Author: Shelley-Ann

Question-Answer-Relationship

In a previous post, we shared five different types of comprehension questions following one approach. Here’s another comprehension strategy called Q-A-R which helps readers decipher what their role is in answering different types of questions. Q-A-R stands for Question-Answer-Relationship, and identifies four types of questions in two categories.

Category 1 – Answers are in the passage

* Right-There Questions: Answers are stated directly in the passage.

* Think & Search Questions: Answers are stated in the passage, but not all in one place. Readers must piece the information together to fully answer the question.

Category 2 – Answers are in the reader’s head

* Author & Me Questions: Author gives clues to the answers, which must be combined with the reader’s knowledge in order to arrive at a complete answer to the question.

*On My Own Questions: Answers are based on the reader’s knowledge of the passage and previous knowledge of the topic the passage is written about, and are completely created by the reader.

Category 1 questions are usually straightforward and typically easier to answer, while Category 2 questions require more critical and creative thinking.

Right-There Questions usually ask for identification of Who, What, Where, or When. Sometimes, even How or Why can be found directly in the passage. An easy way to find answers for these types of questions is to use key words from the question to guide where the answer is.

For example:
Give one detail about the trip that the writer enjoyed, even though it rained.

Another way to phrase this question is: What did the writer enjoy about the trip, even though it rained?

Key words in this question are: enjoyed, trip, rained. Chances are that you would find one or more of these words directly in the passage. The answer will usually be near where you find those key words…either in the same sentence, or in a sentence before or after.

Other similar questions:
1. Where did the fairies come from?
2. Who brought the magic wand?
3. When was Tania’s birthday?
4. How did Andy open the box?
5. Why did Little Red Riding Hood go to Grandma’s house?

These types of questions often ask for you to put information in your own words. In order to answer them effectively, you will need to read the passage to find relevant information. Many times, these questions ask Why or How and you will need to put together details from many areas in the passage to formulate a response.

For example:
How is Richard’s behavior enthusiastic?

This question calls for two things. First, it calls for an understanding of the word ‘enthusiastic’, then it calls for gathering details about Richard’s behavior to support the idea that it was enthusiastic.

Most likely, details of Richard’s behavior are not all in one place. You will have to read the passage and collect examples of his behavior that fit with the idea of being enthusiastic. Then, you’ll need to present that information in your answer.

Here are other examples of these types of questions:
1. How did the main character find out about the villain?
2. What caused the city to lose hope in the hero?
3. Find 2 examples in the passage that show the villain thought he was doing the right thing.
4. Summarize the passage.
5. How did the hero overcome the villain?

These questions often ask readers to put themselves in the position of the writers or authors, and speculate about the story, characters, and language used.

For example:
What is the main idea of paragraph 3?

This question asks for the reader to consider what the writer’s intentions were, and use information from the passage to support an information about the message the writer conveyed.

Take a look at a few other questions of this type:
1. Why did the writer use the phrase “lost to the world” in paragraph 1?
2. The passage says that Cindy was unhappy at her new school. What can she do to make herself feel better?

Many of these types of questions ask readers to give their opinions or recommendations, and even express how they feel about characters or situations in the passage. Readers can even attempt these questions without reading the passage, although they may miss vital points if they do that because opinions are based on what the passage contained.

For example:
Do you think if the villain apologized for his actions, that the hero would forgive him?

It is likely that nothing in the passage would help you answer that question. You must use your experience and understanding of the type of person the hero is, based on how the passage portrays him, to answer the question on your own.

Other questions of this type can typically take the following forms:
1. Do you feel any sympathy for the villain?
2. Do you think the villain would have been evil if his classmates had been nicer to him when he was in secondary school?
3. The villain wanted to capture the hero, not harm him. What could be some reasons for that?
4. If you were the hero, what would you recommend happen to the villain after capturing him?
5. Do you believe the villain and the hero are fighting for the same reasons?

Comprehension Strategies

Reading comprehension is one of the areas many children have challenges. While they may get the general idea of what they’ve read, some of them have great difficulty responding to comprehension questions. The most fundamental comprehension strategy is knowing what the question is asking, which requires understanding of the different types of comprehension questions.

A quick online search will tell you that there are generally five types of comprehension questions –
1. Lexical – those questions that have to do with vocabulary. For example, “What took the bus into the city?”

2. Literal – those questions that have answers that can be found from a quick scan of the reading material. These usually answer the questions Who, What, Where, When. For example, “Where is the boy with the suitcase going?”

