In the past, teachers would create questions for students to answer to assess and evaluate reading comprehension. Today, question and answer relationship strategy is used to increase student reading comprehension for a variety of non fiction and fiction text.
Many students are familiar with the standard question starters of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. Often they create questions with one simple answer found in the text. However, they struggle with creating questions that are not found directly in the text. Question and answer relationship strategy is a teaching tool to assist students with developing more advanced questions.
Students who create questions from text can no longer just skim the reading material to find an answer but must organize the information to create a good question. "Right there"questions are simple to create because the student only needs to find an answer and create a question around it. "What city is the main character from?" is a common right there question.
"Think and search" question is a little more difficult to create because the student must think of a question that is not find in a single sentence but rather is a combination of ideas in the text. Describe the main character is a common think and search question. Lastly, an "on "my own" questiona relate to the text, but the answer is not found in the text. "Do you think the main character was nice to his mother?" is an example of an "on your own" question.
Students are best to be taught "right there" questions first, followed by "think and search", and lastly "on my own" questions. Many students have a difficult time creating "on my own questions" and extra time is needed to teach this type of question.
Right There Questions
The answer to a "right there" question is found in one sentence in the text.
Who, what, where, and when are typical question starters for "right there" questions. It is best to give students question starters in the beginning. Students should create the question and provide the answer. Make students create questions in a group and then independently.
Think and Search Questions
The answer to a "think and search" question is found in more than one sentence or paragraph in the text.
"Think and search" questions are a little more difficult to create than "right there" questions as students must connect information in the text. Summarize the story, what is the problem of the story and what happened first, second, and third are common fictional "think and search" questions. It is best to give question starters to students to familiarize themselves with think and search questions.
On Your Own Questions
The answer to an "on your own" question is found in the students mind based on making connections to their experiences.
Students like to answer questions that can be backed by the text. "On my own" questions are related to the text but the information is not found in the reading material. Students struggle with creating or answering these questions because it involves them making connections with themselves and/or the world.
Question and answer relationship is a wonderful reading comprehension strategy as it makes students connect to text, self, and the world. Teaching this strategy will take several lessons but it is worth the effort as it increases their reading comprehension.
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