Reading to Learn | Readingdesigns

Questioning Seaweed Solutions

Reading to Learn Design

Rationale:

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. Students who are at the comprehension level of reading are ready to learn strategies to better understand texts. A great strategy to teach students to better their comprehension is question generation. Asking good questions is a great way to be able to better connect information to our background knowledge and to other information found throughout the text. Through this lesson, students will learn how to generate good questions while reading by understanding question-answer relationships, also known as QAR’s. This lesson will focus on two of the four types of question-answer relationships: putting it together and right-there questions. Right-there questions feature questions with answers that are found in a single sentence in the text. The words used in the question and in the answer are usually in the same sentence. Putting it together questions feature questions with answers that are present in the text but cannot be found in a single sentence.

Materials:

Time for Kids article Seaweed Solution (class set), Time for Kids article Climate Crisis (class set), QAR chart, projector, board, mini white boards (for each student), white board markers (for each student), pre-determined groupings, pencil, exit quizzes, clipboards, blank sheets of paper for students to write questions

Procedure:

Teacher introduces lesson to students:

Say: Today we are going to learn about a reading comprehension strategy called question generation. Before we begin, does anyone know what comprehension is? [call on a student with hand raised]. Right, comprehension is when we have a real understanding of something. Asking questions while reading will make our readings more meaningful and memorable to us, which means when we are done reading, we will better comprehend what we just read. When you are able to ask good questions about a reading, I know you are able to comprehend what you are reading.
Say: The best way for us to create good questions through our readings is to understand the different types of questions. [show QAR chart]. This chart shows the four types of questions and where to look for the answers to the questions. Can I have a volunteer read each type of question and its corresponding answer location. [call on student volunteer for each question type]. Thank you! Those are the four main types of questions, but today we will just focus on right-there and putting it together questions. We will do the other two in different lessons.
Say: When we are developing questions, it’s important to remember to ask yourself three questions about your new questions to test how good they will be. These are the three evaluating questions. First: did they cover important information? If your question does not cover information that is important to the story or article, then it is probably not a good question. Second: does the question bring information together? If your questions aren’t bringing information together and making connections in your text or background knowledge, they are probably not good questions. Third: can you answer the questions yourself? If you aren’t able to answer your questions, they are probably not good questions. After you make a question, it is good to test it with these three questions.
Say: So, now that we know the three important questions that go into designing a question, we can begin to design our own questions. [teacher passes out copies of Climate Crisis] I want everyone to read this article, when you have finished reading, look at me so I know you are done. Before we begin, there is a vocabulary term I want to introduce to you. In the beginning of the article you will see the term, climate change. The sentence says: “The worst effects of climate change could happen sooner than expected.” Does anyone know what climate change is? [listen to student responses] Okay, climate change describes a change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time. Can anyone think of an example of one of these changes? [listen to student responses]. Great. warming temperatures and changes in precipitation, as well as the effects of Earth's warming, such as: Rising sea levels. Now you may all read, remember to look at me once you are done. [As students read, pass around mini white board and a white board marker, when all students are done, begin modeling question forming].
Say: Now that everyone is finished reading, I’m going to read it out loud one more time out loud to make sure we all understand, remember from our last lesson that our fluency improves with each read. [read article aloud to class] Now that we have read the article a few times, let’s go over how to generate questions from this article that might help you to better comprehend it [refer to QAR chart]. As we said before, right-there questions aren’t going to help us with comprehension, so we don’t really need to make them. To show you what this question would look like, I will give you an example [write “When was the report released by the United Nations?” on the board] The answer to this question can be easily found in one sentence in the article. Can anyone point to it on the board? [have a student come up and underline it on the board]. If we want to make this type of question, all we have to do is look at our article and find any piece of information within it. From there, we can create a question. To make this question, I looked at the first sentence of the second paragraph and saw that the report was released on October 8th. Therefore, we can ask, when was the report released? Can anyone else make a right-there question? I want you to write your idea on your white board. [students write an example on mini white board, praise when right, correct when wrong]. Great job everyone, those were some incredible examples of right-there questions. Remember, though, these questions aren’t really going to help us with our comprehension. It’s important to understand these questions, but we should not be making them to help us. Now, let’s work on how to make putting it together questions. To make this type of question, I’m going to connect at least two different pieces of information in a text. Let’s look at the third to last paragraph of the article, we see that carbon dioxide pollution would have to drop by nearly half in the next 12 years and zero-out by 2050 in order to prevent further global warming. And for this reason, McGrath says that the report urges world leaders to act on the crisis. To connect these points, I might ask this question. [write “Why do the United Nations urge world leaders to act on the crisis?” on the board]. Can anyone come up with an example of a putting it together question? I want you to write your idea on your white board. [students write an example on mini white board, praise when right, correct when wrong]. These are all great examples of putting it together questions. If we want to test these questions, [point to chart] we can ask our 3 evaluating questions and find out if they are strong.
Say: Okay, now I want everyone to practice this again individually. We will get a new article. [pass out copies of Seaweed Solution to each student] Now that we have modeled the first two types of question-answer relationships, we can practice how to create our own with a new article called Seaweed Solution from the same magazine, Time for Kids. Before we read this article, though, I want to review a word with you. You will see the word ecosystem. An ecosystem is the living and nonliving things that make up an environment and affect one another. Can you think of the things that make up our class ecosystem, write them on your boards and hold them up so I can see? [have a few students share]. Great! This article is so interesting boys and girls! It is an article about how climate change, which we just learned about! By a show of hands, who knows what seaweed is? Great! Seaweed is the green slimy stuff in the ocean at the beach, well what if it could actually help solve climate change? Read the article Seaweed Solutions independently to learn more! Once you are done, look at me.
Say: Now that you have gotten to read the story, you will break into groups of three to form questions. I have chosen the groups for you. Look on the board to see who is in your group [display groups]. When you break into your groups, I will have the QAR chart and 3 questions chart on display for you to use while working. In your groups, each of you will need your article, a piece of paper and pencil, and a clipboard. In your groups, work together to create at least two putting it together questions about this article. You can create more if you want. Be sure to check your questions using the 3 evaluating questions. I’m going to set a timer. When the time goes off, come back to your seats and we will share some of your questions and evaluate them. [Give students around ten minutes to work on activity. Teacher can walk around and check progress and give students more time if needed.]
Teacher will ask students to share a few of their questions and evaluate them together. When this is done, students can turn in their papers and take an exit quiz over the lesson to assess the students’ learning.

