Text-Based Discussion and The Use of Questioning to Build Comprehension

Topics The benefit of talk Instruction then and now Text-based instruction and questioning skills Planning and Conducting Text-Based Discussions

The Benefits of Talk Discussions/conversations--important to language development and thinking Fourth grade slump and neglecting of oral language development “Talk gap”: Meaningful Differences; Dr. Todd Risley /c3b/differences.htm

Traditional (Outdated) View of Comprehension Comprehension is a set of skills (main idea, cause and effect, sequencing, predicting) The meaning of a text resides in the text itself The job of the reader is to remember the specific information using skills (e.g. identify main idea)

Traditional (Outdated) View = Traditional (Outdated) Instruction Teach specific comprehension skills (e.g. finding the main idea) Assess whether students have gained a specific meaning of a text Student remembers information vs. creates meaning

Traditional (Outdated) View = Traditional (Outdated) Patterns of Classroom Talk “Classroom quiz show” IRE (Initiate, Respond, Evaluate) Teachers act as quiz show hosts, asking questions that have one correct answer, which can usually be found right in the text (Dillon, 1998; Roby, 1988; Mehan, 1979) Teacher: What was Toad looking for? Student: His button. Teacher: That’s right. “Bull sessions”: Students offer opinions, but comments are not connected or responsive to what others are saying (Roby, 1988).

Current Research-based Principles of Comprehension

Comprehension Process Active: Constructive: Strategic: Holistic:

Comprehension Process Active: Making sense of the text ideas by questioning, connecting, and explaining them; more than remembering; requires effort and engagement Constructive: Constructing meaning during reading based on the interaction between the reader (with prior knowledge, skills, and strategies), the text, and the context Strategic: Knowing when a text is not making sense and consciously acting on this awareness Holistic: More than a set of skills; an active engagement with a text where strategies are applied to gain meaning

Current Views, Current Instruction: Moving Beyond Quiz Shows and Bull Sessions

Discussing Texts During Reading Links oral and written language Students can think and talk about sophisticated texts even if they can’t read those texts themselves (read-aloud texts) Discussion of texts provides students the opportunity to experience and use decontextualized language Helps expand vocabulary knowledge Social context of the group supports students efforts to comprehend text ideas.

Questions that Support Growth What are good questions? From your reading, does research support the fact that teachers generally ask thought-provoking questions that advance the construction, discovery of big ideas?

Quality Teacher-Initiated Questions…. Improve text comprehension ENGAGE students in active thinking and are thought provoking Don’t need to be numerous Lead to the big ideas Cause students to zero in on important evidence that support conclusions about big ideas Are differentiated for students’ needs Are well-timed (don’t rush in) Evaluate a student’s comprehension

Be CAREFUL… Studies have shown that teachers… Asked an average of 50 questions in 30 minutes (grades 3-5) Waited for student responses typically less than 2 SECONDS… ….and even less time for lower achieving students Asked lower achieving students fewer questions; lower achieving students answered fewer questions

Prepare Effective Questions… What are important facts, skills, content, big idea? What is the purpose of your question (e.g., to cue a students’ thinking, to promote critical thinking, to engage a student, to assess, to review for a quiz)? What level of question will you stress and with whom? (e.g., questions can be factual, require making an inference, ask for an analysis, require application of knowledge)? Are you asking students’ to support their answer with information from the text? Are you individualizing for student needs? Are you using ‘thinking’ vocabulary (e.g., predict, compare, infer)? Are you questions clear and not too wordy?

Planning and Conducting Text- Based Discussions

Teachers’ Role in Discussion Support student’s comprehension and the process of comprehension Model what good readers during discussion Active engagement is what reading is all about

Cornett, Chapter 7, Review: What kinds of questions are most effective for sparking discussion and meaning making? What is an example of this kind of question? What is the ultimate goal of a text-based discussion?

Cornett, Chapter 7, Review: What kinds of questions are most effective for sparking discussion and meaning making? Open-ended questions; more than one right answer Challenging enough that students have to “think” (infer, connect, integrate) What is an example of this kind of question? What’s going on here? What is the author trying to say here? What makes you think that? (back to the text) What is the ultimate goal of a text-based discussion? Realizing meaning-making is hard work! Support students in building meaning (constructing their own mental network) through language and discussion

Text-Based Discussion: Video Review What do you notice about questioning and talking in this lesson? What do you notice about the teacher? What do you notice about the students?

