"Alissa, do you know what a question mark looks like?”
“Yep-uh.”
“Can you
draw one for me?” I handed her a pencil
and she made one correctly.
“Awesome, Alissa. You use question marks at the end of a
question. A question is
when you are asking something, like "what's your name?' or 'is this your hat?' Do you know what a question is?”
“Yep-uh,”
she said, after a pause.
“So if I
said, 'Alissa, do you like apples?' is that a question?”
No
response.
“Listen:
'do you like apples?'"
“Do you
like apples?” Alissa said softly.
“'Do you like apples?' is a question because I’m asking you, and I need
you to answer me. If it needs an answer, it's a question. Your homework today is
to put a question mark at the end of the questions, and a period at the end of
the sentences. Okay?”
“Okay,” Alissa
said, taking the pencil I offered her. We did a few more examples, and then I asked her to complete the questions on the homework sheet.
About
fifteen minutes later, she was finished and only about half of them were
correct. It was obvious she didn’t
understand, so I explained it again, and asked her a few questions.
“Alissa,
what does this say?”
“Does the
man have the hat?” Alissa read.
“Does that
need a question mark or a period?”
“A period,”
Alissa said.
“Think
again. Is it asking something?”
“Yep-uh.”
“Yes it is, it’s asking if the man
has the hat. So if it’s asking, it’s a
question. What do you put at the end of
questions?”
“A period.”
“No Alissa. What goes at the end of a question?”
“A question mark,” Alissa said,
happily.
“Hooray, awesome Alissa, that’s
right! What about number four? Read number 4.”
“The cat is
in the chair.”
“Is that a
question?”
“Yes.”
“Look
again.”
“I mean
no.”
“No, it’s
not, so what do you put at the end?”
“A period.”
“That’s
right Alissa, great! Now read number 6.”
“Do you
have a cat?” she read.
“Is that a
que…”
“Question
mark,” she said, putting a question mark at the end of the sentence.
“Alissa,
that’s right! Awesome! That’s so great! Do you understand?”
“Yep-uh.”
“Why did
you put a question mark at the end of that sentence?”
“Because I
like question marks,” she said, smiling.
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