Reading Workshop
The children are doing an amazing job in Reader’s Workshop. They are choosing books that are “just right” and beginning to apply the two strategies we learned. We are currently working on questioning and how asking questions helps us understand a story. Good readers read and carefully think about every page they read. The children are beginning to ask themselves questions. Through the use of questioning, children understand the text on a deeper level because questions clarify any confusion the child may be experiencing. Questions also stimulate further interest in a topic. Here is how to use this strategy. Remember to use this strategy with your children, before you read, as you read, as well as after you are done.

Here are some questions you can ask your child before, during, and after a story they have read to you:

• What is the main idea of the story?
• What details support the main idea?
• What do you know that is similar to this story?
• Tell me about the story.
• What else do you recall?

Besides asking questions of your child, here are some other things you can do with questioning to help your child understand:

• Model questioning in your own re-reading.
• Ask open-ended or “I wonder” questions.
• Ask your child to come up with questions before reading to see if they will be answered in the text.
• Keep track of questions verbally or in a log.
• Stop as they are reading and ask your child to make predictions about the text.  It is very important to link what has been read to facts or events that the child already knows. A child is more likely to remember information he or she has read if they are able to link it to an event that has already occurred in their lives.