Day 22: #SOL16- Asking students to ask questions during read-aloud

The Slice of Life Challenge is hosted by the inspirational writers of Two Writing Teachers. Each March, they invite people to join them in a commitment to write every day. Here's to another year of daily slicing!

Last week, I wrote about nudging students to ask more questions by putting them in charge of asking the questions during a read aloud. Students were grouped and different groups were responsible for questions that had to do with characters, settings, figurative language, repetition, and theme development. I've been doing a lot of work around social studies, so today I tried a similar process, but instead of directing students toward reading lenses, I had them think about the text through social studies lenses. I made a chart before I read The Stranded Whale by Jane Yolen so that this class of fourth-graders were reminded of what we meant by geography, history, government, and economy. 

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure how the lesson would go. At one point, I apologized to the students because I was worried they'd just want to hear the story. They all reassured me that they didn't mind at all. I was extra convinced whenever I paused and gave them a chance to share the questions they were jotting down together and individually. The level of thinking was really high! Here are some of the questions these students generated, and this is only a small sampling:

Some of the students wanted to write reflections of the experience for me. I can't wait to see what they have to say. Sometimes students overwhelm and exceed even my highest expectations. 

Happy Slicing,