Explicit Strategy Instruction: Asking Questions

Do you ever look for resources to help you explicitly teach your child comprehension strategies when reading?  Good readers use these strategies without even thinking about it.  It is our job as parents and educators to teach our children how to use these strategies so that they become second nature to them as they read independently.  You can use the book I’ve focused on or any of the books on Big Universe.

Asking Questions

Asking questions as one reads, allows the reader to clarify points of confusion, or help the story move forward.  Explicitly model how to ask questions for your child.

Charlie Anderson by Barbara Abercrombie is a great book to model asking questions.  A cat shows up one night to the house where Elizabeth and Sarah live.  They take him in, feed him, love him and name him Charlie.  Every morning though, he disappears into the woods.   One night, he doesn’t return and Sarah and Elizabeth become worried.  They look for him and find a surprise.

As you read aloud, ask:

• Where does Charlie come from?
• Where does Charlie go every morning?
• What is he doing when he’s gone?

If you have post-it notes, ask your child to mark in the book when he comes across the answers to these questions.  Clarify any other questions he may have about the story.  Ask if he wonders about anything else.

Use your read aloud time to sneak in some comprehension strategy lessons without missing a beat.  The likelihood is that you will discuss the book anyway, so make your discussion a bit more focused and your child will begin to learn a few strategies as you model them.  As you read aloud other books to your child, stop and ask questions (to clarify the text or to move the story forward).

Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing.  In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children.  She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families.  Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com