This document provides an agenda and notes from a professional development session on increasing student comprehension. The session covered questioning strategies like Bloom's taxonomy and QAR, the importance of classroom discussions, and constructing response questions. It also addressed using academic vocabulary and included templates for lesson planning around vocabulary and questioning. Participants were guided in applying the strategies to their own teaching by selecting passages and developing questions at various levels to use in future lessons.

1. Jennifer Evans
Assistant Director ELA
St. Clair County RESA
Evans.jennifer@sccresa.org
http://www.protopage.com/evans.jennifer#Untitled/Home

2. Today’s Objectives:
Connect Today’s Strategies to
Evaluation
Connect Strategies to Best
Practices (ELA LookFors, SIOP, Project STARSDiscussions, Notetaking, Constructed
response)
Identify Strategies to
Increase Comprehension

3. Agenda
Danielson
Framework
Domain 3
Questioning
strategies
Blooms
Discussions
Constructed
Responses
ELA LookFors

5. Danielson Domain #3
• Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques

6. Danielson – Instruction:
• Domain 3: Instruction
•
•
•
•
•
3a: Communicating with students
3b: Using questioning and discussion
techniques
3c: Engaging students in learning
3d: Using assessment in instruction
3e: Demonstrating flexibility and
responsiveness

8. Estimated Cumulative Words Addressed to Child
(In Millions)
Language Experiences by Group
Professional
45 Million Words
Working-class
26 Million Words
Welfare
13 Million Words
12
24
36
(Age Child in Months)
48
Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children
by Betty Hart & Todd R. Risley. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. (1995).

9. Too Much Teacher Talk?
In one study of 1,151 classroom discussions
occurring in over 200 classrooms:
– 93.31% (1074 discussions) were completely
monologic (teacher-centered) in nature
– Of the 6.69% (77) that included “dialogic
episodes” (moments when students directed the
conversation), those episodes lasted for an
average of 15 seconds
(Nystrand et al., 2003)

10. We Need More Discussion!
• One study shows that only 4% of the school
day is spent engaging in student talk.
• Only 2% of is spent discussing focal lesson
content (but not necessarily using relevant
academic language)for ELL Learners.
– Arreaga-Mayer & Perdomo-Rivera, 1996

11. Goal: Increase Comprehension
• Strategy: Questioning
– Ask Questions Throughout the Reading Process
– Question – Answer – Relationship (QAR) (STARS)
• Old Notch Example
- Blooms
- Socratic Circles

12. QAR – Question-Answer-Relationship
Strategy
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsud7AQ
Wva8
Types of Questions:
ight There (The answer is in the text,
easy to find.)
Think and Search (The answer is in the
story, but you need to put together
different story parts to find it.)
On My Own (The answer is not in the
story. You use your own experience to
answer the question.)

13. Old Notch

14. Harcourt – Trophies Example
• QAR: Read First paragraph of “Old Notch”
– Ask: How long of a ride in the car would it be to
go to the store?
(one hour)
– How do you know? (read it right there in the text)
– Why do you think someone would want to live
that far away from a store?
– How do you know? (in my head)
Two main places to find answers

15. Open Ended questions - Brainstorming
• https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/anal
yzing-text-brainstorming
• Blooms Flipchart – Handout

16. The use of questioning routines, such as
QAR, questioning the author, or
Bloom’s, is effective for developing textdependent questions.
Regardless of the system used, the
questions should be developed in
advance of the lesson to ensure that the
discussion regularly guides students
back to the text. ( p 119 Text Complexity
by Douglas Fisher)

17. Turn and Talk
• How will you be able to use the Bloom’s flip
chart with your students?
• How will you use the flip chart to differentiate
instruction?

18. “Students in classrooms with high academic
demands and more emphasis on discussion-based
approaches show higher end-of-year literacy
performance.”
(Applebee et al., 2003, p. 717)

19. What is a Socratic Circle?
A constructivist strategy in
which participants engage
in a conversation to
collectively seek a deeper
understanding of complex
ideas.

20. WriteWell: Socratic Questions
• ReadWell Unit of Study:

21. Socratic Circle
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDP75I1b
5Do

22. Talking Chips Activity
1. During the discussion, teammates place their chip
in the center each time they talk. They cannot
talk again until all team members have placed a
chip in the middle.
2. All teammates pick up their chip and begin again.
• Round 1: What format for discussions do you use
in your classroom?

23. Teacher Debrief
• With Talking Chips, where was the individual
accountability?
• Where was the equal participation?
• How would the teacher set up the lesson to
make sure of engagement and accountability?
• What ideas of engagement will you take away?
• How would this help your ELL Students?
• Turn and Talk

24. Constructed Response
• You’ve posed good questions.
• Students have discussed the answers to the
questions.
• Now create a constructed response for
students to do:

25. Talking Chips:
• Provide examples of constructed response
questions you could use with what you are
teaching right now or what you have already
taught.

26. Goal: Increase Comprehension
• Strategy: Academic Vocabulary
– Academic Vocabulary Weekly Lesson Plan
Template
– ELA Look-Fors

29. Day 1:
terrible
1. Choose word (tier II)
2. Explain Meaning
3. Repeat word several times
Use illustrations or
videos to visualize
the word

30. Day 2:
Fill in the Blank
• Students fill in the statement using the term: When
something smells bad, we might say that it smells
____ (terrible). When we watch a very bad
movie, we might say that the movie was ______
(terrible). When our parents make us eat
broccoli, some of us might say that it tastes _______
(terrible). When a storm is very strong and destroys
trees and homes, we say that the storm was ______
(terrible).

31. Day 2:
Act it Out
Students act out the term: Make a face that shows
me what you would look like if we smelled
something terrible, like rotten food. Kids make a
face. Show me how you would look if you hurt
your arm and it felt terrible.

32. Think – Pair - Share
Day 2:

33. Read Aloud
Day 3:
• Engage students in a read aloud where
students identify the vocabulary words as they
are read.

34. Concept Wheel
Day 4:
terrible
Select one
term for the
concept
wheel –
terrible
Brainstorm
what kids
know about
the word and
its meaning.
Write the
word in the
first quadrant.
Think of three
more key
ideas about
the word to
add to the
graphic
organizer

35. Day 5:
Exit Ticket
Something new that I learned
today is…

36. Modeled Lesson:

37. Estimate

38. Distribute

39. Planning: Questioning
1. Look at your next story
3. Create at least 3 questions, at various
levels, you would like the students to
answer.
Select one open ended question for students
to discuss. (Socratic)
4. Plan when to implement the lesson.
5. Create a constructed response question
for students to respond to after the
discussion.

40. Planning: Academic Vocabulary
Select a reading
passage to be used
next week.
2. Select 3 tier II
words to teach
explicitly.
3. Open the
PowerPoint
Template, and insert
pictures to go with
the words selected.
8. Plan additional
units.
7. Determine if you
will provide an
additional “Menu”
center for the
words.
6. Develop a
concept wheel
master for the
vocabulary word.
1.
4. Create dialogue
for your students to
fill in the blanks on
day 2.
5. Plan how your
students could act
out the words.

41. Future Plan:
• Today: Introduce/Review Comprehension
Strategies:
(Questioning/Discussion/Constructed
Response/ELA Look-Fors with Academic
Vocabulary)
• Day 2: Classroom Support
• Day 3: Classroom Support

42. Questions?