Question Cards

Question Cards during Independent Reading

Use individualized question cards during independent reading to ensure students are constantly engaged in the story they are reading.

Using question cards while students are independently reading will give students a sense of responsiblity and increase comprehension. Question cards help students gain a purpose for reading, help to activate their background knowledge, and give them a guide to identify main ideas and supporting details.

There are multiple levels of questioning available on this site in order to assist in differentiation while your students are reading independently.

Level 1: "Right There" questions

Level 2: "Putting it Together" questions

Level 3: "Making Connections" questions

Along with these multiple levels of questions, there are planning sheets which help students keep track of their information while they are reading. There is also a sheet which gives students an opportunity write questions they may come up with while they are reading. This resource is a way to keep students engaged while helping students "think" about the text they are reading. Students are able to keep track of their reading and also share their thinking/questioning after independent reading is over. (University of Texas System pg 271-303, 2007).

The Reading Teacher’s Sourcebook

Figure 24. Level 2 “Putting It Together” Questions Planning Sheet.

PLANNING SHEET

Example of

LEVEL 2 QUESTIONS

1. Preteach Proper Nouns or Critical Concept Nouns

Introduce, read, and define. Students write brief definition in learning log.

Who:

Where:

What:

2. Preview Text

Introduce the big idea of the text selection.

What is the most important idea that you want all students to understand

and remember from this reading?

Important key concepts, subheadings, bolded print, etc.

Connections to prior learning:

3. Model Level 2 Questions

Questions to use as example

Keep them Thinking While They Read!

Differentiation

Question cards can be differentiated based on how well students do on the three different levels. Once a student has masted Level 1 the "right there" questions, they will move on to the next level, Level 2 "putting it together" questions. Once Level 2 is mastered, students can go onto Level 3 "making connections".

Question cards can be used for students from the end of kindergarten all the way to 12th grade!

From the Teacher to Student

Teachers will begin implementation by modeling the "think aloud", by using question cards as you are reading. Teacher will read a story and use question cards to stop periodically and answer questions throughout the story.

Teacher will then release students with Level 1 question cards and a journal to answer questions in.

Once students have mastered Level 1, they are ready to move on to the next level.

Content Areas

Math: Students can answer story problems during math in the form of question cards. Students can also dictate vocabulary by using question cards.

Social Studies/Science: Students can answer questions about certain events , people or eras in history by using question cards. Also, students can write down certain scientific processes using question cards.

Reading: Students can answer questions of who, what, when and where, as well as make predictions and connections to what they are reading.

Rubric

Video for Question Cards