Pre- and Post-Questioning of Readers

Reading comprehension is all about grasping the meaning of the context. Since we build our future knowledge on our existing knowledge, we have to have some basic comprehension of a topic in order to add to the details of it.

When instructing children or beginning readers, it's important to ask questions before the reading begins. The reader should have enough knowledge to comprehend the elements of the written material. Teachers assess that knowledge by doing something called "pre-questioning". That is, questions are asked in order to assess what the student already knows.

Once instructors learn what the student knows, they can understand which areas may require more focus in order to allow the student to further develop their existing knowledge.

After reading the material, students will then be offered post-questioning. This method of questions asks about the contextual details of the reading material. The answers of the child will allow the teacher to see how much the child understood and retained.

Not only does pre-questioning and post-questioning allow teachers to see the details of what the student knew and how much was added to his or her existing knowledge; it also allows the teacher to measure how much the student can comprehend and possibly retain over a specific amount of reading. For instance, some students can comprehend and retain more over a shorter period of time or by reading just a few pages, while other students can comprehend and retain even after long periods of reading multiple pages.