This document provides an overview of several reading comprehension strategies: Question-Answer Relationship (QAR), Guided Highlighted Reading, Reciprocal Teaching, Bloom's Taxonomy, Socratic Circles. It describes each strategy and includes examples, resources and discussion questions. The document also outlines a professional development plan focused on modeling the use of questioning strategies like QAR, Reciprocal Teaching and Socratic Circles in the classroom.

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

2. Agenda
Danielson
Framework
Domain 3
QAR
WriteWell©
Guided
Highlighted
Reading Lessons
Reciprocal
Teaching
Bloom’s Socratic Circles
evans.jennifer@sccresa.org

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

6. Q.A.R.
• Strategy:
– Question – Answer – Relationship
Q.A.R. is a framework to help readers relate prior knowledge
and text information. It describes relationships between
comprehension – guided questions and their answers.
– Three Types of Questions:
Right 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. Author and You)
On My Own (The answer is not
in the story. You use your own
experience to answer the
question.)

7. How to do Q.A.R.:
• Using a gradual release model, teacher begins by
modeling and then gradually relinquishing the
tasks to the students.
Reads selection of text
Asks a question
Considers and states the
answer
States the Q.A.R.
Gives explanation for
the choice

8. Why use Q.A.R.?
Current research on schema theory, text structure, and
metacognition finds:
Fluent readers appropriately integrate their
background knowledge with what the text
suggests.
They seek, identity, and combine information
from various places within the text to
construct meaning.

10. Harcourt – Trophies Example
• 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?
Answers will vary
– How do you know?
in my head
Two main places to find answers

11. QAR – Question-Answer-Relationship
Strategy Introduction
• http://www.vdoe.whro.org/elementary_readi
ng/QAR1-25-2010_F8_FastStart_512k.swf

12. QAR Practice
Using “Old Notch”
example or another
text, take turns asking a
partner questions.
Have partner determine
if the answer is “right
there”, “in my head”, or
a combination.
Thinking: When is the last time you explicitly taught QAR?

13. WriteWell©
Guided Highlighted Reading Lessons

19. QAR vs. Guided Highlighted Reading
Discuss how QAR and Guided
Highlighted Reading are alike and
how they are different.
How could you use the new
WriteWell Informational Lessons to
support this?

20. Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal Teaching is a dialogue between teacher and students using four strategies:
Generating
Questions
Directs reader to
specific information
Forces reader to
reprocess and
manipulate text
Summarizing
Helps reader focus on
pertinent information
Focuses active
involvement of reader
Clarifying
Directs reader to look
for confusing parts of
the text
Helps reader decide
which “fix up”
strategy to use
Predicting
Forces reader to read
with anticipation
Causes reader to look
for clues indicating
where the author is
headed

21. Why use Reciprocal Teaching?
Reciprocal teaching enables students to
construct meaning and to self-monitor as they
read.
Reciprocal teaching is in the top 10 most
effective strategies.
(Hattie 2012)
Metacognition is our goal, and reciprocal teaching
does this.
After 15–20 days of instruction, Palincsar and Brown
(1984) saw students go from scoring 30% to scoring
80% on a reading comprehension assessment.
• After 76 lessons, students improved by one to two
reading levels (Cooper,Boschken, McWilliams, &
Pistochini, 2000).

22. • **http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/r
eciprocal_teaching (2 min. intro)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oXskcnb
4RA (7 min. upper el)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm4mSV
XDCjE (7 min. primary)
• http://vimeo.com/13516178 (Fab 4 3 min)

25. Example Lesson Plan

26. How will I implement Reciprocal
Teaching?
Take a moment to read
through the example
lessons.
Think about how you could implement or deepen
your teaching of Reciprocal Teaching into your
reading instruction on a regular basis and how you
will monitor your students’ progression.
Share your plan with a
partner.

27. Blooms

29. Protocol: Give One, Get One
What
• Inclusion activity
• Opener (for day,
class period, etc.)
Why
• Builds
community
• Gets everyone’s
voice in the
room
• Sets the norm for
respectful
listening
How
• On the Give One,
Get One sheet,
write down
answers to the
question below.
Be prepared to
share your ideas.
Discuss with your group how you could use
the Bloom’s flipbook in your classroom.

30. Open Ended questions - Brainstorming
• https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/anal
yzing-text-brainstorming

31. 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)

32. “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)

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

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

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

37. Socratic Question Stems

39. Socratic Questions for “Fire!”
After reading “Fire!”, do you think you
would like to be a firefighter? (p 515
Open-ended response)
What is the difference between
firefighters in big cities and firefighters in
many small towns? (p 507 Summarize)
Evaluate “Question of the Day” to use

40. Questioning PD Plan
Day 1: Introduce
Questioning
Strategies
Day 2: Model
Lesson using
Questioning
Strategies
Day 3: Observe /
Support you
teaching a lesson
using Questioning
strategies
K-1 Will model QAR
2- 3 Will model Reciprocal Teaching
4-5 Will model Socratic Circle
(Unless otherwise requested)

41. Questions?