Reading Strategy: Ask Questions

As you read, you may have questions about what the author is trying to tell you. Asking questions of the author helps you figure out what is important in the text.

Reading Strategy: Ask Questions
    How to Question the Author

  • 1. Use a Double-Entry Journal In one column, write your question for the author. Include the page number where you had the question.

  • 2. Answer Your Question As you read, try to answer your question. The answer may be right there, or you may need to search for it.

  • 3. Think Beyond the Text The answer may not be in the text. Think about what you already know. Then create your own ideas about what the author means.

Strategy in Action

Here’s how one student questioned the author.

Look Into the Text

The moon was well overhead, and our great fire had burned low. A loud clap of thunder woke me from my dream.

All dreams are not true dreams, my mother says. But in my dream that night, three great-winged birds with voices like thunder rode wild waves in our bay. They were not like any birds I had ever seen, for sharp, white teeth filled their mouths.

Double-Entry Journal
Page and QuestionAnswer
Page 350: Why does the author say that “all dreams are not true dreams”?Maybe the author is hinting that this dream is special in some way.

Practice Together

Follow the steps in the How-To box. Create a Double-Entry Journal. As you read “Encounter,” find questions you have for the author, and record them in your Double-Entry Journal. Try to answer them as you read on.