QAR Chart from Making Sight Words:

Right-there

The answer is in a single sentence in a text. The words used in the question and in the answer are usually in the same sentence.

Putting It Together

The answer is in the text, but not in a single sentence. Readers need to collect information from more than one sentence and put ideas together to answer the question.

Writer and Me

The answer is partly in the text. Readers need to think about what they already know and about what the text says to see how they fit together.

On My Own

The answer is not in the text. Reader has to use what they already know to answer the question.

3 Evaluating Questions from Making Sight Words

1. Does the question cover important information?

2. Does the question bring information together?

3. Can you bring in the answers yourself?

Exit Quiz:

Part One:

Indicate whether the description of a question is a “right-there” question or a “putting it together question” by writing A for “right-there” or B for “putting it together” on the line.

1. ________ Question is easy to make and usually doesn’t help with comprehension.

2. ________ Questions can be found in one sentence in the text.

3. ________ Question makes connection between two pieces of information.

4. ________ Words in the question and in the answer are usually in the same sentence.

5. ________ Generating this type of information helps with comprehension.

6. ________ The answer to these questions are in the texts, but not in a single sentence.

Part Two:

Answer each question in the space provided.

1. Where is Bamfield located?

2. Why is seaweed considered Druehl’s life?

3. What is the cause for a recent interest in seaweed?

4. Name two ways in which seaweed can play a role in fighting climate change.

5. What is one positive of seaweed over trees?

6. What is the one pathway to food production that doesn’t harm the environment?

7. Name one risk of seaweed production.

Sources:

Miranda Chambliss, Questioning The Wild

https://mkc0040.wixsite.com/mirandachambliss/reading-to-learn-design

Time for Kids articles:

Seaweed Solution

https://www.timeforkids.com/g56/seaweed-solution-2/

Climate Crisis

https://www.timeforkids.com/g56/climate-crisis-2/

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