Strategies that WorkTeaching for Understanding and Engagement
Wor
ksho
p 5
Que
stion
ing
Debbie D
raper, Julie Fullgrabe & Sue Eden
Ideas to try to create questioning opportunities
• Strategies that work and Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies have many ideas that can support explicit teaching of questioning.
Questioning activities to try
• Modelling questions about your own reading
• Double entry diary• Wondering tasks-the more we learn, the
more we wonder,• Thick and thin questions• Inferential questions using poetry
Share your questions about your own reading Strategies that work p110• Share an appropriate adult book with the class
and highlight what is not understood by you or what raised questions (perhaps not read it but talk about it)
• As with monitoring understanding, you need to clue yourself into the questions you have.
Robbie commented that he never knew a
teacher could have so many questions.
‘If she can have questions, so can I’Strategies that work, pg 111
Were your questions• Before• During • After Reading?Discuss any text that has raised questions foryou- were there answers or no answers?
Share your questions about your own reading
Double entry diary for questions(also used for monitoring understanding and making
connections)
Useful for non-fiction reading
Also useful for journal style reading of fiction
From Teaching Reading
ComprehensionStrategies p73
Question prompts include:• I’m wondering…• What….• How many….• Where….
EVENT SITUATION CHOICE PERSON RESAON MEANS
PRESENT WhatIs?
Where/When
is?
Which did?
Who is? Why is? How is?
PAST What did?
Where/ When did?
Which did?
Who did?
Why did?
How did?
POSSIBIL-ITY
What can?
Where/ When can?
Which can?
Who can?
Why can?
How can?
PROBAB-ILITY
What would?
Where/ When
would?
Which would?
Who would?
Why would?
How would?
PREDIC-TION
What will?
Where/ When will?
Which will?
Who will?
Why will?
How will?
IMAGIN-ATION
What might?
Where/ When might?
Which might?
Who might?
Why might?
How might?
Not everything will be answered
• It is important for readers to know that they will not always find the answers to their questions.
The more we learn, the more we wonder Strategies that work p111
• Use this technique to help students go deeper with their reading.
• The questions they raise may not be in the text so the answers may be found through ‘author and you’ or ‘on your own’
• (QAR- question-answer relationships)• Non-fiction research strategy
The more we learn, the more we wonder
• Using wondering for creative thinking.• The students record facts they have learned.• They then frame them as a question.• Eg Spiders have 8 legs.• I wonder why spiders have 8 legs?• So they can run after their prey??• So they can balance??• It’s better than having 100 legs for shoes??
The more we learn, the more we wonder
Using wondering for thinking that can lead to research or independent tasks.Open ended wondering in an ‘I wonder’ book•Why do the leaves fall off the trees?•Why doesn’t the moon fall out of the sky?•Why was money invented and who invented it?Class could brainstorm regularly and answers sought through various means, eg electronic whiteboard, guest experts etc
Thick and Thin questions- Strategies that Work p 115
Also From Teaching
Reading Comprehensio
nStrategies p74
• Support readers to understand the difference between a closed question and an open ended question.
Can use large sticky notes for thick questions
Can use small
sticky notes for
thin questions
LongerDetailed
ConceptualGlobalShort
Yes / noFactual
Clarifying
Thick- Why? Explain..
Thin- straight from text, literalWhat? How many?
Thick and Thin Questions about the 3 Bears
• What do you think the Bears did on their walk?• Thick• Who where the main characters in the story?• Thin• How would you feel if someone broke into your house?• Thick• Do you thick Goldilocks would try this again?• Thick• When did this story take place?• Thin• Why do you think Goldilocks ran from the house?• Thick
Practise thick and thin questions
• With a partner, pick a traditional fairy tale.• Make up 3 thin questions and 3 thick
questions
Inferential questions- guided conversations
Hope is the thing...
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.
- Emily Dickinson
•
Extra material on handout
• Questions can range from literal to inferential.• From not understanding what is stated
(vocabulary) to words that suggest images.• Can be from teacher or students
All of these aspects of curriculum are questioning starting points…
• Eg comparing the 2 forms- why did the visual authors choose the music they did?
• Why did they choose the images?• Examining the language choices by Emily
Dickinson• Making connections to the hope needed by
the Japanese people.
zfarquhar Jan 2011
Accessing the CurriculumThe Australian Curriculum is an online curriculum, therefore to
access it you need to go to
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home
ortype this address in your browser
or “Australian Curriculum”
zfarquhar Jan 2011
Use the filters to view specific year levels, strands or highlight the general capabilities or cross
curriculum priorities
zfarquhar Jan 2011
Use the strand and general capabilities filters to view the literacy aspects in each descriptor and the
achievement strand
Once you have selected the filters you require, click here to apply them
zfarquhar Jan 2011
Each of these is a strand and can be opened to show content
descriptors
Content descriptors
Words highlighted in blue can be clicked to provide a definition
zfarquhar Jan 2011
To see the Achievement Standard for the year level in full you need to click on the buttonEach year level
has work samples that indicate work of a “C” standard
English Curriculum linksExamining literature- literature strand
Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7Discuss the nature and effects of some language devices used to enhance meaning and shape the reader’s reaction, including rhythm and onomatopoeia in poetry and
prose
Understand, interpret and experiment with a range of devices and deliberate word play in poetry and other literary texts, for example nonsense words, spoonerisms, neologisms and puns
Understand, interpret and experiment with sound devices and imagery, including simile, metaphor and personification in narratives, shape poetry, songs, anthems and odes
(ACELT1611
Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imagery and language patterns in narratives and poetry such as ballads, limericks and free verse (ACELT1617)
English Curriculum linksLiteracy strand- texts in contextR 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Identify some familiar texts and the contexts in which they are used
Respond to texts drawn from a range of cultures and experiences
Discuss different texts on a similar topic, identifying similarities and differences between the texts
Identify the point of view in a text and suggest alternative points of view
Identify and explain language features of texts from earlier times and compare with the vocabulary, images, layout and content of contempor
ary texts
Show how ideas and points of view in texts are conveyed through the use of vocabulary, including idiomatic expressions, objective and subjective language, and that these can change according
to context
Compare texts including media texts that represent ideas and events in different ways, explaining the effects of the different approaches
Analyse and explain the effect of technological innovations on texts, particularly media texts
Consider the differences between visual and written form