Sarah P. Knapp Strategies to Teach Questions Answering 12/7/04, 3:45-4:45 P.M

Sarah P. Knapp “Strategies to Teach Questions Answering” 12/7/04, 3:45-4:45 P.M.

Making Inferences

Useful for: Constructing meaning from print. Includes making predictions. Requires combining prior knowledge with information available from text. Inferencing is the process of reaching conclusions based on information within the text. Can be used in reading both fiction and nonfiction.

How to use: 1. Begin by leading students to realize that they make inferences all the time. They see a friend come out of the principal’s office—inference? They notice a look of irritation on their mom’s face—inference? Have students give examples. 2. Read some passages out of a fiction book/story where the author doesn’t tell the reader everything that happens. Ask students to “read between the lines” or do some detective work. 3. Model how you make inferences. Read a passage aloud and while reading, do think-alouds on what inferences you are making as you read. Mention what facts/ information are in the text that help you, but also what experience you bring to the text that you use. Try to find some figurative language to draw inferences from. 4. Copy a passage or several for students. Ask them to work in pairs to make 3-5 inferences from their reading and write those inferences on the sheet. Then have them underline/highlight the words/phrases that led them to the inferences. 5. Compare and discuss student inferences and be sure to emphasize their justification for each inference. Also emphasize the differences in student experiences that may lead to the same or different inferences. Discuss how to find out whether an inference is correct or incorrect. 6. After working in pairs on several lessons, assign as independent work the sheet for recording inferences. At first, use selections at or below students’ reading level. Eventually move to more difficult material.

Example:

While we roared down the tracks, we could feel the car bounce and sway. With clippers in one hand and scissors in the other, Chris was ready to start. The view from the window was a postcard world. In dream workshops, people often report that their dream recall is greater than usual when away from home and in fresh surroundings, or when sleeping on a harder bed.

Possible lessons to use this: Sarah P. Knapp “Strategies to Teach Questions Answering” 12/7/04, 3:45-4:45 P.M.

Making Inferences

What the text says What my experience What I infer is Sarah P. Knapp “Strategies to Teach Questions Answering” 12/7/04, 3:45-4:45 P.M.

Thick and Thin Questions

Useful for: Evaluating questions in books and generating student questions that require more complex thinking. Can be used in reviewing any subject material.

How to use: 1. Explain that questions can be divided into two big categories: thin and thick. Write on board/overhead/poster a T-chart that compares these two types. 2. Tell students that thin questions often start with words like How many, What kind, Where, When. Thick questions often start with words like Why, How come, I wonder, If this, then. . . . Thin questions can often be answered in a word or two; thick questions require sentences and express complex ideas. Thin questions are asked to clarify confusion, understand words, or to check simple understandings. Thick questions are asked to make people think. 3. Give students a list of questions to read, perhaps from a text chapter review or just some you made up. In groups, students should decide whether the questions are thick or thin. Discuss as a whole class what they decided. Correct any errors in identification, or discuss the possibility of different interpretations of the question. 4. Next require students to write their own thick and thin questions about material they have recently read. Group work on this would be least threatening at first, but should eventually be done by individuals.

Example:

1. How many players are needed to play regulation baseball? Thick or thin? 2. What is the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate? Thick or thin? 3. With runners on first and third and one out, what should the coach tell the batter to do? Thick or thin? 4. If you’re playing baseball on artificial turf, why might you field a grounder differently than on regular grass? Thick or thin?

Question Webs

Useful for: Linking organizers to questions, leading students to see what is important and what isn’t, providing a means of organizing thinking to answer extended-response questions for ISAT

How to use: 1. Provide a complex (thick) question for students that deals with some information they have just read about. They need to have access to the textual material. 2. Instruct them to write the question in the center of a piece of paper and to draw a circle/oval around it. 3. Now tell students to go to the text and find any information that seems related to the question. Write that information around the center, attaching it to the question with lines. 4. After students have found some information for their webs, reread the question to the class. Instruct students to highlight or star the information that they think is most important to include in an answer. Compare results—did students agree on what was most important? Point out strengths or flaws with the information they suggest—could it be used to arrive at an answer? 5. Now write out an answer, using the information agreed upon as being most important. Demonstrate for students how the bits of information can be attached to each other to develop a complete answer.

