Asking Questions

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="21d005a0dvldtc.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" >PT3 Readers are Leaders</FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FF6600" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PT3 Readers are Leaders"><U>home</U></A>  | <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Role playing"><U>Training Room</U></A> | <A HREF="home54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Activity Room"><U>Reading Room</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id86.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Analyzing a book with a journey to ident"><U>Analyzing a book with a journey to identity theme</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writing activities"><U>Writing activities</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Using a conflict theme"><U>Using a conflict theme</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Role playing"><U>Role playing</U></A>   |   <B>Asking Questions</B>   |   <A HREF="id90.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Using Visual Strategies"><U>Using Visual Strategies</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Literary terms"><U>Literary terms</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id92.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shared Reading"><U>Shared Reading</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id93.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Community Connections"><U>Community Connections</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id94.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Small group discussions "><U>Small group discussions </U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#FFCC00" TEXT="#080000"> <div> GOAL</div> <bR> <div> Asking good questions can help you</div> <div> 1.  Improve your understanding of a work of literature.</div> <div> 2.  Dig deeper into the meaning of a book.</div> <div> 3.  Use the experiences of the characters to understand other people better and to get ideas of ways of solve your own problems.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFCC00" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Asking Questions</div> <div> <B>Asking Questions</B></div> <bR> <div>        Good questions help a reader go beyond first impressions of a book.  You can improve your own reading by asking yourself questions.  When several people share answers to good questions, everyone is likely to get new, interesting ideas.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Activity:  Text, Context, Connect questions</B></div> <bR> <div>       Choose a big idea from the book: an important theme, conflict, dilemma, or issue in the book such as love, betrayal, friendship, identity, responsibility. Think about what the book says about that theme.  You may find it useful to think about thesis statements you could use in writing about the bit ideas in the book.</div> <div> <I>       For example, </I><I><U>The Friends</U></I><I> by Rosa Guy, one theme is responsibility.  A thesis statement might be: "In </I><I><U>The Friends</U></I><I>, Rosa Guy points out the difficulties that adult irresponsibility causes young people."</I></div> <div>        Write a series of questions to guide readers to grapple with the theme as it appears in the book, and as it happens in the real world.  The following are three types of questions you may use. </div> <div>     <B> a.   Text or evidence question:</B>  A text question focuses the reader on a specific incident, paragraph or even sentence which relates to the theme.  If the passage is difficult, you may want to give the page number and have people look at the text or read it aloud or role play it.  Or you may ask readers to find passages that answer a particular question.</div> <div>      A text question may be something that you think others may have trouble understanding or it may be something anyone can answer but that they need to think about to answer your context and connect questions.</div> <div>      <I>Examples:  </I></div> <div> <I>1.   List the adults that Phyllisia looks to for help in dealing with the Beulah's threats.  </I></div> <div> <I>2.  In the scene beginning on page 21, what responsibilities do the adults say that they have for Phyllisia?</I></div> <bR> <div>      <B>b.  Context question: </B> A context question helps the reader see how a particular incident works in relationship to the rest of the book.  It shows the connection between the individual incident and the big ideas of the book.  It may connect the incident to the theme or compare to incidents.  It may also explore the way this incident fits into the author's purpose.</div> <div>       <I>Examples:</I></div> <div> <I>      1.  Do you think Rosa Guy is criticizing the adults in this culture, or is she saying that adolescents have to learn to take responsibility for themselves?</I></div> <div> <I>       2.  Do we see these adults as irresponsible because they really were, or because we are seeing the story through Phyllisia's eyes, and she likes to blame others for her problems.</I> </div> <bR> <div>     <B> c.  Connect question</B>:  A connect question relates the theme or issue to the students' lives, world, or values.  It can focus on how the theme relates to their values or whether they agree with the author.  It can compare the world of the novel with their world.  It can compare their experiences with the experiences of the characters.  In designing connect questions, be sure you do not ask students to share information so personal it would upset their parents or their relationships with their peers.  </div> <div>      Examples:</div> <div> <I>     1.  If Edith lived in your town and attended your school, what adults might be able to help her?  Are the resources to help children whose parents die or disappear better in your town today than they were in New York thirty years ago?</I></div> <div> <I>      2. In a bully situation like that of Beulah, is it better for a teen-ager to handle it herself, or should she try to find an adult to handle it?</I></div> <bR> <div> Activity:  Circle questions</div> <div>             Ask questions (usually connection questions) that everyone in the group could answer differently.  The question should be something a person can answer in one or two sentences.  Connection questions usually work well.  </div> <div>            First, go around the circle with each person giving an answer and no responses allowed.  When everyone is finished, allow a general discussion of the topic.  Circle questions are often a good way of opening a discussion.</div> <div>         </div> <div> <I>Examples:</I></div> <div> <I>    1.   Which character in the novel is most like you?</I></div> <div> <I>    2.   Which character in the novel do you admire most?  Give us one reason why you admire him or her?</I></div> <div> <I>    3.   What was the worst place you ever lived?  What was one reason you didn't like it?</I></div> <div>     </div> <div> Activity:  Open Ended Questions with Follow-Up Questions</div> <div>            Think through carefully a major issue (usually a context or a connection issue) that has a wide range of possible answers.  Let several people share opinions.  When people begin to repeat themselves, use some of the following strategies to probe more deeply into their ideas.</div> <div>      <I>Example:   Was Calvin irresponsible, or was all of his time and energy taken up trying to provide for the family?</I></div> <div> <I>     Answer:   I think he was irresponsible.  I don't think he cared about Phyllisia.</I></div> <div> 1.  Ask follow-up questions to probe more deeply into an answers, to challenge it, or to ask for supporting evidence.  <I>(If he didn't care about her, why did he try to cross the street in the riot?)</I></div> <div> 2.  Ask questions to guide others to compare their answers or to build on each others' answers.  <I>(How many examples have we heard so far in the discussion that suggest that Calvin didn't care about Phyllisia?)</I></div> <div> 3.  Reflect a promising idea back to the group and ask them to explore it more deeply.  <I>(So you think that Phyllisia misunderstood her father?)</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Question List</I></div> <div>  The following questions can be used with almost any novel to stimulate thought.  These questions can be used for circle discussion, group discussions, writing prompts and reading logs.</div> <bR> <div> Questions for the first few chapters of the book.</div> <div> 1.  How is the main character similar to you and how is the character different?</div> <div> 2.  How is the main character similar to and different from the main character of the last book that you have read?  </div> <div> 3.  Would you make any prediction about how this book will turn out base on the main character?  </div> <div> 4.  What conflicts does the main character have?  </div> <div> 5.  Compare and contrast the setting of this story with your own neighborhood.</div> <div> 6.  Do you trust the narrator of the story?  Are you hearing the whole story or only one person's ideas?</div> <div> 7.  Make a list of the words the author uses to refer to the main character.</div> <bR> <div> Questions for the middle of the book.</div> <div> 1.  What is the most exciting (frightening) thing that has happened so far?  Why is it exciting or frightening.</div> <div> 2.  What wise choices and what foolish choices has the main character made?</div> <div> 3.  What do you like most about this book?  What bothers or annoys you?</div> <div> 4.  Is the author a good storyteller? What makes the author's style interesting?</div> <bR> <div> Questions for the end of the book.</div> <div> 1.  What did the main character gain and lose in the book?</div> <div> 2.  What did you learn from the book?</div> <div> 3.  Did you expect the ending?  Why or why not?</div> <div>     </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>