Questions to Focus the Reader by Carol Nichols, Metropolitan State College of Denver, nicholscmscd

1. Questions to Focus the Reader by Carol Nichols, Metropolitan State College of Denver, nicholsc@mscd.edu Questions before, during, and after reading can focus the readers’ tasks. If the teacher asks the questions, the focus of control of the reading task is external. If the students are involved in asking questions, the focus of control of the task is internal. The students get more actively involved in their own learning.

2. Benefits of Self-Questioning During Reading Research results indicate it is beneficial to help students become aware of the value of asking questions related to what is being read. Two areas related to questioning to teach: Self questioning for internal control of the reading task-part of Reciprocal Teaching Awareness of the sources of answers for questions – QAR technique

3. Reciprocal Teaching - One of the most successful remedial techniques involving students in asking questions.

4. Reciprocal Teaching Purpose: Teaches students to regulate their own reading in ways used by good readers.

5. Reciprocal Teaching Involves teaching students to use the four comprehension monitoring/fostering techniques used by good readers: Self questioning Summarization Clarification of problems encountered in the text Prediction

6. Self-questioning The teacher models how to ask effective questions about what was read. Questions can be at various levels of comprehension. The teacher eventually involves the students by asking, “What questions do you think a teacher might ask?” etc.

7. Summarization After the question is asked, the teacher models how to summarize the main idea of the material that was read silently. The teacher may say something like, “ Remember a summary is a shortened version. You don’t include a lot of details in a summary” Much teacher modeling is needed.

8. Clarification The teacher models how to identify problems in the text that was read. The teacher encourages discussion among the students as to any problems they encountered in the text they read silently. These problems could include: difficult words that could not be read, disorganized text, etc

9. Predicting The teacher models how to use information already gained from the text, information from any pictures or illustrations in the next section of the text, and background information to make predictions about what may occur next in the text.

10. Modeling the four strategies As the students being to understand the four strategies, they can become “student teachers” for sections of the text. After a section is read silently, one student acting as the teacher will ask a question about what was read, will summarize what was read, will ask if anyone has anything that needs clarification, and will ask for or give a prediction about the next section.

11. Guidance for students acting as the teacher The adult teacher provides praise and guidance necessary for the student who is acting as the teacher. The adult teacher may give prompts such as: “That was a great summary! You got right to the main points and you didn’t include too many details.” “What questions do you think a teacher might ask?” “If you’re having a hard time thinking of a question, why don’t you summarize first? “Who can help us out with this one?”

13. QAR Question Answer Relationship This technique helps the student become aware of sources of information for answering questions correctly.

14. Sources of Information Text explicit information – The answer is RIGHT THERE in the printed text. It is easy to find. Text implicit information– The answer is in the text, but is harder to find. The text may give information that suggests or hints at the answer. The reader must THINK AND SEARCH to figure out the answer. Prior-knowledge information—The answer is not in the words in the text. The answer is from information you already know and is found ON MY OWN from information IN MY HEAD.

15. Instructional Applications Young reader may do better with two categories: “In the Book” and “In My Head.” Older students can use three categories: “Right There,” textually explicit “Think and Search,” textually implicit, and “On My Own.” your own information

16. Research results and QAR When taught to high-ability readers there was little difference for text explicit and text implicit. Much improvement in text explicit and text implicit answers when QAR taught to average reading ability and low-reading-ability students. Very little improvement in answers requiring information from their own backgrounds when taught to low-reading-ability students.