3. Interpretation – those questions that are based on information presented in the reading, but require some thinking to answer. These types of questions answer Why, How, and What if. For example, “Why did the boy with the suitcase board the bus?”

4. Applied – those questions that ask readers to go beyond what was read and give their opinion. These types of questions answer What do you think. It’s important to note that in answering these questions, readers must give reasons for their opinions, and these reasons must be based on the information given in the reading material. For example, “Did the boy with the suitcase do the right thing by boarding the bus?”

5. Affective – those questions that ask readers to go beyond what was read to give thoughts about how characters are feeling, or how the reader feels about similar situations. These types of questions refer to social and emotional ideas, and also require reasons and examples from the reading material to support ideas given. For example, “How did the boy with the suitcase feel about the bus driver?”

Knowing the type of question asked is the first step toward answering the question effectively.

Understanding Poetic Language

Understanding poetry takes more than just knowing the words. That’s because writers use many different techniques to express ideas and feelings in poems. For some people, recognizing the abstract and figurative language is a challenge.

Here are five tips for understanding and analyzing poems that you can use and share with your child.

1. Read through the poem to get the general idea of what’s going on. Ask yourself, “What is the poem about?” Note the subject of the poem. See what is being discussed or shared.

2. Next, think about the title of the poem. Does the title give you an idea of what the poem is about? Note the connection between the title and the rest of the poem. See if the title helps with understanding what the poem is about.

3. Then ask yourself who’s telling the poem. Note whether the speaker is involved in the poem, or telling the poem like a narrator. See if you can get any clues about the speaker in the poem. Think about things like personality, attitude, and age.

4. Now you can think about the language of the poem. Go through the poem again and identify where the writer uses figurative language. Label the techniques used. Is it personification? Is it visual or tactile imagery? Is it a metaphor or simile? Remember that poetic language is used for a purpose. The author is trying to convey an emotion or an idea with words. This means thinking about the author’s intention will help you. So ask yourself why the author used that particular technique. Why not something else? What is the important idea that you must understand in this part of the poem?

5. Once you’ve gotten an idea of what each of the techniques convey, replace the figurative language with the explanation. Read the poem again with your explanations to get a better understanding of the meaning of the poem and the ideas the writer is sharing.

After doing all of that, you can now discuss the poem with more confidence. You’ll be able to comment on the techniques used, the ‘speaker’ in the poem, and the ideas or emotions the poem is sharing. From there you’ll also be able to talk about why you think the author wrote the poem the way it was written.

This type of analysis is a process that gets easier with time, so read poetry and practice it often.

Encouraging Critical Thinking

Over the past week I’ve been in several conversations about how important it is to allow children to think and respond on their own. Far too often parents and teachers feel the need to correct children’s thinking, rather than guiding them to learn better habits.

Usually when we ask children to respond to a question and we don’t get the response we’re looking for, it’s easier to tell them they’re wrong than it is to analyze how they came to their conclusion in the first place. This happens a lot when going through comprehension with children, and the end result is that we give them the answers rather than guiding their thinking in the right direction.

Critical thinking is a skill that develops over time, and children must be allowed to think for themselves. Prescribing formulas for writing, particularly creative writing, does not give them an edge. What it does is create a box for them to function in, when by its very nature creative writing should allow them to express themselves freely.

There are ways to guide children through thought processes without giving them the answers we’re looking for.

Here are three strategies you can use:

1. Focus on ways to find information, rather than on a specific formula for a response. Show children how to ask questions about what they’re reading by listing and modeling. What is the idea given here? What in the passage supports your conclusion?

2. Discuss the reading/writing connection and have children think about the author’s intention and reader’s understanding. Why were certain words used? How do you think readers would react to this?

3. Show children that there are different types of comprehension questions. There are those which require details from the passage, and ask for specific information that can be easily found through scanning. There are those which ask about meaning, and require some thinking about how ideas are connected. And there are those which require readers to go beyond what’s stated or indicated in the passage to come to their own conclusion.

The most important thing, however, is to have patience with your child when they’re giving responses, and resist the urge to tell them what to think.

Descriptive Language

Descriptive language is all about making words come alive. It’s a writer’s attempt to make you see, and feel, and smell, and hear, and taste the world he or she is describing to you. It’s about using vivid, sensory language. Of all the literary devices writers have at their disposal, it’s this one which gets me the most excited because this is what breathes life into stories.

