Using Strategic Thoughts and Questions―A Great Antidote

by Ann Ballinger, Copley Fairlawn Middle School, Copley, Ohio

As the school year begins, with teachers and students settling into a new daily routine and schedule, each group starts to think about school procedures. More than often, questions arise. Students want to know, for example, how their individual teachers run their classrooms and how they (the students) are supposed to turn in their homework. Sometimes all the questions and concerns that students have about their daily routine can be exhausting. But questioning is a natural process. It is how learners seek out information, and sometimes an answer to a question leads to a new question.

Capitalizing on the Natural Process of Questioning

Many students do not always realize it, but they also use the natural process of questioning to seek out information as they read both informational text and fictional text, as well as use the questioning process in daily exchanges in class. In my fifth grade classroom, our first day of reading class begins with a series of questions.

I introduce myself to the students through an activity called "What's in the bag?" My bag contains an assortment of items that describe and tell a story about my family, my hobbies, and my childhood memories. With each item I draw from the bag, I give the students clues so that they can guess what the item represents. For example, I may begin telling students that I had a pet named Sunshine when I was younger. I named it Sunshine not because she was friendly but because she was usually quite grumpy. Then I allow students to guess. I continue to give them clues until they finally discover that my pet was a hedgehog.

Students are given the opportunity to learn about one another later in the week. I ask them to bring in eight items that will describe themselves to their fellow students. They share these items in small groups, telling stories about themselves and allowing their audience to ask questions. We wrap up the activity by sharing questions that arose and also telling information that we have learned about those in our group. Then, to pique the students' curiosity and capture their attention, I end the class that day by telling the students that the next day we are going to begin a story titled "Poison." *

Strategic Questions from Beginning to End

"Poison," written by Roald Dahl, is a story that we read together as a class, and throughout the reading, we focus on strategic questions. We begin with the title and use a list of strategic thoughts and questions (see the list at the end of the article) to help us think about the story. As a class, we define poison, brainstorm when we could come across poison in our daily lives, and even discuss poisonous animals. We predict what the story could be about and brainstorm questions about the story and much more.

When it is time to delve into the story itself, I put it on the overhead. Then I begin reading the story aloud to the students, stopping at the end of each page to use the strategic thoughts and questions from the list. The story instantly hooks students, and I intentionally end each page at a cliff-hanger. Purposely, I stop the story after one or two pages and pick it up the next class day, encouraging student interest.

After each day's reading, students receive their own copies of the pages that were read, and they are given an in-class assignment to record their strategic thoughts and questions right on the pages. The following day, we reread the previous day's pages, and students can volunteer to read aloud. As we reread the story each day, the student that reads it aloud to the class has the opportunity to share what he or she wrote.

It's a natural to incorporate a lesson on vocabulary since the plot revolves around a krait (a venomous snake), which is not common knowledge to most fifth graders. We stop and predict what a krait could be and use clues in the story to determine that it must be some type of animal.

The story has no finite ending―no neat wrap-up that tells readers exactly what happens. So after students read the last page from the overhead of the story, they then must write their own ending from the main character's point of view, which leads into a discussion on point of view.

On the last day, students are given the opportunity to share their own endings, and then they beg for the final page of the story. I put up the "final" page (which is really the last page they have previously read). More than likely, a groan followed by begging for the ending will occur. I give students nonfiction information on a krait, and then we reread the story page by page, highlighting the clues that the author has given us to determine that the krait is a snake. Students beg for the "real" ending of the story to still find out that there is no "real" ending.

As we move throughout the school year, we continue to focus on our strategic thoughts and questions and begin to transition these questions so that they are applicable to the OAT (Ohio Achievement Test). Anytime there is a teachable moment, I point out that a student is making a connection or is visualizing what he or she is reading. Soon the students begin to catch me using the different strategic thoughts and questions and their peers as well. There is a continual revisiting of the strategies, and they become common language the more that they are used in the class. Students begin to use these strategies without even realizing that they have become second nature.

Ann Ballinger is a fifth year teacher currently working with students at Copley Fairlawn Middle School. She has taught in multiage and looping classrooms in previous years. She received her BS from Bowling Green State University and her MA from Kent State University, and currently she is a National Board applicant.

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