Teaching Tipster: Teaching Questioning to Improve Comprehension

After working with my students with this reciprocal teaching framework for the past month, I realized that they need a lot more explicit teaching on questioning.

I really like the questioning model presented in Jan Richardson's The Next Step in Guided Reading. Her model is based in the QAR  (Question-Answer-Relationship) model, but it's more explicit and gives sentence frames to better guide students.  Sentence frames are essential learning tools for my ELL students, but are helpful for every student.

I first introduced my interevention students to GO (literal, right there) questions. These questions start with Who, What, When, Where, and How.  Students can go directly to the text to find the answer to these questions. I modeled GO questions with a shared reading of the students' leveled text. Then, after some practice together, the students began asking literal questions with an instructional-leveled text.    

After practice with the GO questions, I introduced my students to STOP questions, or inferrential questioning. These questions are not directly answered in the text, but students have to use background knowledge, or the inferences from text to find come to an answer. These questions start with What if...?, I wonder why...?, What would happen if..?, Why would..?, How could...? Why do you think?... Again I modeled how to ask these questions, and began with teaching the sentence frame, I wonder why...?

I haven't yet introduced my students to SLOW DOWN questions. They need to become more proficient with GO and RED questions, before I introduce them to these more complex questions. For these questions students have to look more than on place in the text to find the answers to their questions. SLOW DOWN questions are cause/effect, compare/comtrast questions.

This model is especially helpful for my students as English Language Learners. They struggle with knowing how to start questions. The sentence frames give the students the academic language they need to ask questions.

Knowing about question-answer relationships allows the students to find answers to the questions their teacher (or the test!) is asking them. Do they go to the text? Do the make an inference? When you teach your students different question types, it helps them to know how to both ask and answer questions. Knowing how to answer to question well, also dramatically improves students' ability to comprehend a text.

If you don't have this Jan Richardson book, you should get it. She has great ideas to improve guided reading.

Into the Book: An Excellent Resource for Teaching and Building Reading Comprehension

I LOVE this new-to-me resource! If you haven't already come across Into the Book, I suggest you high tail to it and check this out! Pure awesomeness!

Why I love it:

This site has so many wonderful downloadable resources for teachers about reading comprehension. It provides also videos and student interactives to aid in learning reading comprehension strategies. I know I will be using this site extensively next year with my struggling readers. Visit the site to see for yourself!

A Couple of (free) Gems:

Reader's Response Bookmark

Downloadables (Music, Posters, and More!)

Teaching Tips

Links to helpful websites

About the site:

Into the Book is a multimedia package designed to improve students' reading comprehension, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum. Based on current research, the project focuses on eight learning strategies:

• Using prior knowledge
• Making connections
• Questioning
• Visualizing
• Inferring
• Summarizing
• Evaluating
• Synthesizing

Into the Book includes:

• student Web site featuring interactive reading comprehension activities
• teacher Web site featuring music, video clips, classroom design ideas, posters, teacher guides, lesson plans and lots more
• Into the Book video series: nine 15-minute classroom videos teaching children how to be strategic readers
• Behind the Lesson video series: nine 10-minute professional development videos that model effective ways of teaching the learning strategies

The nine Into the Book student episodes feature an extraordinary classroom where a group of ordinary students use powerful learning strategies to enter the world of the story. Programs show student viewers how to use these strategies when reading fiction, nonfiction, or everyday text. They'll also model real-life applications of the strategies. For more information, video clips, and a teacher guide to using the video programs, click on "Student Video" under each strategy.

In the professional development videos, we go Behind the Lesson as teachers demonstrate how they are using these strategies effectively with their students. Programs combine actual classroom footage with dialogue and personal reflection on instructional practices. For more information, video clips, and a slide show, click on "Teacher Video" under each strategy.

This project was developed by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and a team of experienced educators. It is produced by Wisconsin Public Television and the Agency for Instructional Technology.

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"Teaching children which thinking strategies are used by proficient readers and helping them use those strategies independently creates the core of teaching reading. If proficient readers routinely use certain thinking strategies, those are the strategies children must be taught. For the kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade reading curriculum to focus primarily on those strategies, we need a new instructional paradigm: Our daily work with children must look dramatically different from the approaches in wide use in our schools today."

I'm linking up at  Learning All the Time. Visit to find other bloggers' fav resources of the week!

Be well! Read on!

Teaching Tipsters: Explicit Vocabulary Instruction

Kids need to know a lot of words to be successful in school. It is estimated that materials that schoolchildren read include a total of 100,000 different words! That's a crazy amount of words. Kids learn about 3,000-4,000 words every year, and they learn these words in a lot of different ways. Students pick up a lot of words without explicit teaching- through read alouds, independent wide reading, building word consciousness (awareness) in the class, through conversations, etc... But explicit teaching is important to build your student's basic reading vocabulary.

What is Explicit Vocabulary Instruction?

