What was implemented

I implemented the use of targeted questions with my 18 first grade students. I preplaned and asked a series of questions before, during, and after readings that were intended to aid in students’ development of comprehension skills. I preplaned and asked targeted questions during both whole group reading instruction as well as during my guided reading small group instruction. My small group instruction was differentiated into five mini lessons targeted at readers of a variety of levels. Group one and two were both below first grade reading expectations, group 3 was meeting first grade reading expectations, group four was slightly above first grade reading expectations, and group five was significantly above first grade reading expectations. I planned and tailored within, beyond, and about the text questions specifically to foster reading comprehensions skills targeted at each group's individual needs. During whole group read-alouds, I followed district curriculum and asked specific samples of students from each reading group targeted questions meant to build comprehension skills that all students were working on.

Why was it implemented

​In today’s society, the ability to read and comprehend text is imperative for all. With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in many states, teachers are pressured to build students who can read a variety of texts. This pressure to build fluent readers has indeed improved students’ ability to read, however, there has also been a significant drop in higher level reading comprehension . This means that students are being taught to read and decode texts, but are lacking the comprehension skills to make connections between texts, make inferences about texts, and cite their knowledge from texts. My students were demonstrating that they were able to decode many different texts, but were unable to answer higher level comprehension questions about the texts. I wanted to find the connection between instruction that promotes lower level decoding skills and higher level comprehension skills.

With the incorporation of higher level targeted comprehension questions during reading instruction, students are able to build their reading comprehension. Skills that are developed through targeted questioning include inferencing, making text connections, recognizing the author’s purpose, identifying cause and effect relationships, and comparing and contrasting texts. Implementing the use of targeted questions while giving appropriate wait time and building a classroom environment where it is safe to take risks, would allow my students to achieve higher levels of comprehension while reading a variety of texts.

Targeted questioning would allow me to target a specific comprehension skill and ask text dependent questions that required students to look deeper into texts and cite their reasoning to the answer from the text. Additionally, targeted questioning could be used as a formative assessment to gauge each student's level of comprehension. Although targeted questioning requires more teacher preparation time, it saves more time in the long run by preventing the need to reteach comprehension skills that were lacking.

When was it implemented

My research was implemented from January 29th to March 30th, 2018.

How was it implemented

I implemented the use of targeted questioning during my whole group instruction by asking questions that were probing students further in their comprehension of texts that aligned with the district mandated curriculum story we were working on each week. I cold called students that I believed represented a specific subsample of my classroom and keep anecdotal coded records on the students' apparent comprehension. I also implemented targeted questioning during small guided reading groups by planning within, beyond, and about the text questions. This questioning further developed comprehension skills that were differentiated to specific student needs as well their reading levels.