Teacher background

Question-Answer Relationships
This site from ReadingQuest.org: Making Sense in Social Studies includes a QAR chart and concept map that can be printed for use by students. The Inquiry chart is another questioning tool from this site.

Questioning the Text
This article by Stephanie Harvey on the Scholastic Web site describes and teaching strategy for questioning using the gradual release of responsibility model.

Filling the Tool Box: Classroom Strategies to Engender Student Questioning
This article from the educational technology journal From Now On takes questioning across the curriculum, offering classroom ideas for developing students' questioning skills as a basis for inquiry. It also suggests activities to get students thinking about different types of questions, such as such as "Fact Questions," "Why Questions," and "Imagine Questions" or one-minute, five-minute, or "ten-minute" questions.

Essential Skills to Support Questioning
This section of the 21st Century Literacies Web site features several lessons on how to generate meaningful questions, for 3rd-12th grade students.

The Power of Questioning
This article from the Exploratorium's Institute for Inquiry describes a second grade teacher's use of questioning techniques in science.

Reading (and Questioning) the Fine Print
This article by educator Jamie McKenzie demonstrates the importance of teaching your students to question. According to McKenzie, "The capacity to make sense of complex and confounding information is directly tied to questioning skills."

Student Activity Sites

Applying Question-Answer Relationships to Pictures
In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students are asked four different types of questions about the pictures found in a wordless picture book. The questions range in difficulty from those with answers that can be found in the text to those that require inferences. Students learn to categorize questions by the four question types and use pictures to help them better understand a story.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

Adventures in Nonfiction: A Guided Inquiry Journey
This is a lesson plan on using nonfiction resources for developing and answering questions about gathered information. Working with partners and groups, using pictures and text, students are guided through the process of gathering information, asking clarifying questions, and then enhancing the information with additional details.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

I Wonder: Writing Scientific Explanations With Students
This lesson encourages second-grade students to ask questions about a specific topic, choose a particular question to explore in detail, and research the question using a variety of resources.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

Guided Comprehension: Self-Questioning Using Question-Answer Relationships
Based on the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, this lesson introduces students to the comprehension strategy of self-questioning. Students learn the types of question-answer relationships (QARs), identify where and how answers can be found, and demonstrate their understanding of the strategy.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association