Tip #97 from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents (McKinley & Trombly) - SQ3R/Question
Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly.
#97
SQ3R: Question
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.~ Albert Einstein
Your child is full of questions about non-academic topics every day. You have undoubtedly answered the “Why?” and the “Why not?” question several times every day. You can use her natural curiosity to help her better understand what she reads. QUESTION is the second part of SQ3R. It means to set a purpose for reading by 1) reading any questions she will have to answer later before she even reads the text and 2) creating questions that she will be able to answer once she reads the text.
Many informational texts have questions after each section or chapter to test the students’ knowledge of that section. Do you remember having to find the answers to those questions? It probably involved a lot of re-looking at the whole section with a lot of page turning and frustration. To avoid this frustration, encourage her to take a look at the questions in the back of the section/chapter first. Read them. Now she knows what the questions are before she even begins to read. Now when she reads, she is reading with a purpose—to find those answers. It helps keep her focused on the content and less likely to wander in her mind. It’s actually like knowing the test questions before the test. Why wouldn’t she take this step to make her learning easier?
Remember those headings she quickly read in the Survey part of SQ3R? Now, have her take each heading and turn it into a question. Imagine that section in her social studies book on the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps the two headings she reads are “Signing the Declaration” and “Forming the Future of the United States.” She would turn those headings into questions like Who were the signers of the Declaration of Independence? and How did the Declaration help form the United States? After she’s done reading those two sections, she should be able to answer her own questions, which would show complete comprehension.
Having a purpose when reading will make her an active, not passive, reader. Her purpose will be to look for the answers to the questions. She will stay more focused looking for those answers.
This step, too, takes very little time but is very worthwhile.
Cindy McKinley Alder Patti Trombly
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