Document Type
Conference Material
Abstract/Description
This summary paper shares key ideas from one of the sessions at the 17th annual Bill Martin Jr.Symposium. The presenter focused on using questioning to promote critical thinking among students while engaging with nonfiction text and finding evidence to support the primary claim. The session focused on Kylene Beers’, a renowned author and educator, “The 3 Big Questions’ strategy” to encourage inquiry and reflection, facilitate knowledge construction, and foster transferable skills across disciplines. Literacy educators are always looking for ways to empower their students to be critical readers of text as they think deeply about what they are reading. Students practice with the 3 big questions answer and reflect on the following questions: “What surprised you?” What did the author think I already knew?” and “What changed, challenged, or confirmed what I already knew?” Once students are comfortable with responding to these questions, they can use these reflection questions to deepen their understanding whenever they read informational texts. Encouraging students to ponder these questions can deepen their grasp of the text and foster metacognitive awareness and inquiry. This presentation aimed to empower middle school educators to teach courageously with tools that facilitate meaningful discussions and comprehension activities around texts, ultimately enhancing students’ literacy skills and fostering critical thinking about their own thinking processes.
Department
Curriculum and Instruction
Date
2025
Conference Title
17th Annual Bill Martin Jr. Symposium
Conference Location
Commerce, TX
Conference Sponsor
East Texas A&M University
Citation Information
Chakraborti, Soumi, "Empowering Students Through Questioning: Enhancing Literacy and Metacognition with the Kylene Beers’ 3 Big Questions Strategy" (2025). 2024-2025 Bill Martin Jr. Yearbook. 2.
https://lair.etamu.edu/bmjr-2024-2025/2
