1. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Asking Questions
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

2. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
When kids are little….
They can’t stop asking questions.
They drive their family crazy with,
“Why does the kitty land on its feet
when you throw it in the air? Why do
I have two eyes? Why do I have to go to
bed?” Relentlessly, they
examine their environment, trying to
make sense of it.
Spontaneous questioning occurs as children are curious about their world. As Harvey says, “Human beings are driven to find answers and make sense of their world. . .We must strive to create classrooms that celebrate passionate curiosity.”
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

3. The Importance of Building “Schema”
Building conceptual frameworks or
schema is the way in which the mind
stores and retrieves data.
Questions and vocabulary are important in building schema because they allow
the mind to group information.
Schema is the sum of our background of knowledge and experience.
(READ SLIDE)
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

4. How Questioning Skills Help With Learning
“Absolutely crucial to building
conceptual frameworks or schema is
the ability to ask a question.”
“When an individual cannot ask questions,
he/she is like a computer without a
keyboard. It is very difficult to access data.”
Ruby Payne
According to Ruby Payne, “if a student cannot ask questions, his ability to learn is significantly reduced, because he cannot identify what he does NOT know nor can he systematically access what he DOES know
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

5. Being able to ask questions…
helps students establish a purpose for reading and be more focused.
encourages students’ curiosity enough to stay with the material until they understand.
With each strategy, always establish a reason for learning it.
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6. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Being able to ask questions…
helps to make the text clearer.
takes students to deeper meaning to help them understand text
Cris Tovani (adapted)
Cris Tovani is the author of “I Read It Bur I Don’t Get It.”
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7. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Teaching Questioning Strategies
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8. The Gradual Release of Responsibility
Independent Application
Independent Practice
The gradual release of responsibility is assumed in teaching all the strategies. In the beginning, students are given a great deal of support. The responsibility for learning and working is gradually released to the students.
Guided Practice
Teacher Modeling
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9. When we show kids how we reap big rewards.
Step 1 – Teacher Modeling
When we show kids how we reap big rewards.
Step 1, Teacher Modeling is a step that CANNOT be missed. This is where we show kids HOW to do what we’re asking.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

10. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
“Thinking Aloud”:
“The think aloud gives students the opportunity to see our thinking when we read, the connections, we make, the questions we ask, our inferences and our predictions.”
“It is through the read aloud that teachers show students their thinking process when reading.”
from Strategies That Work
Guided Reading
Remember that the strategies are not something you can teach on Monday and expect mastery of on Friday. Teacher modeling of the strategies is essential and will need to be repeated frequently. One very effective way of modeling the strategies is through a “think aloud”. This can be done while the teacher is reading something or just when the teacher is thinking through a problem of some kind. It can be done with any subject area.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

11. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Modeling a “Think Aloud”
photos / illustrations
picture books
personal reading material
classroom materials
short text / lifted text
poetry / musical lyrics
Picture books are great tools to use when first demonstrating questioning. The teacher can model how the pictures and the text cause the reader to create questions. Short text or lifted text can assist the teacher in choosing a passage which helps demonstrates a certain kind of questioning. Poetry and musical lyrics invite questions also. Photos and book illustrations can also be used to generate questions.
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12. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Teacher to Students…
“Last night I was reading this book and while I was reading, I found myself asking several questions about the text.” Let me read this passage to you …..
Bringing in our personal reading material and showing kids how teachers have questions when they’re reading is a powerful tool. It’s important that students realize that teachers have real questions when they read text.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

13. Model to students that questions can come….
Before Reading
During Reading
After Reading
“Frontloading” means to provide as much reading support as possible prior to reading. Reading support involves the use of the AR comprehension strategies. Connecting to the text and questioning are important parts. Students may look at the book’s cover, title, pictures and subheadings to begin asking questions. Ask students what they would like to know. Record them on chart paper.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

14. Using a photo or picture to teach questioning:
I wonder where the truck is going.
I wonder what the truck is carrying.
I wonder if the economy will allow truckers to keep their jobs.
Tell a partner..
“I wonder…”
Beginning any comprehension strategy with pictures appeals to the concrete thinker. It is not intimidating and puts all students on a level playing field.
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15. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Step 2 – Guided Practice
Guided Practice provides kids with a scaffold to help them grow towards independence.
Vygotsky describes scaffolding as the process of providing, and gradually removing, external support for learning. During scaffolding, the task itself is not changed, but what the learner initially does is made easier with assistance. As the learner takes more responsibility for performance of the task less assistance is provided.
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16. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Guided Practice
Charts:
* Two or Three Column Charts
* KWL Charts
* Anchor Charts
When introducing a new topic, unit of study or text, use sticky notes on which questions can be written and placed on a chart for a two column or three column chart under the heading, My Questions. When students’ questions are answered as they study or read, the stickies can be moved to the Questions Answered column of the chart.
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17. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Guided Practice
Types of Questions for Anchor Chart:
Questions which require only a brief answer or a yes/no answer.
Questions where there is only one correct answer.
Questions where the answer is open-ended.
Questions which require a detailed, complex answer
Questions which do not require any definite answer and are more interpretive or inferential.
Questions are not all the same. We want to encourage students to move away from asking simple questions that require a one word response to higher level questions. When discussing “questioning” create “Anchor” Charts with the students that have examples of different types of questions. Post these in the room. In your anchor chart, you may wish to divide it into thirds with these headings,
“What do we know about asking questions?” How does asking questions help the reader? How do readers figure out the answers to their questions?
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18. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
THICK questions address large,
universal concepts…
For instance, “What is
photosynthesis?”
You could not answer that
question with one word. The
answers are long and involved
and need to be researched.
A simpler way to describe the idea of different types of questions is to refer to them as being either “thick” or “thin” questions. Explaining reasons and processes requires more interpretations. Answers are synthesized from various locations, a reader’s background experience and inferential thinking. These are thick questions.
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19. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
THIN QUESTIONS
Questions that can be answered with
a number or a simple “yes, or No”
fall in this category.
For instance,“How many planets are there?”
You use thin questions to
understand specific details.
Thin questions are literal and have answers that are “right there” in the text.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

20. Structure of Questions
Most of us think of these words when we think of questions:
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How?
Why?
It’s fine to teach students these question types as a beginning strategy. Students need to realize that certain types of information connects with each type of question. A “Who?” question is a person; “What?” is an object or activity; “When?” is a time; “Where?” is a place; “How?” is a process and “Why?” is a reason.
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21. But questions can also look like this…
Which of the following statements fits with . . .?
Can you think of an example. . .?
Could, should, would. . .?
If this story happened ….?
Does she/he mean that. . .?
In what ways. . . ?
But students need modeling of different stem questions. As students become more proficient with the types of questions they can ask, teachers could give points for the asking more complex questions.
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22. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Guided Practice
Reciprocal Teaching:
Facilitates a group effort between teacher and students as well as among students in the task of bringing meaning to text.
Students and teacher take turns in leading a dialogue about text. Four activities are incorporated into the technique: prediction, questioning, summarizing and clarifying.
In reciprocal questioning the teacher reads and then the students ask the teacher questions. Students and teacher alternate asking the questions. Cooperative learning assignments also remove some of the stigma of asking “dumb” questions.
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23. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Guided Practice
Teaching “I wonder…” statements:
Sometimes students find it easier to pose questions in the form of “I wonder…” statements. After generating the I wonder statements, teachers can demonstrate how the statement can be changed to a question with the question word coming first.
(READ SLIDE) This is an example of how to scaffold something kids can do to something they can’t do.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

24. Teaching coding for questioning:
Guided Practice
Teaching coding for questioning:
Answered directly in your text - A
Answered from someone’s background knowledge- BK
Inferred (figured out) from text- I
Answered by further discussion-D
Requiring further research- RS
Signaling confusion- Huh?
Harvey/ Goudvis suggest the use of picture book, Charlie Anderson, by Barbara Abercromie for categorizing questions. This is a coding system suggested in their book. Although, any coding system can work, it’s a good idea for a staff to agree on the kind of coding that would be used in a school.
Harvey and Goudvis
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25. Other ideas for questioning:
Teacher reads a passage. Student asks a question to answer.
Take turns reading and asking questions.
Reread a story at least three times. Keep a list of questions and see how they change.
Look at the front cover of a book. In two minutes, see how many questions you can create about it.
These three techniques take little time to use but can be helpful. In our time conscious lesson plans, rereading a story is rarely done. Researchers find that the rereading brings greater depth to conversation about the text.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

26. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Step 3: Independent Practice
Students need to be able to use questioning strategies “on their own” to become metacognitive, strategic readers. They need to learn to use the tools available to them that lead them to independent application.
Over time, the teacher gives more and more responsibility to the student. The teacher’s role is to observe, confer with students, and provide the students with some tools to assist them in practicing their questioning skills.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

27. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Independent Practice
Display anchor charts and previously worked on charts on display in the room.
Provide tools such as Question Matrix, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and Six Thinking Hats
Two Column Note worksheets /Graphic Organizers and webs
Small group and / or work in pairs
Play Jeopardy or other games
Provide sticky notes for coding text
These are examples of ways that students can begin to independently practice questioning and how teachers can support that independence.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

28. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Tools for
Independent Practice
The following “tools” can be used for guided practice and independent practice. During independent practice, the tools are posted in the room or given to the students to be kept with their notebooks or binders. This way they can be kept for referencing as students work.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

29. The Question Matrix What Is? Where/When is? Which did? Who is? Why is?
EVENT
SITUATION
CHOICE
PERSON
RESAON
MEANS
PRESENT
What
Is?
Where/When is?
Which did?
Who is?
Why is?
How is?
PAST
What did?
Where/ When 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?
The question matrix has 36 question starters for asking who, what, where, when, why and how. The questions are asked in present, past and future tenses ranging from simple recall through to predictions and imagination. Proceeding through the matrix, the questions become more complex and open-ended. The matrix can be made into cubes, cards, spinners or divided into strips or single questions. The matrix also reflects Bloom’s Taxonomy with questions at the top of grid being Knowledge questions and questions along the bottom requiring analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The idea is to encourage in depth thinking.
(C. Weiderhold ‘Co-operative Learning and Critical Thinking’
in Langrehr, Better Questions, better Thinking Book 2, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1993)
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

30. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Six Thinking Hats (de Bono)
White Hat Thinking: facts, figures, information needs and gaps.
Red Hat Thinking: intuition, feelings, emotions
Black Hat Thinking: judgment, caution
Yellow Hat Thinking: logical positive, why something will work, its benefits, value
Green Hat Thinking: creativity, alternatives, proposals, changes
Blue Hat Thinking: overview or process,
metacognition
Edward DeBono devised the Six Thinking Hats as a strategy to encourage students to look at a topic or problem or idea from more than one perspective. Each hat represents a different kind of thinking and therefore different kinds of questions. It is similar to Bloom’s Taxonomy in that it encourages deeper and broader thinking.
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31. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Comprehension
Providing a list of “Bloom’s” verbs encourages students to use higher thinking questioning. Points could be given to students for moving up through Bloom’s hierarchy.
Application
Knowledge
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32. Practicing Questioning in a Group
Find a small group of brilliant learners. 1
Decide how to read your text—aloud or silently. 2
Everyone writes 1-2 questions that could be answered. 3
Ask your questions first.
Call on a volunteer to answer. 4
Ask for other volunteers to ask their questions. 5
Don’t allow
YES/NO questions.
Ask “Why do you think this?” 6
These instructions need to be on a handout or on the board for the group. One leader follows this process.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

33. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Step 4: Independent Application
The goal of comprehension instruction is to help all students take responsibility for their own learning and be self-directed rather than teacher directed.
Ultimately we want students to reach Step 4 and become independent strategic readers.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

34. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
Metacognition
Making Connections
Asking Questions
Expanding Vocabulary
Predicting
Using Your Senses
Deciding Importance
Making Inferences
Summarizing and Synthesizing
Building Fluency
Repairing Comprehension
The goal of questioning strategies along with the other AR strategies is to increase metacognition, or an awareness of thinking, in our students. Metacognition is the umbrella over all the strategies
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35. Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools
The Payoff
You understand that hearing
others’ questions inspires
new ones of your own;
likewise, listening to others’
answers can also inspire
new thinking.”
Debbie Miller
Students and teachers can learn from each other. It’s a dynamic process with huge payoffs in the end.
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools

36. Permission granted to HRSB on November 27, 2007 by Beth Suderman
Adapted with permission from the Elkhart Community Schools