Year 1 English 1.1: Asking and answering questions
Listening skills and rules for talk
Good listeners:
- Look at the person speaking - Seeing facial expressions and body language can help us to understand how someone is feeling about something. Looking at the person can also help us keep focused on what the person is saying without getting distracted,
- Keep their bodies still - This includes keeping our lips closed - our minds tend to be more still when our bodies are.
- Pay attention to what the speaker is saying - don't try and speak to someone else when someone is trying to speak to you, you'll likely miss important information.
When we are speaking, our voice should be:
- Loud (but not shouting but loud enough so that the people listening can hear)
- Clear (so people can understand us - we don't want to mumble)
Answering questions
To be able to answer an question it is really important to listen and pay attention to what is being asked by applying the skills practiced by good listeners above.
We can tell we are being asked a question as they start with one of the following question words:
- Who...?
- What...?
- Where...?
- When...?
When we answer questions it is a good idea to respond using full sentences to demonstrate we have understood what we are being asked.