This installment of our comprehension series takes a look at the different types of imagery and how understanding each type can increase reading comprehension skills. And just as with all the previous installments, this knowledge works with developing writing skills as well.

Using descriptive words helps writers paint a picture in readers’ minds, almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. We all experience the world around us through our senses and emotions, so when writers provide such details, they are filling in bits and pieces of the world to help readers move beyond the pages into something more tangible.

The words we choose to describe our experiences say a lot about who we are and what we think. Remember, writing is communication and when a writer chooses one word over another, he or she is giving us information with that choice. For example, read the following sentences and think about the impact each makes on you.

* Wow, she has a tremendous amount of energy.

* Wow, she has a lot of energy.

Both sentences carry the same general meaning, but the use of the words “tremendous amount” takes readers to a different place, a different level of sophistication. Don’t you think or feel differently about the speakers?

Vivid language can convey what authors feel or believe about a thing without them having to say their thoughts outright. It also connects readers with authors by giving insight into the authors themselves.

The two types of descriptive words most people are familiar with are called adverbs and adjectives. Adverbs describe verbs, and adjectives describe nouns.

ADVERB: He drives carefully through the neighbourhood.

The word “adorable” describes the puppy.

The thing with adjectives and adverbs, however, is that their interpretation is subjective. More detailed descriptive language gives readers evidence rather than just the writer’s opinion.

“After coming to a complete stop at the Stop sign, he leaned forward and looked left, then right, before pressing on the gas pedal just enough to move the car forward at a snail’s pace. He peered through the window now and then, as if looking for someone or something.”

“With huge brown eyes, soft, golden-brown fur, and large floppy ears, there was so much to love about the puppy.”

Now we know why the writers made the claims they did. In comprehension exercises, questions such as “What words show that the man drove carefully?” and “How does the writer describe the puppy?” are common. There may also be

questions such as “Why do you think the man ‘peered through the window now and then’?” and “How do you think the writer feels about the puppy? Give a reason for your answer.”

In order to answer such questions, readers must form a mental picture of what’s happening in the passage and put themselves in the position of the writer. Understanding imagery helps with that.

Most people are familiar with the first five types of imagery which target the five senses. While they may not know the literary names, they know about sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. The last two are the more unfamiliar ones, and those are the ones that make writing exciting and engage audiences.

Movement is often described by giving details of what we see, so it’s technically an aspect of visual imagery. However, there are different considerations as we’re not simply describing stationary objects and must account for motion.

Organic Imagery is one that many people don’t think about as a form of imagery. It deals with physical sensations and emotions. Sometimes we group all under the category of ‘feelings’, but they are separate concepts. Physical sensations refer to experiences such as hunger, thirst, pain, and all their variations. Emotions refer to anger, sadness, happiness, fear, and all their variations.

Describing emotions and sensations can be challenging because these experiences are personal and often occur inside the body where others can’t see what’s happening. Using similes, metaphors, personification, and other literary devices help make these invisible experiences relatable.

When learning about descriptive language, a great place to start is building vocabulary of adjectives and adverbs. It’s important, however, to encounter the words in context so that the meaning and usage are clear. The best way to do that is by reading and discussing what was read, and the best way to get children excited about this type of language is for them to experience it.

This is where an integrated, multi-sensory approach makes a difference.

There are some children who are unable to visualize experiences easily, and some who aren’t able to do it at all. When you tell them “close your eyes and tell me what you see”, invariably they would respond “black” or “dancing light”. Their ‘mind’s eye’ needs guidance.

Bringing these abstract concepts of imagery into the physical world will help these children experience words and language in ways they’ve never been able to. And, children who can visualize words and ideas easily will have fun while making tangible connections.

Here are a few ideas to help you along:


1. Visual Imagery – use artwork to have children depict their understanding of words.
2. Auditory Imagery – have children make sounds and describe them.
3. Gustatory Imagery – do a taste test of a variety of flavors.
4. Tactile Imagery – invite a wildlife sanctuary or zoo to have children interact with the animals (also works for auditory and olfactory, as many animals make noises and have peculiar smells).
5. Olfactory Imagery – engage in a laboratory-style smell test, with both pleasant and unpleasant smells.
6. Kinesthetic Imagery – charades is one of the best games to explore movement.
7. Organic Imagery – art, music, and movement can all be incorporated here to help children find words to explain how they feel (emotions and sensations).