Question Asking During Reading Comprehension Instruction:A Corpus Study of How Question Type Influences the Linguistic Complexity of Primary School Students’ Responses

The authors examined teachers’ (N = 19) use of different question types during small‐group comprehension instruction for 6–11‐year‐olds (N = 115). The authors tagged the corpus of 40 hours of guided reading sessions to enable computer‐based searches for syntactic forms of questions. Teachers frequently asked high‐challenge wh‐ word questions (e.g., “How does that fit in with what you just read?”), and this was more pronounced in schools located in regions of low socioeconomic status, a finding associated with recency of completion of teacher training. Students’ responses were more linguistically complex when teacher questions comprised a high frequency of high‐challenge questions, particularly wh‐ word adverb questions (predominantly why and how). These findings applied across the wide age and ability range of the sample, indicating that high‐challenge questions are effective in small‐group comprehension instruction for students in different age groups and at various levels of reading ability. The authors conclude that teachers benefit from being informed about the effect of various syntactic forms of questions, particularly the nuances of wh‐ word questions. The findings also highlight the advantages of using corpus search methods to examine the influence of teacher question‐asking strategies during classroom interactions

Making the Move Online: Interactive Read‐Alouds for the Virtual Classroom

Interactive read-alouds are a mainstay in traditional literacy classrooms because they support wide-ranging goals in reading development. As educators make the transition to virtual classrooms, it is paramount that core practices, such as the interactive read-aloud, are intentionally adapted to ensure that their purpose remains central to their use. Although the production of digital read-alouds has flourished during the recent pandemic, many of these videos lack key components necessary to foster meaningful literacy growth. Educators need to be aware of the affordances and limitations offered by digital read-alouds to analyze and create materials for classroom use. In this article, we offer resources to guide intentional planning to ensure that digital read-aloud experiences go beyond passive student consumption. In addition, specific recommendations illustrate how digital read-alouds can be positioned within synchronous and asynchronous classroom activities to preserve and amplify the sociocultural element that can be more challenging to maintain within virtual environments.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1043/thumbnail.jp

Bringing Bilingualism to the Center of Guided Reading Instruction

Educators consider guided reading one of the most powerful instructional tools in a reading teacher’s arsenal. Yet, when it comes to emergent bilinguals in both monolingual English and bilingual settings, guided reading is implemented monolingually, or in one language at a time. As the field of reading instruction has moved toward a more asset‐based take on students’ bilingualism, integrating a bilingual approach to guided reading is necessary. The authors offer educators a lens to understand how emergent bilinguals’ resources and bilingualism can be incorporated into guided reading, along with concrete examples that can assist teachers in enacting these practices in their classrooms