As active readers we're thinking while we're reading, asking questions and seeking the answers - although we may not articulate the questions. If you pay attention to your thoughts, you may discover that when you are having a "comprehension breakdown" you ask questions like these:
- What's going on here?
- Why did the character say that?
- Why is the author so emphatic about this point?
- Why did the author include this information? What's the connection with the last section?
- What's the difference between this plan and the old one?
- How does this information fit with the article I read yesterday? Are the two authors saying different things? How could the ideas be reconciled?
When you become aware of your own questioning you can model this process by thinking aloud with different kinds of texts: asking questions and demonstrating how you find the answers. You could use QAR analysis again here, thinking about where the answers might be found. Be sure to plan this activity carefully to include examples of different kinds of questions so you can show the different strategies for finding answers.
For example, some of the questions above could be answered by reading on and perhaps using inference to draw a conclusion. Some would require looking back to other parts of the text to recall events in a story or to review information. Still others may require other sources. Sometimes reading raises questions that require further reading.
The question-generating strategy may be used in reading both fiction and nonfiction texts. By showing learners how to be questioners and encouraging them to analyze their questions to decide where the answers may be found, you are helping them to become active readers and thinkers. Research with children offers strong evidence that this strategy improves reading comprehension, as reflected in specific tasks: remembering what is read, answering questions based on the text, and identifying main ideas through summarization (NICHD, 2000, p. 4-88).
As a next step, analyzing questions may be a good skill to transfer to real-life reading tasks. When adults need to read something because they have questions, using this strategy may be helpful, because they figure out where the answers to different kinds of questions may be found. What kind of question is it? Does the notice or manual or letter have all the answers in it, or is it necessary to get more information? They could formulate their own questions and analyze them: deciding for each one if it's a Right There, a Think and Search, or an On My Own question. Then they could read to find answers and check back afterward to see if their analysis was correct.
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