I’ve certainly pushed my students to learn various reading strategies to improve comprehension, including asking questions.
I’ve explained that asking ourselves questions forces us to pay more attention to what we’re reading since it stimulates us to find the answers. It’s just another way for us to bring meaning to the text — without engaging in that way the words are just a bunch of ink on paper. In addition, by encouraging students to gain more understanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy, they can ask even more complex questions that allow them to dig even deeper into the text.
Now a study just came out reinforcing the importance of asking questions as a reading strategy.
Asking questions enhances remembering the information we gain in response to them.
You can read more at Does Asking Questions Improve Your Memory?
I started using the reading comprehension strategies associated with Reader’s Workshop with my K-6 ELLs about 10 years ago. This really changed the way I taught. I have been blogging about reading comprehension for ELLs and in this week’s blog I talked about visualization and making connections. ( http://everythingesl-everythingesl.blogspot.com/) Next weeK I will talk about questioning strategies. This is a skill that can be taught to K-1 students.
I would love to know the experiences of other teachers of ELLs with this reading comprehension strategy.