Cultivating Comprehension: The Art of Strategic Questioning for English Learners

Episode Summary

In today’s episode, I want to delve into the art of cultivating comprehension through strategic questioning for English learners.

Every day, I am amazed at how language intense our students’ classes are. Instructions are given in lengthy paragraphs and posted in Google Classroom or any other form your school uses. Students are required to show their reasoning in writing in complete sentences when responding to long and complex questions in all subjects. And while I am all for keeping the standards high, I do sometimes wonder what would happen if we gave students clearer, more targeted instructions on how to engage with a project or assignment. Students already know a lot of information that is taught in their classes. They understand a lot more than they can tell you.

Since I live this every single day, I have found a way that works really well in helping my English learners access content and to those instructions and texts that seem to confuse everyone. In this episode, I will share with you 2 ways on how I use strategic questions to help students access the text, respond to open ended questions, and write paragraphs. I know this will be very helpful for not only EL teachers, but also content area teachers.

What you will hear about in this episode:

Challenges faced by english learners
The importance of asking specific questions to elicit student comprehension
The importance of providing scaffolded support for students to comprehend and respond to text-based prompts
Approaches to guiding students through reading comprehension and essay writing
Strategies for facilitating comprehension for english learners
Collaboration between EL and general education teachers
Educator resources and ongoing support