Instructional Strategies

• Teacher and students read the first sentence silently.

• Teacher and students take turns asking questions about the sentence.

  • Students ask questions first, and the teacher must answer with the book closed.

  • Students close their books, and the teacher asks questions.

    • The students may not answer with "I don't know." They must at least try to answer or explain why they cannot answer.

    • If any question is not clear, then it must be rephrased or clarified.

    • The person who answers a question should be ready to justify the answer by referring to the book or explaining the background knowledge that was used.

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Text passages may vary in length. The following steps are suggested for longer passages:

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• Teacher and students silently read the same segment of text.

• Teacher closes the book, and students question the teacher about the passage.

• Then the students close their books, and the teacher questions them about the material.

  • The teacher should ask questions using all levels of QAR.

• Students and teacher read the next segment of text and repeat steps 2 and 3.

• When the students have processed enough information to make predictions about the remainder of the selection, the alternate questioning stops and the teacher begins to ask prediction questions.

  • "What do you think the rest of the story/selection is about?

  • Why do you think that?" Record responses on the board.

• Students read the rest of the text silently.

• Facilitate a follow-up discussion of the material, starting with a comparison of students' predictions about what was read.

  • Students select from their predictions those that might also have been logical to complete the text.

  • Avoid labeling predictions as "right" or "wrong" but rather encourage the students to see that the text could have had several possible endings.

  • For an additional activity, the students may rewrite the text using their own predictions.

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