Reading Strategy
Original URL: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill-builder/reading-comprehension/48617.html
Questions Before, During, and After Reading
What Is It?
To aid their comprehension, skillful readers ask themselves questions before, during, and after they read. You can help students become more proficient by modeling this process for them and encouraging them to use it when they read independently.
Why Is It Important?
Dolores Durkin's research in 1979 showed that most teachers asked students questions after they had read, as opposed to questioning to improve comprehension before or while they read. In the late 1990s, further research (Pressley, et al. 1998) revealed that despite the abundance of research supporting questioning before, during, and after reading to help comprehension, teachers still favored post-reading comprehension questions.
Researchers have also found that when adult readers are asked to "think aloud" as they read, they employ a wide variety of comprehension strategies, including asking and answering questions before, during, and after reading (Pressley and Afflerbach 1995). Proficient adult readers:
Are aware of why they are reading the text
Preview and make predictions
Read selectively
Make connections and associations with the text based on what they already know
Refine predictions and expectations
Use context to identify unfamiliar words
Reread and make notes
Evaluate the quality of the text
Review important points in the text
Consider how the information might be used in the future
Successful reading is not simply the mechanical process of "decoding" text. Rather, it is a process of active inquiry. Good readers approach a text with questions and develop new questions as they read, for example:
"What is this story about?"
"What does the main character want?"
"Will she get it?" "If so, how?"
Even after reading, engaged readers still ask questions:
"What is the meaning of what I have
Questions Before, During, and After Reading
What Is It?
To aid their comprehension, skillful readers ask themselves questions before, during, and after they read. You can help students become more proficient by modeling this process for them and encouraging them to use it when they read independently.
Why Is It Important?
Dolores Durkin's research in 1979 showed that most teachers asked students questions after they had read, as opposed to questioning to improve comprehension before or while they read. In the late 1990s, further research (Pressley, et al. 1998) revealed that despite the abundance of research supporting questioning before, during, and after reading to help comprehension, teachers still favored post-reading comprehension questions.
Researchers have also found that when adult readers are asked to "think aloud" as they read, they employ a wide variety of comprehension strategies, including asking and answering questions before, during, and after reading (Pressley and Afflerbach 1995). Proficient adult readers:
Are aware of why they are reading the text
Preview and make predictions
Read selectively
Make connections and associations with the text based on what they already know
Refine predictions and expectations
Use context to identify unfamiliar words
Reread and make notes
Evaluate the quality of the text
Review important points in the text
Consider how the information might be used in the future
Successful reading is not simply the mechanical process of "decoding" text. Rather, it is a process of active inquiry. Good readers approach a text with questions and develop new questions as they read, for example:
"What is this story about?"
"What does the main character want?"
"Will she get it?" "If so, how?"
Even after reading, engaged readers still ask questions:
"What is the meaning of what I have