Research Summary

What is targeted questioning

Targeted questioning is an instructional strategy that improves comprehension when teachers preplan specific, open-ended higher level questions that are aimed towards specific learning goals.

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Importance of preplanning

Preplanning gives teachers time to reflect on what kinds of questions need to be asked to push students towards the learning goals. When teachers plan these questions ahead of time they are able to develop higher level questions. They are no longer using base level literal questions they have come up with in the moment, but rather preplanned questions that are worded so students are required to think deeper or go back and refer to the text. Planning ahead of time also gives teachers the opportunity to be prepared for the expected answer, and what to do if the student provides an answer that is incorrect. This makes for more meaningful interactions during the lesson because the teacher has planned both the question and what to do when a correct or incorrect answer is provided.

How teachers implement targeted questioning

In order to use targeted questioning effectively a teacher needs to preplan the questions, give students appropriate wait time, and create a classroom environment in which students feel comfortable taking risks. When planning the questions the teacher needs to consider what the students’ needs are, what setting they will be asking the questions in, and how they will organize the questions to move students from a lower level of comprehension to a higher level of comprehension. Teachers should be encouraging students to refer back to the text. Targeted questioning can be utilized during both whole group and small group instruction. When using targeted questioning during whole group instruction, questions should be aimed at higher level whole-class goals and learning objectives. During small group instruction targeted questioning can be used to focus on specific student comprehension needs. Questions should still be preplanned with expected responses as well as organized to move students to a deeper level of comprehension.

Why teachers implement targeted questioning

The use of targeted questioning improves students reading comprehension, allows teachers to collect data on understanding, activates students’ prior knowledge, promotes engagement, and teaches students how to question for themselves during independent reading. Using higher level questions during reading instruction will help students build their reading comprehension by pushing them deeper than just literal questions. By requiring students to infer about text, or use text as evidence to support a claim, students must really understand a text and think critically about that text.

Impact on Instruction

​After concluding my research, it was clear using targeted questioning would benefit my students' reading comprehension. I decided to preplan 3-6 within, beyond, and about the text questions for each of five my differentiated small reading groups each week. This meant I would take the time to read each story and reflect on what key comprehension skills were reflected in that book. I would write the questions for each group and reflect on the expected answers and what to do if I was given a correct or incorrect response. For my whole group instruction, I used my teacher's manual and the district mandated curriculum story each week and asked the targeted questions from the manual. I took notes on how students from each small reading group responded and used the questions not only as a way to push them in their comprehension but also for assessment data.

Full Literature Review

For a full review of the literature researched, please follow the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XXsR-Ldb1kxtuonVkS6NPFEZ2y4cfITy/view?usp=sharing