The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 22–25 · Part 1: Part First
8. Asking questions
Goal: Your child ends every written question with a question mark, called the interrogation point.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Sections 22 to 25: questions about the fox and the grapes show the question mark; the Game of Questions (guess the object with yes-or-no questions) is played aloud and then in writing; the child writes questions about everyday things.
The lesson, step by step
Read the questions
Read Section 22 together. All the sentences on page 25 are questions about the fox story.
Do foxes like grapes?
Ask: What mark is at the end of each one? What does it tell you?
A little ear
Read the last lines of Section 22 together and make a big, clear question mark in the air and on paper.
Some one has said that the question mark looks like a little ear.
Play the Game of Questions aloud
One of you thinks of an object in the room. The other asks only yes-or-no questions to guess it. Play two or three rounds. (The book's example ends with guessing the crayon.)
Play it in writing (Section 24)
Now play again, but your child writes each question instead of saying it, with a question mark every time. You answer aloud.
The book says to use the mark's true name: interrogation point.
Write questions (Section 25)
Your child writes 6 to 8 questions about things from the book's list: pencil, desk, book, weather, recess, vacation, baseball, marbles, dolls, kites. Then you answer some of them aloud.
Check it gently
Your child reads each question aloud. Does the voice rise at the end? Is there an interrogation point? Fix any missing ones. Check that each question starts with a capital.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
Is it going to rain this afternoon?
Who made the first kite?
Why does my pencil need sharpening so often?
Afterwards
Play the Game of Questions on a car ride or walk, out loud.