Questioning the author, developed by Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, and Kucan (1997), is an excellent technique for engaging students in meaningful cognitive and metacognitive interactions with text and for assisting students in the process of constructing meaning from text. Beck et al. emphasize that this activity is to be done during the reading process, not after reading. The approach requires that the teacher model the reading behavior of asking questions in order to make sense of of what is being read. Students learn to engage with meaning and develop ideas rather than retrieve information from the text. This particular technique is the kind of activity that teacher of reading should engage the class in, rather than asking them to read a passage and then testing reading comprehension of the material. Use of this approach engages the teacher and readers in queries about the text as the material is being read. Examples of queries include "What is the author trying to may here? What is the author's message? What is the author talking about? What does the author mean here? Does the author explain this clearly?