Reading Actively Joining the conversation

General Questions for Effective Reading  Do you like the piece?  What do you like about the piece?  If you were able to talk with the authors, what would you ask them to write more about?  In one minute, how would you summarize what you read to a friend?  Over all what are the authors trying to elicit in the readers?

Specific questions to consider  Emotional reactions: Specifically, what do you like about the piece? What don’t you like? How does the piece make you feel? Is the author trying to make you feel something in particular? What words or passages provoke the strongest emotions in you?

Questions about main point(s)  Mark the main points if explicitly stated  Look for sentences that suggest main points  Do the authors contradict themselves?  If any information is new to you, how does new information change your thinking?

Questions about organization  How does the opening affect you?  What happens to the message if you were to remove the concluding paragraph?  What is the sequence of ideas? What happens if you re-order them?

Questions about difficulty  Which particular words and/or sentences are difficult to understand?  Why is the text difficult to read? What experience or education would you need to understand easily? Why did the authors situate the piece at that particular reading level?

Questions about the authors  What knowledge of the authors do you have? How does this affect your response?  Do the writers explicitly communicate or indirectly communicate anything about themselves?

Questions abut the writing process  Where does the information come from? Are sources named in the text?  Has anyone else (e.g., editors, translators, printers) tampered with the content?

Questions about you, the reader  How do you react while reading the piece? Do your feelings change as you read on? Do your expectations change?  What kinds of things do you like to read? What do you avoid?  What knowledge or experience do you bring to the reading? Can that affect the way you read the piece?  What mood is created in you by the piece? Which words and passages evoke the mood?

Questions about the intended audience  What does the writer assume about the readers? Does the author state the assumptions anywhere? Does the piece contain technical jargon? Who would understand the jargon?  Does the author seem to address more than one audience? How do you know?

Questions on genre  What kind of piece is it? Personal story?Fiction? Political speech? Advertising? Opinion-editorial?  How does the author use genres in the piece (e.g., personal anecdote, argument, etc.)?  How is the piece like other pieces of the genre?

Questions about culture  Does the author reference cultural norms or events (e.g., holidays, customs, religions, etc.) that come from cultures you are unfamiliar with?  How important is knowledge of these for understanding?  Can you attribute cultural differences to those aspects that are strange or foreign ?

Questions about values  Where, if anywhere, does the author state a personal belief or principle? Is the belief deeply held? How can you tell from the text?  What values/principles are implied?  What ideas (or people, sources, etc.) seem to be devalued? How do you feel about the devaluation?

Results of asking questions  Questions provide a way of looking at a piece  Looking at a piece from several vantage points allows for a fuller understanding  Also allows for thinking about the piece as something that can be changed  You become conversant, which leads to ownership—you own the knowledge rather than accept someone else’s knowledge