We were working on the strategy of questioning. Here are the  two books I read to the kindergarten class. Snow by Uri Shulevitz was day one and Stella  Queen of the Snow by Marie Louise Gay was day two. Both books were fabulous. The children were really interested in the stories, the illustrations were captivating and there wasn’t an overload of text. They had so many questions and loved that their questions were being written down on the anchor chart we had made called before /during and after .Once we were finished each story, we checked off the questions that we had answered and then talked about the ones that weren’t answered directly. We talked about the fact that sometimes when we are reading, our questions aren’t answered and that’s ok. Sometimes it does matter and we have to go looking for the answer. This is more in informational text and we will go there next. Both books are  available in French for all you French Immersion teachers. La Neige and Stella, reine des neiges-souple

Here I am reading Snow to the kindergarten class. The chart paper beside me is the anchor chart we built together. When do we ask questions? Before, During and After Reading. I got most of my ideas for teaching questioning from Tanny McGregor’s Comprehension Connections and Debbie Miller Teaching Reading with Meaning.

On the floor beside me is the thought bubble I was using. When I thought of a question, I picked up the thought bubble, put my face in the hole and asked a question. I will admit I felt ridiculous at first…But the children loved it and it really was a great visual for them to distinguish between what I was reading and what questions I was asking about the story.

The second day, I read Stella Queen of the Snow This time, the children would put on the thought bubble and ask their questions. We practiced “I wonder…?, How…?, Why…? and what if…? They were so excited that their questions were important and that they got to use the thought bubble. We took a photo of each student, printed their question into the bubble  and posted  the photos on a bulletin board. We called it “We are asking questions…” Many of the older kids from other grades are coming by to read the kindergarten questions. Our next move is to do some questioning in non-fiction (informational) text.