Intentional, Explicit Instruction Research indicates that the intentional, explicit teaching of specific words and word-learning strategies can both add words to students’ vocabularies (see Tomeson & Aarnoutse, 1998; White et al., 1990) and improve reading comprehension of texts containing those words (see McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Pople, 1985; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). Whereas intentional instruction can benefit all students, it is especially important for students who have not developed the decoding and comprehension skills necessary for wide reading. For these students in particular, intentional, explicit teaching of specific word meanings and of word-learning strategies is especially important (National Reading Panel, 2000). Specific word instruction refers to vocabulary instruction that enables students to develop in-depth knowledge of important words – that is, to know words well enough to access information about them from memory as they read.

Every year I dabble in vocabulary instruction. But I want to make sure next year there's a specific plan for vocabulary instruction for all my intervention groups and for our classrooms school wide. I know how valuable it is for the kids, especially English Language Learners. This past year I read aloud a book once a week in my intervention groups. I  pre-taught words before the read aloud, and just with that simple forethought I saw my students word interest and knowledge grow. It was very exciting! I want to be even more intentional next year and have use a specific method for teaching pre-selected words weekly.

Michael Graves, vocabulary instruction guru extraordinaire, suggests explicitly teaching 10 words a week, in additional to other vocabulary building activities integrated into the teaching day.



I've gathered some explicit vocabulary methods online:

Method 1

Marzano's Six Steps of Explicit Academic Vocabulary Instruction

(check out the link for more details and awesome vocab lists!)

Dr. Marzano describes a six-step process in the instruction of vocabulary (Building Academic Vocabulary).  The first three steps are to assist the teacher in direct instruction.  The last three steps are to provide the learner practice and reinforcement.

Step 1:  The teacher will give a description, explanation, or example of the new term.

Step 2:  The teacher will ask the learner to give a description, explanation, or example of the new term in his/her own words.

Step 3:  The teacher will ask the learner to draw a picture, symbol, or locate a graphic to represent the new term.

Step 4:  The learner will participate in activities that provide more knowledge of the words in their vocabulary notebooks.

Step 5:  The learner will discuss the term with other learners.

Step 6:  The learner will participate in games that provide more reinforcement of the new term.

Method 2

Early Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners
1. Choose three to five words from a story.
2. Preview the words, using definitions the student can understand.
3. Read the text (as a read aloud, shared or guided reading).
4. Put the words in context.
5. Give an example in a different context.
6. Ask students to provide their own examples.

Method 3
The STAR Model (see more detail here)
1. Select
2. Teach
3. Activate/Analyze/Apply
4. Revisit

Method 4
This is a method by Michael Graves, one of my favorite vocabulary experts in the field of teaching reading:
1. Define the words
2. Use them in context
3. Give students opportunities to contribute what they know about the words
4. Display taught words predominately in classroom
5. Review and rehearse the words in a variety of ways (games, chants, listening activities etc...)

Each one of these methods has its place in the teaching of vocabulary explicitly- and they're all similar to each other. Method 1, Marzano's method, seems a little rigid to me, but I know a lot of people like it for teaching academic vocabulary. I like that in Method 2 the words are taken from a text that the class is reading together. I think this is very powerful. Method 3 is simple, and simple is good. And finally, Method 4 is the general, but I feel like the most practical for me to use on a day-to-day basis.

I know that with a school filled with English Language Learners, vocabulary instruction must come to the forefront of my teaching. I am looking forward to being more systematic next year with my explicit vocabulary instruction- I know is will really benefit my students.

Link to these AMAZING online resources:

• Scholastic's Lesson Plan for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
• A Good Overview on the Research of Vocabulary Instruction
• Vocabulary Instruction for English Language Learners
• How Systematic Vocabulary Instruction Can Close the Literacy Gap
• Reading Rocket's Developing Academic Vocabulary
• Integrated Vocabulary Instruction- Complete Packet of Ideas

I was inspire to write this post after reading Five-Day Plan for Developing Breadth of Vocabulary via Storybook Reading on Vocabulogic. A wonderful post, and an equally lovely blog!!

If you're a teacher, how do you explicit teach vocabulary in the classroom? Do you prefer any one of these four methods, or do you favor another method altogether? How else to you integrate vocabulary instruction into your day?

If you're an interventionist/reading specialist, how do you weave vocabulary learning into intervention?

If you're a parent, how do you find yourself teaching new words to your kids? I'd love to know!

More from Anita Archer: Instructional Routines

Every fall I marvel at the amount of time, intentionality, and precision that the teachers at my school put into developing masterful instructional routines. My whole-class (versus small group) teaching experience comes from middle school, and while instructional routines are truly important at every grade level, elementary students tend to be completely (and obviously) lost without clearly defined instructional routines. The teachers at my school know through and through that the ability to teach your students well starts every year with the development of their instructional routines.

At the CORE conference this spring I took mad notes during all my sessions with Anita Archer, intending to immediately share my takeaways with the blogosphere. And over a month later...I'm finally following though. Unfortunately, those notes I was madly taking seem a bit cryptic and unorganized, but I will try my best to extract the jewels from Anita's talks for you all. She's written a new book, Explicit Instruction, where she talks about the importance of instructional routines and explicit instruction.


