It
was interesting reading chapter 8 of Strategies
that Work in regards to allowing students to utilize questioning to deepen
their thinking and understanding. It made me wonder how I can teach my students
different questioning strategies and help them to see how posing questions will
further their understanding of the text. How would you teach your students the
importance in questioning and how to appropriately question what they’re
reading? How do you think teaching your students these techniques will change
your classroom environment?
Many
of my students look to me when they have a question and pose the questions to
me for me to answer. They don’t know how to pose a question for themselves to
challenge their own understanding and deepen their understanding by finding the
answer themselves. I really liked the part in the book where it talked about
the “knowing when you know and knowing when you don’t know,” I liked how the
authors talked about the students having their own sticky notes to mark where
they have a question in their reading and then the students move that sticky
note to the point in the text where they found the answers. I feel that this
technique gives a student a sense of accomplishment and I feel that they will
really comprehend what they learned because it wasn’t just a teacher telling
them the answer they found it themselves. I feel that this process would have
to be modeled to my students several times so that they really understood how
to answer their own questions, and to show them how that can deeper their
understanding.
I
also really liked the idea of “gaining information through questioning,” because
I feel that it can really add to my students’ comprehension of the text if they
are actively doing more than just reading the text. Teaching the kids to wonder
can open their eyes to so much more information than just reading a text and
then putting it down. Having the students fill out an “I wonder” page can make
them active participants in what they’re reading and get them more engaged to
look for the answer. I feel that this also would have to be modeled several
times to my student to help them really understand how to not just wonder about
what they are reading, but also to think about the answers, look for the
answers in the text, or look for it outside of the text.
I
feel that all of these strategies if used in my classroom would completely change
the atmosphere in regards to questions. I think that my students would not just
rush through what they are reading but actually take a deeper look at what they
are reading and gain a higher sense of engagement with the text. My students
would have better comprehension because they would be taking a deeper dive into
what they are reading and have a sense of ownership of their own understanding.
I think that this would take a lot of modeling in front of my students to help
them understand how to question, and how to use their questioning to aide in
their comprehension.
I have to say that I had the opposite response from you, Niki, when I read the article. I think a big part of that was the fact that I couldn't picture how I would model that to my class. The main reason for this is because I don't often find myself questioning when reading a work of non-fiction. I actually had a conversation about this with my MT and he had some great insight into the situation. He said that he thinks for this genre questioning is a beginning skill and one that we move past. His thought was that once readers become more adept at predicting and applying their schema they aren't as surprised by the things beginning readers question. This made a lot of sense to me and I hope it gives me some insight into how I can start to rethink reading and helping beginning learners.
ReplyDeleteWe also talked a bit about writing notes for questioning. He said that he has never had success with it. His observations were that most of the kids didn't want to stop to write so they just didn't put notes in. He also said that the more advanced students found this process to interrupt their comprehension of the book because (this leads to the next chapter) it interrupted their visualizing.
My thoughts now are here: I think some genres may lend themselves to questioning better than others. I chose a non-fiction text today because I think more questions come up during them. There also seem to be more opportunities to find answers. Many of the answers in fiction need to be synthesized and I think this frustrates kids.
I also wanted to take a minute to address the visualizing chapter. I was listening to NPR on the way in to Donley Tuesday morning. There happened to be a literature professor from MSU on the program. She was talking about how her studies stemmed from the fact that she thought she could read through her house burning down around her because of how much she was into her book (visualizing.) This led her to do a study about how the brain responds during two different types of reading. One was where she had people casually flip through a book like you might at a book store. The other studied the brain while the reader was immersed in the book. She said that everyone involved hypothesized that the brain would look similar in both situations. What they found surprised them. The reader that was immersed was using so much more of their brain. This seems to be a result of the visualizing and connections that are made during this process. I take away from this the idea that getting kids to make those images in their mind is a powerful tool for connection and a great way to help them develop better reading skills.
I agree that the text seems to give a lot of helpful ideas about ways to use questions in lessons in order to promote deeper thinking and understanding. However, I can see how you would still pose the question of how the teach students to recognize the importance of these different techniques. Maybe a lesson that focuses on the purpose of a specific question could be used to address this. Throughout the questioning process, the teacher could refer back to the purpose of the questioning technique periodically. The importance of asking questions could be compared with a time when a book was read and questions were not asked. Students should then be able to see how questioning strategies strengthened their learning and understanding.
ReplyDeleteI also think that the classroom environment would be changed through this implementation of questioning strategies. Students may visually notice how their development of skills and techniques contribute to their understanding of a text. Their engagement level would be heightened and they would gain a sense of pride at being able to read text differently and more effectively. However, I think a complication may arise when students have an issue doing this on their own, or at moments when they are not in the classroom atmosphere. I think it would be a good idea to point out the questioning technique’s relevance in other reading situations, even those that are outside of the classroom.
I also enjoyed learning about ways to use questioning strategies, but am still asking the question of how I determine which strategy will be most effective for each book that is read throughout the year. I think Joel addresses this in the genre of nonfiction. I like that his MT challenges what the authors of the text suggest, by adding in his own personal experience as a teacher. I can see how for this genre, the questioning technique can become somewhat of a complication when students have to interrupt their visualization of the text as they are reading. However, I am not completely convinced that not using any kind of questioning strategy is completely effective. Maybe to address the interruption, the teacher can attempt to use one of the strategies by asking and addressing questions after the text is read. Quickly and simply placing a sticky note and coding the question at the end, doesn’t seem like it would be too much of a distraction.
All of you have brought up some great points that I have never really thought about, or have some ideas that may support your concerns. I am a huge believer in interactive read aloud’s because students love to see a teacher do the work we expect them to do. I recently did a read aloud, and students loved watching me connect to the story and ask questions about what was going on in the text. It made them interested in what was going to happen next and I found them talking aloud to themselves while they were reading their books the following day during their literacy centers. Chapter 8 gives us several ideas for how we can bring about active reading by using questions. The some questions are answered, others are not lesson provides students with comprehension questions and questions that allow them to answer themselves. I like this idea a lot because it help students not only question stories to find answers, but also make connections to what they are reading. I also enjoyed reading through the lesson that talks about questioning that leads to inferential thinking. Similarly, this goes along with making connections. I tend to find that my students comprehend stories when they are provided with a guided conversation. When I question stories, they help me find the answers. It is a great way to prove how important this strategy can be to understanding a story.
ReplyDeleteI loved the ‘I wonder’ page that Nikki came up with. That is a great idea to get students to deepen their questions, which ultimately deepens their understanding. Joel made a great point as well. Predictions set up the basis of comprehension. There have been studies done that prove this fact. If a student can make predictions, they can find the answers in the text. It creates a text to self-connection. It is often helpful in my classroom to have students share their predictions because other students may have never thought of that question or idea. Sometimes students will quickly raise their hand after someone shares a comment because it sparked another idea in their head. At the end of the story, they are able to answer each other’s questions and see if their ideas were sufficient. I loved the additional comment about visualizing in Joel’s response as well. Visualizing is such a powerful tool and it seems to bring stories alive. I would love to read more about this study! Showing not telling students to use this strategy is the best way to prove to students how helpful visualizing can be. Have them think of it like they are watching a movie. Stories allow them to create their own images and emphasize how awesome that is! I also agree with Sarah’s comment about questioning non fiction stories. I do not feel it is a distraction and in fact, I think students have a hard time creating questions or answering questions at the end of the story if they are not interactive during the reading of the story. These are things we should try in our classroom and we can share the results to better our understanding on what works, and what might not work.