Once you’ve got your students in a guided reading routine, it's time to have
them exploring what they’re reading and completing activities that develop their comprehension
skills. This is no small feat when it comes to young readers because
their writing skills are generally not developed yet which makes it difficult
for them to express themselves independently. In order to set your students up to become comprehension experts, here are some tips and an overview of the order of progression that occurs.
Step 1: Diverse Verbal Questioning
To begin their reading journey it is essential that students are asked LOTS of diverse questions. This is a great way to help readers develop a large repertoire of comprehension skills, particularly when they aren’t able to articulate their ideas in written form yet. It also gets them
thinking about the text and gets them accustomed to responding to it which will be useful
in later activities. When using verbal questioning, it is important that stuents are asked a variety of different questions. Questions should go beyond recall knowledge such as "Who is the main character?" and include higher order questions too such as "When have you felt the same way as the main character?" You want students to think critically and most importantly, you want them to connect to what they are reading.
Here are some question ideas: