Amanda Felts
Dense Questioning
Reading Strategies Scaffolding Students’ Interactions with Texts
Link: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/intruction/ela/6-12/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/dense%20questioning.htm
Summary: This strategy teaches students how to ask different questions. It basically teaches students to ask questions in many different shoes. For example a student might ask, ” How does this affect the world I live in, and how does the world view this?” The three steps to this is: comparing text to text, comparing text to self, and comparing text to world connections.
NCSCOS: The course of study could e addressed in many ways, for example if I assigned my students to read a current event about the Ozone. I would have them compare what they read to other things they have read, to what they know and then compare to what the worlds view is of Ozone. Then I would have them advocate for what they read, for themselves, and for the world, by asking questions as if that is what they were.
How would it help students learn? I think that having the students think outside the box about what is happening in class will help them develope thier own points of view as well as kind of push them to research on thier own to find out more about what ever the topic may be in class.
Why will this work? Middle school students are full of questions, but as teachers all we ask of them are for answers. By having the students develope questions and having them think about everything that they know about a topic, you will create a very accepting atmosphere in your classroom. With that type of atmosphere student will not be shy to ask questions, or to defend something that they believe. To me if a student can ask complex questions about a topic and defend something that they advocate for they know what is going on with that topic.
rbwilson0824 said,
May 29, 2008 @ 10:02 pm
As you said, students — and not just those in middle school — are bursting with questions. This is a great strategy to make the nature of kids a positive aspect of the classroom environment, instead of an interruption. No one likes to be singled out, especially in high school or middle school when egos are so fragile. It is nothing short of genius to have questioning as a regular expectation. Roberta Wilson
jenni301 said,
May 30, 2008 @ 3:00 am
I like this strategy. I was that student that hung their head down when the teacher starts looking for answers. Imagine that. Good way to help students learn.
Jennifer Roberts
flilly said,
May 31, 2008 @ 2:23 am
This strategy reminds me of my days in industry. When reviewing our processes and looking for causes for unexplained problems we would “question to the void.” The process required us to ask “why” five times, each time delving deeper into the root cause of the issue. If a student can give an answer to five successive questions each demanding “why” then he will get be the root of the meaning of the text.
Frank Lilly