Attacking The Open Response Question IREST Attacking The Open Response Question

Code these sentences that introduce the subject in YELLOW I = Introduction Introduce the book, article, or idea you are writing about. Introduce the Author, Illustrator, and Genre of the book or article. Provide some background information about the story without retelling the entire story. Code these sentences that introduce the subject in YELLOW

R = Restate the question Use words from the question in your response. Think of this as creating a thesis statement…what is your answer going to be about. Code these sentences that restate your question in PINK

E = Show Evidence from the Story Uses the book, (or article, or passage) to find evidence that proves what you think. This is called using “quotes”. Does not copy the whole book, but uses the most important sentence that proves your point. Might be paraphrased from the book, where you are taking the key ideas that are clearly not your words and adding them to your response as evidence of your thinking. Code these sentences you found from the book only or paraphrased from the book in GREEN.

S = Support your Evidence! This is where you explain the quote you found from the book with your words. You can support the quote by telling what the quote means to you or what you think it is trying to tell readers. This is where the hard work comes from. Good support is evidence of good thinking from you about books. Code any sentences where you are thinking about what the quote means and sharing your ideas about the book in BLUE

T = Tie it up This is a conclusion. Good writers do not need to say THE END in a formal piece of writing. Your words will signal the reader that you have made all the points you wanted to make and that you are done. You can also quickly restate quickly your answer without repeating yourself if you can. Say it in another way. Code sentences that are wrapping up your ideas and giving the reader closure in ORANGE.

Tips IREST format will help you keep your work organized, if you follow the steps correctly. Any drafts you write can be coded with highlighters to make sure you have all the parts of IREST. If you don’t have enough green or blue or if you don’t have a color, you’ll know where to put it in. Good essays have plenty of blue because the support is where you are showing what you know about the books we are reading.

More Tips If you are writing answers to story questions, your work may not have a lot of yellow. That is ok. The more we practice, the better you will get. IREST can help you answer Key Questions better. A Key Question is like a long open response question.

Remember, for success on open response questions… I = Introduce the subject R = Restate the question E = Show evidence from the book S = Support the evidence you’ve found T = Tie it up!