Reading Literacy Practices in Norwegian Lower- Secondary Classrooms: Examining the Patterns of Teacher Questions

We know from previous research that teacher questions can influence reading comprehension development; however, we know less about the reading processes that are required of students through the use of questions. The present study examines teacher questions on texts reviewed during whole class reading comprehension instruction across 51 lessons in 26 Norwegian eight-grade language arts classrooms. Through video observations, the study (a) identifies text-dependent vs. otherwise text-related teacher questions, (b) deductively examines frequency patterns of text-dependent questions based on three reading literacy processes: locating information, understanding, and reflecting/ evaluating, and (c) examines the relative time allocated to various question-response literacy interactions arising from text-dependent teacher questions. Findings showed that teachers mostly asked questions that required students to interpret or reflect, while they hardly asked any questions that required students to assess the quality and credibility of texts. Implications for the development of reading literacy proficiency required in today’s society are discussed.