What Do You Wonder?
Building Comprehension through Questions (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Stage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
5-10
Grade Range:
1st 2nd 3rd 4thFood Groups:
Primary: Reading Comprehension Strategies
Transcript
One of the comprehension strategies that we introduce to the students is questioning, and how proficient and good readers are always wondering. We wonder before we read, during our reading, and afterwards, where there's also questions too that are going to be asked. So again, their using their brains, they're thinking about their reading as they're doing it. Accuracy is important, but comprehension is just as important. One of the best lessons that we've done this year was from the Reading Power book, was using a Sarah Perry book called If... and the students had an opportunity to read the selections which are whimsical and fun and crazy, and I don't know if in all of my years I've ever read a book to students that they enjoyed more than this selection and then they had an opportunity to go off and brainstorm with their writing partners about "if this happened then would this happen" and what could be some other opportunities we would have for asking if questions. It really was an excellent lesson to introduce a whole series of mini-lessons on questioning as a reading comprehension strategy. For example, if toes were teeth, or for example, if fish were leaves, the children had questions, "then would there be a toe fairy" or "would they fall off a tree in autumn" if fish were leaves. And they did come up with their own illustrations, with questions that are as whimsical as the questions that are in this selection in this book.
Related References
Activity Objective
The goal of What Do You Wonder?: Building Comprehension through Questions (Virtual Tour) is to improve students' comprehension skills by providing practice in asking questions orally and in writing.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Encourage students to ask questions before, during and after reading.
- Asking questions helps students deepen their understanding of what they are reading.
- Provide students with a variety of questions they can use as examples.
- Brainstorm and list the question words, who, what, where, when, why, and how.
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The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in Second Grade (Virtual Tour)
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