The Access Strategies and Questioning

The Access Strategies and Questioning Principal’s Meeting Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Objectives To understand: • Data for Local District 8 subgroups • How Access Strategies provide universal access • How the art of questioning can improve comprehension for all students

Examining the Data

English Learners and CELDT

English Learners and CST

Reclassification

Access Strategies • Think Pair Share: • What do you know about the Access Strategies?

Access Strategies • The Access Strategies were an outgrowth of the A+ Summit in December ’07: The Four Access Strategies: • Cooperative and Communal Learning Environments • Instructional Conversations • Academic Language Development • Advanced Graphic Organizers Consult your handout for more information

Access Observables • Complete 2 examples of when you have seen the use of an access strategy • Be specific—what did it look like or sound like? • Tell your partner which strategy was used • Place your examples under their corresponding branch During 1st grade Language Arts, students worked together in groups to compare and contrast modes of transportation using the sentence: “___ has ___, but ___ has ___.”

Access ObservablesTalk to your Table: • What do you notice from the Tree Map? • What Access strategies are the most and least observed? Why? Access Strategies Coop IC’s ALD GO’s

Table Talk: • What are the implications of the Comprehension and Fluency data?

Questioning Improves Comprehension “Questioning has long been used by teachers as a way to guide and monitor student learning. ‘Research shows that teacher questioning strongly supports and advances students’ learning from reading’ (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2001)

Questions • Which question requires the student to recall or reread for factual information? • Which question asks the student to interpret or infer an answer?

Questions • What does Mama mean when she says, “Time to put the vegetables to bed, Amy?” • They had to cover the vegetables with leaves. • Leaves had fallen off the trees. • The vegetable garden was wet. • How many trips did Amy and Mama make from the trees to the vegetable garden? • Seven • Five • Four

Challenging Questions • Which question is more challenging for students to answer correctly? • Why is this so?

Bloom’s Taxonomy Six levels • Knowledge • Comprehension • Application • Analysis • Synthesis • Evaluation Consult your handout for more information

Bloom’s TaxonomyTry It! • Work with your table to identify and discuss the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy for these questions taken from The Little Red Hen. • “I think ____ is at the ____ level because…”

Bloom’s TaxonomyTry It! • Identify and discuss the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy for these questions taken from a variety of grade level reading selections. • Highlight the question stems.

Questions on the CST • Read the brief passage and the questions that follow on the next page. • Identify the level of each question (Bloom’s Taxonomy). • Highlight words or phrases in the questions that might be challenging for your students.

Complex Questions • With which questions will students have the most trouble? • At what grade level should the more complex levels of questions be introduced?

Using Academic Language “Teach and consistently incorporate into your questions words that have been shown to trip up at-risk students on standardized tests. Some of these words include analyze, infer, trace, explain, and contrast.” L. Bell (2003) Strategies that Close the Gap

Common Academic Language On the CST • In the sentence above, the author uses the word___ • What is ___ MOST likely to do? • Which sentence BEST tells… • How did ___ solve his problem? • This story is BEST described as a…(genre choices) • Which of these is a theme in this story? • Which words are ANTONYMS? • Which is NOT a complete sentence? • In the last paragraph, the author… • This passage teaches… • Source: CA Dept. of Education 3rd Grade Test Release Questions

Lesson Scenario • As you read, think about these questions: • What level of thinking does making inferences require • Who does most of the “work” of making inferences in this lesson? • What questions does the teacher ask in order to return students to the text to answer the inference questions?

Scenario The third grade reading lesson today is on making inferences. The students are seated at their desks with their books open. Teacher W asks if anyone know what it means to make an inference. Two students (Maria and Ramon) raise their hands. The teacher calls on Maria who says, “It’s like figuring out something.” The teacher acknowledges the answer by telling Maria that she is right. Next, the teacher reads the first paragraph of this week’s selection to the class and asks if anyone can make an inference about what the main character is like. DeShun raises his hand and says, “Honest.” The teacher again confirms this response by saying it is correct—the main character is honest. The teacher asks the students to silently read the first paragraph on the next page. Then the teacher asks if anyone can make an inference about what they read. No one raises their hand, so the teacher says, “ An inference I can make is that this paragraph was difficult to comprehend!”

Classroom Visitations • Please review your Access Strategies Observation Matrix • Consult your Access Strategies handout to add key words • As you visit classrooms, note strategies you observe • Also note any questions you have

The Access Strategies and Questioning