Question+Sheet

Type
QUESTION

Description
A set of questions is created in order to guide students' attention, usually as they read a text. The guide may be in the form of a graphic organizer that focuses on topics such as vocabulary, core concepts, important facts, and opportunities to make key inferences.

Purpose
To facilitate student comprehension, generally of text. To help students develop and sharpen their literacy skills by modelling questioning, generally of text.

Range
Grades 3+

Fruitility
Students like having a reading guide to help them suss out important information in texts that we ask them to read, especially when those texts are //informational//, as for example, a science text book. Large parts of many such books tend to be short on story and long on facts. A **question sheet** helps students focus on those ideas that are relevant and supportive of the planned instruction.

Features
I used a matrix format to make //Notebuilder// reading guides for my students when they were reading about the characteristics and needs of living things in their science textbook. A really attractive feature of this kind of comprehension aid is both the gross and fine tuning that I could do when writing the questions that I wanted my students to think (and write) about as they slogged through the dense undergrowth of scientific facts and details. Guiding questions can also be designed to be, using Buehl's terms, //in-the-book// and //in-my-head// questions (p. 133). **Question sheets** thus afford a great deal of control over both the reading content terrain and the types of analysis to be performed therein.


 * Buehl, D. (2009). Classroom strategies for interactive learning. Newark, Del: International Reading Association.