers that children provide have a lot to do with their
personal interpretation/schema. The best questions are those that are
open-ended and get the children's minds flowing. They are the questions that
allow children to make text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world
connections. When asking and answering questions, it is important for children
to be able to support their thinking with a "why." Students should understand
that the "why" is just as important as the "who", "what", "where", "when" and
"how". If children spend too much time answering irrelevant questions they
lose the meaning of the text.
A couple of books with some great ideas about questioning are On Solid
Ground by Sharon Taberski and Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller. Reading
with Meaning has a whole chapter on how to effectively ask questions. I am
currently reading both books for a Graduate course that I am taking and I have
learned many useful things that I intend to incorporate when I have my own
classroom. One thing that I intend to incorporate are Questioning Webs.
You should look into these books, they are very useful! I hope this helps.
Good luck!
Jessica
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 5:46 PM
Subject: [MOSAIC] Some help with questioning please
I am a Literacy Coordinator from Melbourne Australia. I don't have my own class
any longer but model and mentor for other teachers. Our Grades 3 & 4 are
introducing the strategies for comprehension. We are struggling a bit with
questioning from the point of view of getting them to realise that questioning
is asking questions to gain understanding; therefore you would only be asking a
question when you don't get it. They ask myriads of questions but they are
questions for questions sake if you know what I mean. Have read all the books
and refer to them constantly.
Can some one give us some tips?
Jan
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