Teaching Tipster: Teaching Questioning to Improve Comprehension

After working with my students with this reciprocal teaching framework for the past month, I realized that they need a lot more explicit teaching on questioning.

I really like the questioning model presented in Jan Richardson's The Next Step in Guided Reading. Her model is based in the QAR  (Question-Answer-Relationship) model, but it's more explicit and gives sentence frames to better guide students.  Sentence frames are essential learning tools for my ELL students, but are helpful for every student.

I first introduced my interevention students to GO (literal, right there) questions. These questions start with Who, What, When, Where, and How.  Students can go directly to the text to find the answer to these questions. I modeled GO questions with a shared reading of the students' leveled text. Then, after some practice together, the students began asking literal questions with an instructional-leveled text.    

After practice with the GO questions, I introduced my students to STOP questions, or inferrential questioning. These questions are not directly answered in the text, but students have to use background knowledge, or the inferences from text to find come to an answer. These questions start with What if...?, I wonder why...?, What would happen if..?, Why would..?, How could...? Why do you think?... Again I modeled how to ask these questions, and began with teaching the sentence frame, I wonder why...?

I haven't yet introduced my students to SLOW DOWN questions. They need to become more proficient with GO and RED questions, before I introduce them to these more complex questions. For these questions students have to look more than on place in the text to find the answers to their questions. SLOW DOWN questions are cause/effect, compare/comtrast questions.

This model is especially helpful for my students as English Language Learners. They struggle with knowing how to start questions. The sentence frames give the students the academic language they need to ask questions.

Knowing about question-answer relationships allows the students to find answers to the questions their teacher (or the test!) is asking them. Do they go to the text? Do the make an inference? When you teach your students different question types, it helps them to know how to both ask and answer questions. Knowing how to answer to question well, also dramatically improves students' ability to comprehend a text.

If you don't have this Jan Richardson book, you should get it. She has great ideas to improve guided reading.

Second Language Acquisition: It Takes Time

As a reading specialist in East Oakland, I work primarily with students that are struggling with language acquisition. A lack of English language knowledge tends to be the most common deficit. Secondly, many of my students do not have access to books and do not read often- which continues to keep them back. When my students' knowledge of  English sounds/patterns/words grow (in concert with a toolbox full of learned reading skills), their reading usually takes off. Makes sense, right? Yes, I have several other students that have visual/auditory processing issues- which are different issues (and hard to sort out especially when they are ALSO learning English!). But again, most of my students need intensive and explicit language and vocabulary instruction. It's hard to read and make sense of the words, when you don't know any of the words and their meaning to start with!

I like this snippet from an article on everythingesl.net (a great site, with great resources for esl/el teachers)-

Stages of Second Language Acquisition by Judie Haynes

It takes students from 4-10 years to achieve cognitive academic language proficiency in a second language. Student at this stage will be near-native in their ability to perform in content area learning. Most ELLs at this stage have been exited from ESL and other support programs. At the beginning of this stage, however, they will need continued support from classroom teachers especially in content areas such as history/social studies and in writing.