The Importance of Interrogation in Setting the Scene

Let's redo last year and roll it into this year. Unfinished inquiries with questions still unanswered.

'That Old Chestnut' of Inferential and Evaluative comprehension still lurks as an under current with  Critical Literacy being the golden egg.  Critical Literacy, where students question and examine ideas requiring synthesis, analysis, interpretation and evaluation uncovering a deeper meaning and even potentially challenging the assumptions of the author (Lankshear, 1994).  

This year, as last year, I am going to use Process Drama (PD) to continue improving Reading results in my Yr 7 & 8 class. However, I am kick starting with a focus on using PD to improve and refine Sharing, discussion and Interrogation. As with most research you make new discoveries that challenge your initial thoughts. Following last years audio recordings of Hot Seating students it was made apparent that there was a huge growth in their ability to extend lines of questioning and examination thus developing further their interrogation skills. From these results I plan to push PD using specific aspects to develop further Critical Literacy where sharing, discussing and interrogating become second nature. 

 This year, from Anecdotal notes and PAT Reading Comprehension, reading is clear and understood to a certain extent by most students, but dig a bit deeper and those questions requiring in-depth thought remain difficult. Both my Principal and I believe a continuation of last years Inquiry with a few specific tweaks, following from the audio data collected, is the path we would like to continue to follow. If we can develop the students basic skills of sharing and discussing, while building interrogative skills we can continue to build those Critical Literacy skills essential to not only Reading (and Writing) improvement but also life in general.