Reading Effectively & Critical Thinking

I remember long ago, when I was a reading tutor, I would ask before/during/after questions with my students and couldn’t find them in my garage to use with Ethan. So I’m sharing the information I’ve gathered from online resources. I write these questions on a notecard, sticky pad or homemade bookmark to ask while reading to or with my son. I don’t ask him all of them and some I have to modify because of his young age. :happy:

Discussion and critical thinking questioning strategy lead to deeper analysis of content. This makes the learning process more about absorbing and reflecting on all facets of the material in a natural and curious state. Here are a few examples of questions that invoke informal reasoning: “Why did you select that one?” “How are these different?” “What happened when you?” “What would happen if you?” “What can you do to make… happen?” “How do you think s/he feels about what happened?” These types of questions develop critical thinking skills and stimulate verbal development as the children try to communicate their reasoning.

When reading aloud, you can stop from time to time and orally complete sentences like these:
•So far, I’ve learned…
•This made me think of…
•That didn’t make sense.
•I think ___ will happen next.
•I reread that part because…
•I was confused by…
•I think the most important part was…
•That is interesting because…
•I wonder why…
•I just thought of…

To help readers learn to ask questions before, during, and after reading, think aloud the next time you are reading a book, article, or set of directions. Write each question on a post-it note and stick it on the text you have the question about.

Ask questions such as:

“What clues does the title give me about the story?”
“Is this a real or imaginary story?”
“Why am I reading this?”
“What do I already know about___?”
“What predictions can I make?”

Start reading the text, and ask yourself questions while reading:

“What do I understand from what I just read?”
“What is the main idea?”
“What picture is the author painting in my head?”
“Do I need to reread so that I understand?”

Then reread the text, asking the following questions when you are finished:

“Which of my predictions were right? What information from the text tells me that I am correct?”
“What were the main ideas?”
“What connections can I make to the text? How do I feel about it?”

After students become aware of the best times to ask questions during the reading process, be sure to ask them a variety of questions that:
•Can be used to gain a deeper understanding of the text
•Have answers that might be different for everyone
•Have answers that can be found in the text
•Clarify the author’s intent
•Can help clarify meaning
•Help them make inferences
•Help them make predictions
•Help them make connections to other texts or prior knowledge

Some of the most challenging questions are “Why?” questions about the author’s intentions and the design of the text. For example:

“Why do you think the author chose this particular setting?”
“Why do you think the author ended the story in this way?”
“Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from the point of view of the daughter?”
“What does the author seem to be assuming about the reader’s political beliefs?”

Another way to challenge readers is to ask them open-ended question that require evidence from the text to answer. For example:

“What does Huck think about girls? What is your evidence?”
“Which character in the story is most unlike Anna? Explain your reasons, based on evidence from the novel?”
“What is the author’s opinion about affirmative action in higher education? How do you know?”

Read more on TeacherVision: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill-builder/reading-comprehension/48617.html?page=2&detoured=1

Hope this post helps you as it does for me! :wink:

I’ve atttached a document where you can print it out on cardstock paper & laminate it, then cut it out into strips of questions. I cut this page into 4 strips of “bookmarks”.