Teaching Resources
Center
Want to learn more or plan a lesson? Check out these links!
- Reading Comprehension Home
- Making Connections
- Fluency
- Determining Importance
- Inferring
- Metacognition
- Questioning
- Synthesizing
- Visualizing and Imagery
- Vocabulary and Word Identification
- Writing Across the Curriculum
Important UNCG Links
Questioning
- About Questioning
- Professional Books to help you develop lesson plans
- Children’s Books to use in lesson plans
- Some Helpul Web sites
Books for Children and Young Adults to use in lesson plans:
Allsburg, C.V. (1986). The Stranger. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
The enigmatic origins of the stranger Farmer Bailey hits with his truck and brings home to recuperate seem to have a mysterious relation to the changing season. (E Van).
Bunting, E. (1991). Fly Away Home. New York: Clarion.
A homeless boy who lives in an airport with his father, moving from terminal to terminal and trying not to be noticed, is given hope when he sees a trapped bird find its freedom. (E Bun)
Bunting, E. (1988). How Many Days to America? New York: Clarion.
Refugees from a Caribbean island embark on a dangerous boat trip to America where they have a special reason to celebrate Thanksgiving (E Bun).
Bunting, E. (1990). The Wall. New York: Clarion.
A boy and his father come from far away to visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington and find the name of the boy's grandfather, who was killed in the conflict. (E Bun)
Bunting, E. (1989). The Wednesday Surprise. New York: Clarion.
On Wednesday nights when Grandma stays with Anna everyone thinks she is teaching Anna to read. (E Bun)
Creech, S. (1994). Walk Two Moons. New York: HarperCollins.
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left. (F Cre)
Heide, F.P. & Gilliland, J.D. (1995) The Day of Ahmed’s Secret. New York: Mulberry
Books. A young Egyptian boy describes the city of Cairo as he goes about his daily work and waits for the evening to share a special surprise with his family. ( E Hei)
Kellog, S. (1997). Three Little Pigs. New York: Morrow Junior Books.
In this retelling of a well-known tale, Serafina Sow starts her own waffle-selling business in order to enable her three offspring to prepare for the future, which includes an encounter with a surly wolf. (398.2 K)
Lasky, K. (1994). The Librarian who Measured the Earth. Boston: Little Brown.
Describes the life and work of Eratosthenes, the Greek geographer and astronomer who accurately measured the circumference of the earth. (B Er)
Lobel, A. (1980). Fables. New York: Harper & Row.
Twenty original fables about an array of animal characters from crocodile to ostrich. (E Lob)
Lobel, A. (1976). Frog and Toad All Year. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.
Two friends share experiences in each season of the year. (E Lob)
MacLachlan, P. (1985). Sarah, Plain and Tall. New York: HarperCollins.
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay. (F Lob)
Polacco, P. (1994). Pink and Say. New York: Philomel.
Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops. Based on a true story about the author's great-great-grandfather. (E Pol).
Steig, W. (1976). The Amazing Bone. New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux.
On her way home from school, Pearl finds an unusual bone that has unexpected powers. ( E Ste)
Steig, W. (1988). Brave Irene. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Irene encounters many adventures as she delivers a beautiful gown her mother made to the duchess who lives across a snowy ravine. ( E Ste)
Steig, W. (1969). Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. New York: Windmill Books .
In a moment of fright, Sylvester the donkey asks his magic pebble to turn him into a rock but then can not hold the pebble to wish himself back to normal again. ( E Ste)
Williams, S.A. (1992). Working Cotton. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
A young black girl relates the daily events of her family's migrant life in the cotton fields of central California. ( E Wil)
Williams, V. (1982). Chair For My Mother. New York: Scholastic.
A child, her waitress mother, and her grandmother save dimes to buy a comfortable armchair after all their furniture is lost in a fire. (E BB Wil)
Ziefert, H. (1997). Henny-Penny. New York: Viking.
Henny-Penny and her barnyard friends are literally outfoxed on their way to tell the king that the sky is falling. (398.2 Zie).
Quotes:
One of the most powerful cognitive tools for reading comprehension is questioning…
Framing questions about a text pushes students to read with greater purpose and, therefore, with greater focus.
1(Shoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko & Hurwitz, 1999, p. 80)
Real questions stimulate interest, add motivation, and deepen understanding.
2(Maloney, A. as quoted in Hoyt, L. (2005) p. 111)
2Hoyt, L. (2005). Spotlight on comprehension: Building a literacy of thoughtfulness. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann Books.
1Shoenbach,R.; Greenleaf, C.; Cziko, C.; & Hurwitz, L. (1999). Reading for understanding: A Guide to improving reading in middle and high school classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.