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

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

4. 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

5. Traditional (Outdated) View of Comprehension
Comprehension = a set of skills (main idea, cause and effect, sequencing, predicting)
Meaning of a text = in the text itself
Reader’s job =
REMEMBER specific information

6. Traditional (Outdated) View = Traditional (Outdated) Instruction
Student remembers
information vs. creates
meaning
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7. Traditional (Outdated) View = Traditional (Outdated) Patterns of Classroom Talk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).
Scaffolding Comprehension through read-aloud
Scaffolding comprehension through reading 7

8. Current Research-based Principles of Comprehension

9. Comprehension Process
Active:
Constructive:
Strategic:
Holistic:

10. 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

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

12. Text Based Discussions
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)
Develops language skills (e.g., vocabulary, syntax, discourse)
Discussion of texts provides students the opportunity to experience and use decontextualized language

13. Questions that Support Growth
What are good questions?
Research supports thought-provoking questions that advance the construction, discovery of big ideas.

14. Quality Teacher-Initiated Questions
Questions improve text comprehension and…
Lead to big and main ideas
Highlight important information
Are open-ended requiring lengthier answers
Demand active creation of meaning
Clarify meaning (e.g., anaphora; causal-logical connections)
Are differentiated (Bloom’s Taxonomy)
Are evaluative (e.g., comprehension of referents, narrative elements)
Teach students how to use questioning strategy when they read

16. 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

17. Effective Questions
Using the guidelines from Quality Teacher-Initiated Questions, write up guidelines for your teaching.

18. Planning and Conducting Text- Based Discussions

19. Teachers’ Role in Discussion
Support the student’s comprehension and the comprehension problem solving process
Model what good readers do when reading
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20. Cornett, Chapter 7 Questioning:
What kinds of questions are most effective for sparking discussion and meaning making?
What is an example of this kind of question? Apply to Percy Jackson.
What is the ultimate goal of a text-based discussion?
Fill this out as a group after partners work to complete the activity sheet: Identifying and Addressing Students’ Reading Comprehension Needs 20

21. 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 really going on here?
What is the author trying to say here?
Does this connect to anything else we have read?
What is in the text that makes you think that?
What is the ultimate goal of a text-based discussion?
Meaning-making is hard work
Support students in building meaning (constructing their own mental network) through language and discussion
Fill this out as a group after partners work to complete the activity sheet: Identifying and Addressing Students’ Reading Comprehension Needs 21

22. Text-Based Discussion
PREPARE
Read the book and find big and main ideas and challenges
Plan stopping point and appropriate questions
Plan scaffolding
PREPARE and Teach Strategies (e.g. inferencing, questioning, etc.; think explicit instruction)

23. Thinking about Teacher Questions

24. In a Text Based Discussion- Questions…
Send messages about what’s important
“What did Percy do next?
“What does this tell us?
“What do you think the author means?”
Are open-ended (e.g., requires 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

25. Are Differentiated for Individual Needs
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26. Questions Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy
See Questioning Strategies handout

28. Planning a Text-Based Discussion
Identity learning goals
Analyze the text
Plan Before
During…Segment the text…questions
After reading (to assess learning goals)

29. Conducting a Discussion

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

31. 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)

32. 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 did Percy help his mother in the end of the book?
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 was science important in evaluating leather versus synthetic basketballs?

33. 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
Restatements; synthesizing for the student (I think you are saying that… Is that right?)

34. 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

35. 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

36. Using Questioning to Develop Understanding

37. 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?

38. 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.

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

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

41. Teach Oral Discussion

42. 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.