ReQuest


 * Summary**

//ReQuest// (Lenski et. al, 2011: 157) is a strategy that is designed to increase student comprehension of text by getting them to ask their own questions as they read a passage of text. Students who continually ask questions while reading a passage of text are more likely to come a way with a deeper understanding of the text, but are also more likely to adapt how they read text through this form of self-monitoring understanding.This strategy can be used by groups, but was originally designed to be used by individual students. Many students are never taught how to read an informational text for content. This strategy guides students towards developing that skill and makes them better able to succeed in a class that emphasizes informational texts. This strategy is particularly useful in the social studies where survey texts can introduce a lot of complex vocabulary and meaning without a whole lot of discussion.


 * Directions**


 * 1) **Identify** a section of text that introduces many new concepts that the students are unfamiliar with.
 * 2) **Introduce** the //ReQuest// strategy by reading the first section of text and demonstrating how to use the strategy. As you read, ask questions out loud and then answer them (see example below).
 * 3) Ask students to read the next section using the strategy that you just demonstrated. Limit this section to no more than one or two paragraphs until they get the hang of it. Have them ask the questions and have the teacher answer them.
 * 4) Next, have the students read the section, but have the teacher ask the questions and the students respond to them. \
 * 5) **Alternate** between teacher posed questions and student generated questions as you complete the reading.
 * 6) **Emphasize** the importance of asking yourself questions as you read, because they will help you to better understand what you are reading.


 * Example**

While reading a section of text on society in the 1950s, demonstrate how to use the //ReQuest// strategy by using the example in the reproducible below. Remember that sometimes a difficult term might require more than one question to identify its meaning. In this example the teacher and the students explore the meanings of "planned obsolescence" and "consumer society."