A great way to help students increase their understanding of content text is to get them talking and sharing with one another about a text.  Instead of asking simple knowledge and comprehension questions about the text, have students work with partners or small groups to answer 3-4 process or reaction types of questions over the assigned text. Allow students time to both discuss the question, form a response and then share out to the class. Since both types of questions require students to think more deeply and demonstrate deeper levels of comprehension, the whole class benefits from rich discussions that take place with these types of questions. You will also benefit from hearing your students report out and may uncover confusions, misunderstandings or areas where students made connections that you never expected.

Some examples of process questions include the following:

1.  What didn’t you understand or what was confusing about this section of the reading assignment?

2.  What text in this section was interesting to learn or gave you some new ideas?

3.  What is the most difficult part of this concept and what could you do to better understand it?

Some examples of reaction types of questions include the following:

1.  If you were the teacher, what questions would you ask your students about this concept or idea?

2.  What kind of a picture or doodle does this concept make you think of?

3.  What 3 ideas or concepts that you have learned before could be connected to this topic/concept?