Text-Based Discussion – How does this happen?? Teachers come PREPARED Read the book; find main and big ideas; determine challenges and what would be helpful; plan questioning PREPARE and Teach students how to discuss; provide much practice and guidance ANTICIPATE student needs : Where are the struggles? PLAN THE HIGHER LEVEL QUESTIONS (what are the right ones and when) MODEL (TEACH!): model the discussion process; and show how YOU would do this/solve this as an “expert” – don’t just ask questions that test students GUIDED PRACTICE with gradual RELEASE What are the “right” questions and the right locations to ask them? It depends on Learning goals Set learning goals

Thinking about Teacher Questions The questions teachers ask send messages about what’s important “What did Joseph do next? (Students need to remember the information) “What does this tell us?; What do you think the author means?” (Students need to think about what they have understood) Develop open questions that require students to describe and explain text ideas What’s going on here? What’s happening? Avoid solely asking questions that require students to give one word answers or playback words from text

Questions Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy See Questioning Strategies handout

Planning a Text-Based Discussion Select the text Analyze the text Identify learning goals Decide what to do before reading Segment the text Plan out initial questions Decide what to do after reading (to assess learning goals)

Conducting a Discussion

Three Parts of a Discussion Pre-reading (introduction/launch) During reading (support student interactions with the text) Use of plan Question asking Responding to students After reading (Exit, assess learning goals) Assessment Transitioning

Introducing/Launching the Text Questions that focus on specific ideas that are relevant to understanding the story Help students make connections Be Brief and Specific Prolonged discussion can overemphasize the importance of what students already know (or think they know) (over-reliance on background knowledge) Prolonged discussions can divert students’ attention away from what they might discover from the text (under-reliance on text)

During Reading: Quality Questions Lead students to make connections So, what is this about a package, Percy’s mom, and her new sculpture? Focus student thinking on specific information in a text So, we just found out that the sculpture is a Poker Player. Why is that important information? There’s a lot of information in that long section, but what do you think the most important ideas are? What do you think the author wants us to understand from this part? How do the ideas connect to the problem? Elicit explanation How would that work? Support students in making inferences/connections What was the package that Percy received from Zeus? Why did Percy give it to his mother? How do you think she used it? Who used to play poker? Get at the big ideas Why did scientists invent a robot bee?

Responding to Student Comments During Reading (Following-up) The ways teachers respond to student comments send messages about what’s important Teachers’ responses support meaning construction

Quality Responses to Student Comments Percy Jackson Examples Connect: Connect student ideas, weave them together Revoice: Rephrasing what students are struggling to express, or broadening a response to be more general Turning Back: Bring students back into the text to reread and talk about what that part of the text is about

Quality Responses to Student Comments Marking: Acknowledge and use important student comments and ideas That’s a very important idea. Let’s remember that…… Probing: Encourage students to explain, elaborate, and provide reasons for their thinking Tell us more about that. What makes you think that way? Annotating: Providing additional information that is not in the text, but could help students in comprehending the text

Using Questioning to Develop Understanding os/questioning-in-the-classroom

Practicing in Groups: Pompeii and Herculaneum Challenges and Resources Main Idea Big Idea Learning Goals How would you launch the text? Pages 1-2: Potential stopping points and questions to ask How to follow-up?

The First Discovery (Section 1) Main idea: Students should know that marble pieces have been discovered that give clues to something that happened a long time ago. STOP: After first two paragraphs Q: So, what do we know so far? A: (S1)An Italian farmer found some beautiful stones in the ground while digging out a well. F: Okay, yes, these stones were marble and alabaster (which are both valuable kinds of stones). What else does the author tell us in this first section? A. (S2) The farmer decided to sell them to get more money. F: Good. What does the author tell us about where the farmer found these stones? And why might that matter? A. In the shadow of the volcano…in Italy…maybe the marble came from the volcano?? F. Ok, so we know from previewing the text that the next section is titled “From Decorations to Discovery.” How do you think this first section is connected to the rest of this text? Q. Let’s read the next section to find out.

The First Discovery (Section 2) Main idea: STOP: Q: A: F: A. F: A. Q. Purpose: Let’s read the next section to …

Your section Main idea: STOP: (indicate text section read in left column) Discussion Sequence (in right column) Q: A: F: A. F: Purpose: Let’s read the next section to …

Teach Oral Discussion

Think and Search Student Question Cue Card What skills are being practiced? Basic: Questions can be answered by looking in the story in one sentence on one page More Complex: Answers are more complex; are found in several different sentences Complex: Answers are found in more than one place and put together; you must combine information located in different paragraphs or pages of the story ____________________________________ Example: To answer What factors influenced the migration of the penguins? Several sentences are needed to describe the factors that are presented on different pages of the text.