Ask a question that belongs to this particular text

A prompt such as 'What do you think?' can be useful, but it may not reveal attention to a passage. Build a focused question around an event, explanation or detail the reader can locate.

Choose questions requiring attention to this particular text. Generic questions can be answered without demonstrating that the passage was understood.

Make the answer depend on reading

Identify a puzzling event or word. State what information is missing. Ask a question that points to that gap.

'Why did the character return to the gate?' identifies a clearer issue than 'I do not get the story'.

A useful question need not have an immediate answer. Does the question identify a particular gap?

Let a child point while an adult scribes.

Resources

• Reflection Journal Template — Use the editable prompt space to record the text, question and response; it is a blank recording aid rather than a reading programme.

Further reading

• Literacy Hub — Teaching reading professional learning

Read next

• Feedback a young writer can use in the next draft
• Retelling a story without rebuilding it sentence by sentence
• When reading stops making sense, name the problem

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