Developing & Answering Questions Assessing comprehension

Answering questions … The quick and easy way to determine whether a student comprehends the material or Has missed key aspects of the text

Developing good questions… is a skill all teachers need

Good questions 1. make students think about the material in new ways 2. take students beyond recall and facts

Use questions Before During After Reading to increase comprehension

Questioning can guide students to 1. Deeper meanings 2. Look for inferrences 3. Analyze subtle details

And …. Help students relate to the he text personally Help build schemata Tap into prior knowledge

Research: 1. Must vary kinds of questions 2. Higher order questions yield higher order responses 3. Analysis, synthesis and creativity yield improved reading comprehension

3 Kinds of Questions to assess comprehension: 1. Literal 2. Interpretive/Inferential 3. Creative

Literal Comprehension Questions What the author literally stated in the text Include main idea, genre

Interpretive/Inferential Recognition of many alternatives the author may have meant but didn’t state Must … ◦ separate fact from opinion, ◦ draw conclusions ◦ predict outcomes

Inferential requires Reading between the lines Picking up subtle clues as to meaning Often located in more than one part of text May require a compete re-reading of text to answer

Creative Questions (“If…”) 1. draw on own background knowledge values or experiences 2. Must put self into situation and make a judgment Should send students back to text events

WARNING ! Be sure that your questions cannot be answered without reading the text!