Using Student Self-questioning as a Reading Intervention for Struggling Readers in Elementary Grades

Teachers understand the significance of reading comprehension but some may lack the ability to effectively teach students how to think about what they are thinking about while reading (you might have to read that sentence again). There are many evidence based strategies available to strengthen reading comprehension. These strategies should be taught using explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice with appropriate feedback.

The National Reading Panel (NRP) advises teachers to move students from passive learning and give them greater ownership in their learning using cognitive strategies. Students with disabilities (SWD) must become aware of their own thoughts during reading to improve their understanding of what they are reading. We still face challenges of closing learning gaps caused by the COVID-19 pandemic nevertheless, it is imperative that students master grade level content. Therefore, reading comprehension must be a priority in ALL content areas because reading comprehension serves as the gateway to learning.

Many interventions are available to help students become more strategic readers; among them are self questioning. Self Questioning is a reading strategy that causes readers to monitor their own comprehension by instructing them to ask themselves a series of teacher-generated or self-generated questions during reading a passage. Self-questioning is regarded as highly effective for improving reading comprehension across a wide range of learners with and without disabilities; across grade levels and content areas which is in line with the goal of preparing elementary school students to comprehend text in the various content areas proficiently.

The following are the steps for using Self-Questioning to improve reading comprehension in an upper elementary classroom according to Rousse et al.

Before Instruction

1. Know the independent reading level of the students before implementing the self-questioning intervention. Most progress monitoring data can provide you with this information or you can utilize a reading inventory.

2. Select passages for the intervention. Readworks.com was used in prior studies. It has a wide range of text types, Lexile numbers, subject matter, and grade level.

3. Embed the passage by dividing it into four sections and embed the question with a line to provide an answer after each section. Embedded questions should be explicit, and students should be able to find the answer if they are reading passages on their independent reading level.

4. Create the Quiz and administer it to students immediately after reading the passage and answering the embedded questions. The quiz should have eight multiple choice questions that consist of the following: Two main idea questions, a vocabulary question (ex, how was the following word used in the passage?); a sequencing question (ex, which happened first?); an overall concept question (ex, what did you learn from the passage about ______?); an author’s purpose question (ex, why did the author write this passage?); a cause-and-effect question (ex, what would most likely happen if________?); and a drawing conclusion question (ex, you can conclude from the passage __________?). There is no time limit for completing the quiz, but it should not take longer than 10 minutes.

During Implementation of the teacher embedded questions

5. Distribute or give students access to the passage.

6. Provide explicit directions to your students. For example, “Please listen carefully because the directions have two parts. The passage I have just given you is divided into four parts. You must read the first section silently. After you read the first section you must then read the question at the end of the first section. After you read the question at the end of the first section, go back into the first section of the passage and underline the answer to the question in the first section, then write the answer to the question on the line provided under section one.” (Check for understanding)

Continue by saying, “You must follow those steps for each section of the passage and when you have completed reading and answering all questions, please raise your hand because there will be a quiz for you to complete so we can see how well your reading comprehension skills have improved. Do you have any questions before we begin?” Respond to student questions and clarify instructions if necessary.

During implementation, if the student answers an embedded question incorrectly, redirect them to look at the information in the passage and try again. If the student is consistently answering the question incorrectly, reassess their independent reading level before proceeding.

7. When the student has completed reading the passage and answering the embedded questions correctly, administer the comprehension quiz immediately after they read the passage and answer the teacher embedded questions. Provide the student with immediate feedback.

Self-Questioning

The embedded questions begin to systematically fade so students can begin the process of self-questioning independently without prompts.

8. After selecting the passage according to the student’s independent reading level instead of embedding all four sections with questions for the student to answer, replace one of the embedded questions with two blank lines. One line for the student-generated question and the other line for the answer. The student will still search for the answer in the passage and underline it before writing the correct answer as they did for the teacher-embedded questions. The teacher embedded questions will fade out in the following ratio 3:1,2:2, 3:1 until students are only responding to self-questioning prompts.

9. The student will answer the remaining three teacher embedded questions with the same procedure used for teacher embedded questions which was comprised of reading the section of the passage, reading the question, going into the section, and underlining the answer and lastly, writing the answer on the line provided.

10. The following instructions are required for the self-question procedure

a. Underline an important or interesting fact in the in the section

b. Formulate a question about the fact using a question word (who, what, where, when, why, and how)

c. Write the question on the first given line

d. Write the answer to the question below the question on the second line

11. Students will still take a comprehension quiz and receive immediate feedback

The teacher embedded questions would be an effective way to intensify intervention for students who have significant struggles with comprehension in other academic areas. Teachers can divide and embed any written material prior to the start of the lesson for students who have trouble understanding.

Teaching this evidence-based intervention to students as a Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) outside of the general education classroom would foster independence for the student and would not require any further assistance from you when used in this manner.

For more evidence base strategies to improve teaching and learning for struggling students and those with disabilities join The Guru Collective Mastermind, our online profession learning community created especially for special educators who want to become gurus. Click here to join us.

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