elementary student reading text closely in class

Question the Author

Questioning the author is a strategy that engages students actively with a text. Rather than reading and taking information from a text, the QtA strategy encourages students to ask questions of the author and the text. Through forming their questions, students learn more about the text. Students learn to ask questions such as: What is the author’s message? Does the author explain this clearly? How does this connect to what the author said earlier?

Key Information

Focus

Comprehension

When To Use This Strategy

During reading

Appropriate Group Size

Individually
With small groups
Whole class setting

Why use question the author?

  • It engages students in the reading and helps to solidify their understanding of a text.
  • It teaches students to form questions to the author while reading.
  • It teaches students to critique the author’s writing.

How to use question the author

Beck et al. (1997) identify specific steps you should follow during a question the author lesson. This strategy is best suited for nonfiction texts.

  1. Select a passage that is both interesting and can spur a good conversation.
  2. Decide appropriate stopping points where you think your students need to obtain a greater understanding.
  3. Create queries or questions for each stopping point.
    • What is the author trying to say?
    • Why do you think the author used the following phrase?
    • Does this make sense to you?
  4. Display a short passage to your students along with one or two queries you have designed ahead of time.
  5. Model for your students how to think through the queries.
  6. Ask students to read and work through the queries you have prepared for their readings.

Read more about question the author in these articles:

Watch: Did it make you laugh? Learning about the author’s purpose

Help students understand purpose and audience in writing by modeling and providing opportunities to write a variety of writing forms. (From the Balanced Literacy Diet: Putting Research into Practice in the Classroom)

Collect resources

This website shows and example of using the question the author strategy with a common health-related sign that might be read by students. See example ›

Language Arts

Here’s a simple, clear description of how students can learn to think, “If I were the author…” See example ›

Social Studies

Here’s a short paper that describes how teachers can use the question the author strategy to help students make sense of social studies. Examples are given for elementary age students. See example ›

Differentiated instruction

For second language learners, students of varying reading skill, and younger learners

  • Have students of varying abilities work together to determine answers to questions.
  • When students ask questions that go unanswered, try to restate them and encourage students to work to determine the answer.
  • Have students write or type responses to queries or create some of their own.
  • Engage students in a class discussion about responses to questions.

See the research that supports this strategy

Beck, I.L., & McKeown, M.G., Hamilton, R.L., & Kugan, L. (1997). Questioning the author: An approach for enhancing student engagement with text. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Children’s books to use with this strategy

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangara Maathai

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangara Maathai

Claire Nivola
Age Level:
6-9
Genre:
Biography, Nonfiction
Looking for Miza

Looking for Miza

Craig Hatkoff
Age Level:
9-12
Genre:
Nonfiction

Topics this strategy is especially helpful for

Common Core Standards, Comprehension
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