Example: Radiant energy Photosynthesis uses sun’s energy Why could we say that the sun is the source of all life on Earth?

93 million miles away Water cycle caused by evaporation

Sunspots occur on a regular cycle

Answer? The sun is the source of all life on Earth because it gives off radiant energy that is used in photosynthesis to make food and provides water through the water cycle for plants and animals to use.

Teaching Text Structure

Useful for: Enhances understanding by recognizing and utilizing organizational patterns, gives students a framework for approaching reading. Can be used in any content area subject.

How to use: 1. Early in the school year, preview your text with the class. Explain that authors of textbooks use certain patterns of organization in their books. Tell them that if they can identify the pattern being used, it will help them understand more. 2. Guide students through the organization of a chapter, noting aids such as titles, introductions, headings, bolded words, graphics, study questions. Use the title and headings to make predictions about what that section will tell about. Note key ideas in the introduction and key vocabulary in context. Ask why the authors decided to include the graphics and check what kind of information each provides. Read the questions at the end of a section and guess why those questions were asked, rather than others. Are they thick or thin questions? 3. Explain that some of the common patterns authors use are: description, sequence, compare-contrast, and cause-effect or problem-solution. Tell them that even without reading the text, they can tell which pattern is used by skimming for “flag” words. Try this with your text, maybe in several different sections. 4. Over the next several days, return to this discussion frequently. Ask student to skim for the flag words before they read an assignment and then identify the pattern to help them predict what they need to remember.

Example: Flag Words for Text Patterns Description Sequence Compare-Contrast Cause-Effect Problem-Solution For instance On (date) However Because To begin with Not long after But Since Also Now As well as Therefore In fact As On the other hand Consequently For example Before Not only. . . but also As a result of In addition After Either. . . or This led to Characteristics of When Same as So that First In contrast Nevertheless Next While although Accordingly Then More than If. . . then Last Less than Thus Finally Unless Subsequently Similarly Yet Likewise On the contrary

Anticipation Guide

Useful for: Introducing new material, activating students’ thoughts and opinions about that topic, and linking their prior knowledge to the new material. Can be used with any content area.

How to use: 1. Identify the major concepts you want students to learn from the text. Also think about what they might already know or believe about that topic. Check through the text to find statements that deal with those concepts. 2. Create 5-7 statements that relate to the concepts you want them to learn. You can use statements directly from the text or change sentences slightly to make some false. Try to create some true statements that will seem unlikely or false to the students —something kind of unusual or amazing. 3. Write the statements in a list with two blanks in front of each statement. 4. Students read the statements before reading the text. They put an “A” for Agree (or a “T” for True) if they believe the statement, a “D” for Disagree (or “F” for False) in the first blank. Discuss their guesses, either as a whole class or in small groups, allowing them to justify their guess based on their experience, prior knowledge, etc. 5. Now they actually read the text material, looking for affirmation of their answers. In the second blank by each statement, they write the correct answer, based on the text. 6. After everyone has read the text, discuss their answers and have students share their opinions about the statements backed up by quotes from the text.

Example: Anticipation Guide ______1. For centuries humans have tried to find meanings in dreams.

______2. Ancient civilizations believed that dreams were messages from ancestors. ______3. Back as far as the 4th century BC, kings in Assyria and Babylon got warnings in their dreams. Text All through history we have sought to fathom the meanings of our dreams. Intrigued by their strange images, and their apparent cargo of symbolism, we have searched them energetically for insights into our present lives and for predictions of our future. The most ancient civilizations believed that dreams carried messages from the gods. Cuneiform tablets from Assyria and Babylon dating from the end of the fourth millennium BC depict a society whose priests and kings received warnings in their dreams from the deity Zaqar.

Possible lessons to use this: