Questioning is asking yourself questions about the text and its meaning.
| When to do it |
| Before reading the text |
| While reading the text |
| After reading the text |
| Reading intention |
| Predict what the text is about |
| Check understanding |
| Reflect on text |
| Analyze text content & structure |
| Outcome |
| Activate prior knowledge |
| Get a deeper understanding |
| Validate comprehension |
| Find author’s purpose |
Here are some examples of general questions.
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To ask before reading the text. |
Purpose |
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Why are you reading this text? |
Reading purpose—The reason for reading the text influences what you get out of the reading experience. |
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What are the main features? |
Previewing |
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What type of text is it? |
Text type—The reason for using a specific text type reflects its purpose. |
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What is the text going to be about? |
Prediction—Making an educated guess after previewing. |
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Who is the author? |
Prediction—Predicting topics, genres, style, voice, themes… according to known information on the author. |
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What do you expect to learn from the text? |
Prediction—Expectations according to text type, genre, themes, subject, author’s previous works… |
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What do you know about this topic? |
Activating prior knowledge—Preparing to make connections to familiar information on the topic |
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To ask while reading the text. |
Purpose |
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What is the meaning of…? |
Comprehension |
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Which parts are more difficult to understand? |
Identifying elements that need more attention |
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What is the author saying? |
Inferring—Reading between the lines for a deeper meaning |
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Why did the author use this technique or tool? |
Author’s purpose |
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How does it compare to other texts of the same type? |
Compare and contrast |
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To ask after reading the text. |
Purpose |
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What did you learn from the text? |
Comprehension |
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How did you feel? |
Reflection—Reason for the feelings is connected to the author’s intention and the reader’s stance |
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How different was it from your expectations? |
Reflection—Subverted expectations result from author’s intent or misinterpreted elements in previewing? |
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When was this text written? |
Context—Taking into account the time period and the place where a text was written can help understand and give more weight to certain text elements |
|
What was the author’s purpose? |
Critical Thinking |
To learn more about a strategy, click its name.
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Questioning |
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Get an overview of the text. |
Quickly search & find information |
Ask yourself questions |
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Create mental pictures |
Relate to the text |
Read between the lines |
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Write down notes & comments |
Understand challenging words |
Sum up main idea & key elements |
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Explore sources to come up with new perspectives |
Form an opinion on the quality of the text |
Look at the structure and techniques used |