Sections

Overview of the Asking and Answering Questions Professional Development Introduction How Should We Teach Asking Questions? Modeling a Think Aloud: Asking Questions about Fiction Modeling a Think Aloud: Asking Questions about Non-Fiction Engage Students in Asking Questions How Should We Teach Answering Questions? Questions that Assess Understanding Question and Answer Relationship Modeling the Question and Answer Relationship

Overview of the Asking and Answering Questions Professional Development

The Asking and Answering Questions Professional Development provides strategies to teach students how to ask and answer questions more effectively to improve comprehension in the classroom and on standardized assessments such as the STAAR. Using the Question and Answer Relationship (QAR), students learn how to decipher what types of questions they are being asked and where to find the answers. This professional development containing 9 video clips and supporting documents, presented by Catlin Goodrow, is intended to be viewed sequentially.

Introduction

In this introductory clip, Catlin presents an overview of the Asking and Answering Questions training. The first part of the training is about teaching students to meaningfully ask questions about the text, and the second part covers teaching students to meaningfully answer questions.

Materials needed:

AAQ Video Clip 1 PowerPoint Handout Slides

Final Reflection:

Read over Slides 9-12. Think about your data. What does the data at your school indicate about why it's important to teach students to ask and answer questions well?

Note: Remember, although we may highlight or focus on one strategy to make the strategy explicit, we need to ensure that our students know that strategies don’t happen in isolation. We use multiple strategies automatically and interchangeably; and usually, we use more than one at a time. We do not want to teach isolated strategies for very long at all. Michael Pressley (2000) tells us that, “Strategies are taught just a few at a time and students learn to coordinate multiple strategies as they read. Strategies instruction is long-term and woven through the content areas so students learn to apply appropriate strategies to comprehend a wide range of genres” (Isreal & Duffy, p. 512).

How Should We Teach Asking Questions?

In the second clip of the Asking and Answering Questions video series, a closer look at the Cognitive Strategy Routine is presented. Participants first examine an anchor lesson and then follow Catlin through the steps to introduce the strategy of Asking and Answering Questions to students.

Materials needed:

AAQ Video Clip 2 PowerPoint Handout Slides

AAQ Video Clip 2 Additional Handouts

Final Reflection:

Read over steps 2 through 4 from the Cognitive Strategy Routine Card (found in the Additional Handouts).

Think through how you would proceed through steps 2 through 4 from Asking and Answering Questions with your students in order to practice the explicit and precise language needed.

Modeling a Think Aloud: Asking Questions about Fiction

The third clip features a model lesson of a fiction think aloud, based on Angel Child, Dragon Child.

Materials needed:

AAQ Video Clip 3 PowerPoint Handout Slides

AAQ Video Clip 3 Additional Handouts

Final Reflection:

Take a moment now to think about how this type of explicit instruction might support student learning in your classroom. Are there stories you can think of that lend themselves well to teaching this strategy?

What did you notice about the model lesson?

Modeling a Think Aloud: Asking Questions about Non-Fiction

This video clip features a model lesson of a non-fiction think aloud, The Koala Catchers.

Materials needed:

AAQ Video Clip 4 PowerPoint Handout Slides

AAQ Video Clip 4 Additional Handouts

Final Reflection:

Take a moment now to think about this model lesson on reading informational text. How might this type of instruction support student learning in your classroom? How might this strategy help students in other content areas?

What did you notice about the model lesson?

Engage Students in Asking Questions

The fifth video in the series covers an explanation of how to engage students in asking and answering questions.

Materials needed:

AAQ Video Clip 5 PowerPoint Handout Slides

AAQ Video Clip 5 Additional Handouts

Final Reflection:

What will be the biggest shift in how time is spent planning for reading lessons?

How Should We Teach Answering Questions?

In the sixth clip in the Asking and Answering Questions video series, Catlin presents the history of questions in education as well as how teachers should teach answering questions in their classrooms.

Materials needed:

AAQ Video Clip 6 PowerPoint Handout Slides

Final Reflection:

What did you learn about questions that deepen understanding? Given all of Catlin’s examples, what is one technique you would like to try in your classroom?

Questions that Assess Understanding

The seventh video clip briefly describes informal and formal assessment questions.

Materials needed:

AAQ Video Clip 7 PowerPoint Handout Slides

Final Reflection:

Reflect on Catlin’s example of students’ ineffective use of test-taking strategies. Why do you think this happens and how can you ensure that your students are thinking critically when utilizing test-taking strategies?