We love asking questions!

Asking Questions

One of the reading comprehension strategies that our class is focusing on is asking questions. We are learning to ask questions when we read words and pictures to help us deepen our understanding of a book, poster, etc.

Today our class looked at a poster about a pond environment. We read the captions and thought of questions. I was so impressed with students' abilities to build on each others' ideas when inferring answers!

Here are just a few of our questions. Some of them were from our initial look at the poster and some were generated after asking a question, thinking about the answer, and then asking a new one!

- What are rainbow trout?

- Why are there so many plants around the river?

- What is the can in the water? 

- What is litter or pollution?

- Who put the garbage in the river?

- Why didn't the person who littered read the sign or use the trash can?

Wow! After discussing the questions and their answers we couldn't believe how much more we knew and how much better we understood the poster!

Thick vs. Thin Questions

During Literacy, students learned that we can classify questions under two categories: thick or thin.

Thin questions remind us of snakes. They usually have short answers (one word, yes or no) and do not require a lot of information to answer.

Examples:

Do you like recess?

What do snakes eat?

Thick questions remind us of elephants. They usually have longer answers and require a lot of thinking or information to answer.

Examples:

How do we know which recess games are the most popular?

Why do animals have different kinds of fur or scales?

At home, try thinking of both thin and thick questions when you are reading a familiar book or your levelled book! How does asking questions help you to better understand what you read?