4. Questioning
Questioning is a strategy that teaches students to ask themselves questions before, during and after reading a passage or section of text. The process of asking questions such as 'what did I just read?', 'what were the main points of what I just read?', 'what are some key facts that I need to remember from what I just read?', 'what are some vocabulary words that I need to learn and remember?', will insure that the student is reading with more attention, depth and comprehension. It will also insure that the student is more likely to process what he reads into long-term memory.
I, as the teacher, will model the strategy for the class by reading a passage aloud, stopping to ask myself questions like those above about the reading, aloud, before, during and after the reading. The students will thus see how the process works and what types of questions to ask themselves. Next, I will have a student that I know is a good reader read a short passage and again demonstrate the technique. I will explain to the class that good readers always engage in this type of questioning when they read something new, and, while most questioning is silent, in the mind of the reader, all good readers, including myself, write down some really important questions that they want to remember or further research.
Students will then be put into groups to read a passage together and to write down questions that come to any of them as they read. The groups will be instructed to discuss the passage and the questions and to try to crystallize all of their questions into several of the most common or most frequently asked questions. The class will be brought together and some of these questions will be read aloud and discussed by the class with me acting as moderator. The written questions will all be posted somewhere in the classroom where all the students can refer to them and use them as study guides.
This strategy will help struggling readers and students with comprehension and recall problems.
5. Drawing and Illustration.
This strategy involves students making quick, off-the-cuff drawings, sketches and diagrams to illustrate ideas, events and facts from the subject matter that they are reading. The illustrations would include words in the form of labels, lists, vocabulary, equations, etc. I would stress to the students that this is not an exercise to see what great works of art they can produce, but quick, off-hand illustrations, even stick figures and line drawings, designed to get the idea down on paper in a way that will help them recall it. I will stress that these are not projects that will be graded on form or technique, or even graded at all, but a tool to help them think about what they have read, to comprehend and remember it, and to communicate it to others. I would model the strategy for the students, and post good examples from other classes so that they can visualize the technique. I will tell the students that, while I won't be grading the drawings and illustrations for form and technique, I will be looking at what they are doing to assure myself and them that they have a grasp of the technique and are using it effectively. I will tell them that I will ask permission to photocopy and post good examples of the use of this technique so that other students may learn from the examples.
This strategy will help struggling readers and students who have problems processing, comprehending or recalling written materials. It will be an especially useful technique for students who are very visually oriented. I think that it will also be especially helpful to ELL students, probably with a bit more modeling and scaffolding. It will help all students solidify the information into their long-term memory.
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