#1 Lessons/Instructional Routines should keep a perky pace

• With "perky pace" the teaching is upbeat and moves swiftly. For one, when the teacher keeps his/her pace perky it means they know the material. He/she has internalized the instructional practices and they have it become second nature.  How do you get to this place with your instructional practices? You have to know the steps of the lesson in and out. This takes planning, and it takes doing. The more you practice your instructional routines, the perkier you become! And that's why seasoned teachers tend to be better teachers (but not always!!!)- they can move swiftly through the material, because they know the material. Also, if you're moving quicker through the material, you are able to cover more ground- and the kids will probably end up learning more.

#2 Instructional Routines should be SYSTEMATIC

• Systematic instruction means that you're focused on critical content:
• skills
• strategies
• vocabulary terms
• concepts
• rules
• Systematic Instruction is sequenced logically
• easier skills before harder skills
• high frequency skills before low frequency skills
• prerequisites are taught first
• similar skills are separated
• With systematic instruction complex skills need to be broken down

#3 Lessons are organized and focused

• You have an opening to your lesson
• getting student's attention/hooking them into the lesson
• review of lesson's past
• preview of what's to come
• Your lesson has a body
• this is the heart of the lesson, your modeling
• Your lesson has a closing
• Review of the lesson taught
• preview of what will be learned next

#4 Your lessons use Instructional Routines
This way students will be able to focus solely on the content, and not of the task.

• Do you use the method of gradual release? 
• Model.     (aka- I do it.  My turn.)
• Prompt.    (aka- We do it.  Together.)
• Check.     (aka- You do it.  Your turn.)
• Do you have instructional routines for teaching everything from phonics to vocabulary small reading groups to behavior expectations, etc...?

#5 Your instruction is relentless (and engaging)!

• You teach to mastery
• You monitor student performance
• You give immediate affirmative and corrective feedback
• You use distributed practice (not mass practice) with cumulative review
• Some children may require 10-30x as much practice opportunities as their peers

So Anita Archer has some good ideas, especially for those new to teaching, or for more experienced teachers, especially if you want to brush up your skills. If my bullet points didn't do it for you, get her book-- I'm sure it is much better than quick notes from a fabulous talk she gave.

Read On! Teach On! 

Explicit Instruction with Anita Archer: Part 1

Core's Leadership Summit at the beginning of March offered so much great insight into teaching reading and the ins-and-outs of RtI (Response to Intervention). As promised, I'm going slowly unpack the nuggets of goodness I took away from the conference.

Firstly, I was reminded of the importance of explicit instruction. This idea of making your teaching completely explicit was hammered into me as a grad student at USF. And likewise, Anita Archer's most recent book and conference seminar focused on the importance of explicit instruction.

Here's Anita Archer's Book:

Why use Explicit Instruction:

Many conference attendees gave Dr. Archer some resistance; they believed that self discovery was just as valid of a teaching method as explicit instruction (think Montessori). Dr. Archer said that you only can successfully discover the world independently if you have a lot of schema/background knowledge. Explicit instruction really helps those students with a low schema/background knowledge, or students with a history of failure. Unfortunately, all of my students fall into one of these two categories. But fortunately, explicit teaching can help them to be more successful.

In a nutshell, what does explicit instruction look like?

• Systematic
• Relentless
• Engaging
• Successful 

In the other parts of this series, I'll give more details about each of these areas of explicit instruction....ohhh, I have a lot more goodness to share on this topic.

For the teachers out there: What does explicit instruction look like in your classroom? When would you opt to use discovery/implicit instruction rather than explicit teaching?

Read on!

An Introduction to Dr. Anita Archer

I am fortunate enough to be attending CORE's (Consortium on Reading Excellence) Leadership Summit this week. After sitting through three meaningful sessions today, I'm motivated and encouraged to become a more effective teacher of reading.

The two sessions spent with Dr. Anita Archer (this is the first time I had heard of her) were particularly riveting. She has a lot of energy, was definitely quirky, and reminded me of best teaching practices (that I sometimes neglect to follow through on!). I'm excited to share with you what I learned about how to best teach reading. Anita focused primarily on explicit instruction, the subject of her new book. The book's website (below), has loads of videos showing Anita demonstrating many of the strategies she talked to us about today. These videos would be very helpful for the new or seasoned teacher, or any coach or school administrator. 

Check out these links about Dr. Anita Archer:
Dr. Anita Archer‘s Strategic Literacy Instruction Video Series
Details about Anita's new book: Explicit Instruction

I gathered sufficient fodder to fuel intriguing blog posts for months to come. I will try to post about all of the teaching strategies that I learn at this conference. In the meantime, I look forward to Day 2 of the Core conference tomorrow- I'm signed up for the RtI (Response to Intervention) track and hope to learn a lot!

From Amazon.com about Anita's book, Explicit Instruction:

Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented--and has been shown to promote achievement for all students. This highly practical and accessible resource gives special and general education teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area. The authors are leading experts who provide clear guidelines for identifying key concepts, skills, and routines to teach; designing and delivering effective lessons; and giving students opportunities to practice and master new material. Sample lesson plans, lively examples, and reproducible checklists and teacher worksheets enhance the utility of the volume. Downloadable video clips demonstrating the approach in real classrooms are available at the authors' website: www.explicitinstruction.org.

Read on!