Improving Comprehension with Questioning the Author
A Fresh and Expanded View of a Powerful Approach

By Isabel L. Beck

In this fully revised and expanded edition of a classic, Isabel L. Beck and Margaret G. McKeown share their new findings on Questioning the Author, the approach that galvanized the research field to look at comprehension instruction in a new way. What¹s the big idea? What is the author telling us now? That¹s what the author says, but what does the author mean? By using queries such as these during reading, at strategic points in a text, students learn how to build meaning and consider and converse with an author¹s ideas. These queries help focus discussions on important understandings. They also embolden struggling readers to work through the ideas in a text rather than skim over them. The book includes how-to¹s on planning and orchestrating the Questioning the Author approach as well as a practical trouble-shooting guide based on classroom transcripts of 25 common challenges to discussion.

296 pages   7-3/8" x 9-1/4"
Grades 3-8