Question of the Week

I realize that this is probably more like question of the month.  Sometimes it just takes awhile to find a good question.   

What do you think happens next?

This is a good one to check general comprehension, and also to point out plot devices used to build suspense.  Obviously, it can only be used if you control the reading material, and not if your child has already devoured the book.

Question of the week

One of the other things we are working on parenting-wise is problem solving skills.

Question of the week:  What is another way (character name) could have solved the problem differently?

Ha, ha--another opportunity to emphasize--USING YOUR WORDS and ASK FOR IT NICELY (sigh).  Or whatever it is that you are working on behaviorally lately.

Of course, DD had to point out--"Then the story would have been a lot shorter, Mom."  "Yes dear, you're right."

Question of the Week

I've been trying to keep the questions I ask as open ended as possible.  I use the reading response questions as a way of assessing what my student got out of reading, but also as a way of getting to know my daughter as a person.  Open ended questions tend to encourage more than a grunt for an answer from my 4 going on 16 year old.

Question of the week:  What was your favorite chapter (character, quote) in the book and why?

Question of the week

Sometimes its easy to forget, in the pursuit of encouraging better reading, that kids books are   replete with illustrations, sometimes really good ones, that are worth discussing in their own right.  You can call it art appreciation, or an exercise in descriptive language, or just letting a kid be a kid.

Question of the week:  Which picture/illustration did you like best, and why?

Question of the Week

So, what do you think of that?

Really.  What do you think about what that character did?  What do you think about what happened just now?

This is a way of soliciting an opinion.  But you probably want to have a child who is fairly verbally expressive.  Mine just said, "That's silly!"  Some questions are better than others!

Question of the week

Which character do you think you are most like?  And why?

My daughter thought for a few seconds and said "Tigger" ( we're re-reading Winnie the Pooh with little brother).  She didn't need to tell me why.  She just counted up to 100 by herself today and jumped probably 2 times for each number she counted and then was so proud she did it again.  No joke.  My sedentary self would probably pass out if I jumped that many times continuously.

Question of the week

Since we haven't been doing a lot of heavy reading this week, I asked this question after we saw a kid's musical.

Question of the week:  What did you like best about the show and how would you change it?

Question of the week

Here is another tried and true question for your precocious reader.  Remember, these questions are not comprehension questions so much as appreciation questions and thinking questions.  You can ask them orally to a younger reader, or if your reader is able to write well, you may pose it as an essay question or a reading journal question.  Many teachers will have students write them a letter about their book, and then write letters back.  Your kid may get a  real kick out of getting a letter from you!

The question of the week:  What do you think would have happened differently if ... ?

How to challenge an advanced reader

Challenging books are only the first part of challenging your precocious reader.  The technical aspect of decoding words is only the beginning of appreciating great books and learning content.  How do we get our kids to read more deeply?  By asking the right questions.

Sometimes advanced readers can get the right questions asked by participating in gifted classes or pull out groups in which the teacher asks more complex questions.  Its important to ascertain whether that is occurring in your child's classroom.  Your child might also participate in a book club through a local public library, or possibly a church or bookseller.   However, if you have a very young child, none of those may be accessible for your child at the moment.

So, I'm going to start a series on questions.  You can either ask these orally with a younger child, or have an older child write/draw responses in a response journal.  To start off with, I would go with a book that is at grade level or maybe just above grade level, because you want your child to focus on their response, not so much on decoding.

The question of the week was:  what did you like best about this book?

Seems simple, but for us, it lead to a conversation about bullfighting, the history of bullfighting, Roman gladiators, and why we should be kind to animals....  So, you never can tell...