Reading Actively
Joining the conversation
General Questions for Effective Reading
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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
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Emotional reactions:
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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)
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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
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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
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Which particular words and/or sentences are
difficult to understand?
Why is the text difficult to read?
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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
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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
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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
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How do you react while reading the piece?
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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?
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Which words and passages evoke the mood?
Questions about the intended audience
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What does the writer assume about the
readers?
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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
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What kind of piece is it?
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Personal story?
Advertising?
Fiction? Political speech?
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
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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
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Where, if anywhere, does the author state a
personal belief or principle?
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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?
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How do you feel about the devaluation?
Results of asking questions
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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