have questions about migrant farmworkers, labor camps, and why a little girl cries every time her father takes out a road map.
I’ve prepared a chart and a record sheet for children that are almost identical. Over the span of two or three days, everything we do together in the large group I ask children to do in their own reading as well. For example, on the first day, we
■ read the story aloud.
■ record our questions on sticky notes.
■ place them on the chart.
■ choose a burning question we want to focus on the next day.
After the lesson, children do the same things—they
■ read independently.
■ record their questions on sticky notes.
■ place them on their record sheets.
■ choose a burning question each wants to focus on the next day.
The next day we reread the story, focusing on our burning question.
We work together to answer the question and spend time reflecting on what helped us most. The children then respond in writing to their individual questions during independent reading time and reflect on what helped them most. (See the class chart of Amerlia’s Road and Cory’s corresponding response to Tut’s Mummy Lost and Found at the start of Chapter 1.)
Readers understand that the process of questioning is used in
I’ve just read The Wise Woman and Her Secret by Eve Merriam, the story of a wise woman who knows the secret of wisdom and a little girl named Jenny, who learns that she knows the secret, too.
As the children wander, they record questions on their Wonder Cards:
■ How does a bird learn to sing?
■ Why do ladybugs have spots?
■ Are we right now out in space?
■ How does an ant find its way home?
■ How was the world born?
■ Why do trees have bark?
■ Why do dogs have wet noses?
■ Why do some leaves have lumps?
■ Who made God?
■ Why is the sky blue?
■ Why do bees sting?
■ Did dinosaurs ever walk on our playground?
■ How can it be so cold in springtime? (This one’s easy: We live in Denver!)
Ever since the day the wise woman and her secret entered the chil-dren’s lives, Wonder Boxes have been spotted in the lunchroom, on the playground, at home, and on field trips. Magnifying glasses have found their way into them, as well as shiny pebbles, feathers, dead bugs, “dia-monds,” flower petals, and “dinosaur fossils.”
And I have begun to do some wondering of my own. Since when have I looked closely at a bustling anthill and wondered what goes on under-neath? Since when have I taken the time to pick up a roly-poly and watch it curl into a little ball? And since when have I tried to catch snowflakes in my coat sleeve, just to see if I’d be the first to find two the same?
Children everywhere know that the secret of wisdom is to be curious about the world, to open up their senses and see, hear, taste, touch, and smell life’s treasures. Giving children time to explore their world, ask ques-tions, and pursue those questions that matter to them most lets them know I value their curiosity outside the classroom as well as inside. My job is to continue to nurture their wonder and work to awaken my own.
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Chapter 9: Asking Questions
Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie Miller. Copyright © 2006.
■ Evidence of Understanding and Independence
“When you have lots of questions about a book, that’s good.
Then you know there’s going to be a lot of learning coming to you.”
Daniel
“I think that some-times kids can learn stuff that grown-ups can’t. A kid’s brain isn’t as stuffed with things they have to do, so they have more room to think and see and ask questions about things they don’t already know the answers to.”
Lilli
“When you ask questions, it makes you want to keep reading so you can figure them out. It keeps your head in the book.”
Madison
Hayden creates a questioning web at home to help him understand a photograph in the newspaper
Madison’s question about Catwings by Ursula LeGuin
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Chapter 9: Asking Questions
“Asking questions is smart. It means you don’t understand something and you know you don’t understand it.”
Bret
“Sometimes you never get the answer to your really strong questions, but you should still keep working to figure them out, because the answer can come to you another day.”
Whit
A group exploration
Daniel’s quotation about Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie Miller. Copyright © 2006.
Chris’s questions before, during, and after reading The Taileypo by Paul Galdone
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Chapter 9: Asking Questions
Bret’s response to The Magic Fish by Freya Littledale
Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie Miller. Copyright © 2006.
Asking Questions at a Glance
What’s Key for Kids?
■ Readers spontaneously and purposefully ask questions before, during, and after reading.
■ Readers ask questions to clarify meaning
speculate about text yet to be read
determine an author’s style, intent, content, or format focus attention on specific components of the text
locate a specific answer in the text or consider rhetorical questions inspired by the text.
■ Readers determine whether the answers to their questions can be found in the text or whether they will need to infer the answer from the text, their background knowledge, and/or an outside source.
■ Readers understand that many of the most intriguing questions are not answered explicitly in the text, but are left to the reader’s inter-pretation.
■ Readers understand that hearing others’ questions inspires new ones of their own; likewise, listening to others’ answers can also inspire new thinking.
■ Readers understand that the process of questioning is used in other areas of their lives, both personal and academic.
■ Readers understand that asking questions deepens their comprehension.
(Adapted from Keene and PEBC)