Questions

Asking questions is not only part of our education, it is a part of our everyday life. It is important that we teach our students to ask questions because we can teach them how to be successful not only in school, but in life. Asking questions pertains to every subject from math to social studies. In Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the secondary Content Areas three levels of questions are described. The three levels of questions are: literal level, interpretive level, applied level.

Literal level is also referred to as factual level. In this level students learn to ask paraphrase. Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson (1997) explain that at this level., "students are called upon to recognize main ideas that are made explicit, as well as to be able to identify stated fact that appears in the original text" (p. 152). The next level is called interpretive level, also known as comprehension level. This level of question pushes the reader to interpret what the author intended to say. At this level, "students must combine two or more explicit statements to make generalized statements about the relationships between the facts" (Dornan, et al., 1997, p. 152). The last level known as applied level, or evaluative level. Here students learn how to link what is in the text to their own experiences, "they are asked to be creative, curious, and rational" (p. 153).

Asking questions is one of the most important things that we have to teach our students. We have to teach them to not be embarrassed when they are confused about something. I believe that if students asked more questions there would be higher grades. How many of us have been in a classroom where the teacher asks are there any question and no one responds? We have all been in one of those classrooms. Sometimes we are even the ones that are too embarrassed to ask a question. I have a sister, she is a year older than me, and in college we got to take a math class together. When she found out we were in the same class she wanted to drop it because I have always been very good at math. She was very upset when she could not drop it due to schedule conflicts. We took the class together and everyday when we would leave she would walk next to me. She would always tell me that I asked a lot of questions. She told me that I was doing the best out of the entire class, but yet I asked so many questions. I replied to her that I need to be one hundred percent sure, I told her that I could not go home and work on the assignment unless I was comfortable. She was not doing to good in that class. One day I finally asked her why she never asked questions if it was obvious she was struggling. To that she replied that she felt stupid for asking a question, especially so many like me. I am one of those students that if a teacher shows me something, again, and I do not understand I will tell the teacher that I do not understand. I am will not pretend that I do understand when I do not. I got my sister into the habit of asking questions and she passed that class with a B+. At the end of the semester she told me how happy she was to have taken that class with me.