An Investigation of Elementary Teachers’ Use of Follow-Up Questions for Students at Different Reading Levels

Abstract

Asking questions to promote higher-level thinking is often promoted as a way to challenge students, especially talented readers, to think more deeply about text and share their thinking. Recent research in a variety of educational fields has indicated that follow-up questions may be used to move all students forward in their abilities to understand and respond to such questions accessing higher-level thinking. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to identify the types of follow-up questions frequently asked by three teachers at a small, urban elementary school in the Northeastern region of the United States and whether those types varied by students’ reading readiness levels. Results indicated that the teachers asked a variety of follow-up questions accessing both higher- and lower-level thinking during reading conferences with students whose reading levels varied; the results also indicated that each teacher tended to ask a greater percentage of higher-level questions of his or her higher-level students than of other students. The identified follow-up question types may be helpful in supporting other elementary reading teachers to expand their repertoire of questions to ask students during discourse around text.