Learning Center
reading
Guide small groups through constructed-response writing
Follow whole-class direct instruction on constructed-response writing with student attempts executed in small-group meetings.
During small-group reading, Katie Coddington, Northeastern Middle School (Fountain City, IN), has her students practice the Yes, MA’AM strategy. This allows her to support their attempts.
Students independently read a short, one-sitting passage. that lends itself to an inferential question/prompt or two. (NOTE: You want your initial texts to be fairly easy to comprehend so students are putting their energies into learning the constructed-response skills—e.g., how to restate a prompt.)
Reveal the inferential question/prompt in written form and refer to it repeatedly throughout the answering process.
Generate a few answers
Lead the group discussion allowing students to generate a few general answers—a simple answer that lacks specific details.
Determine best answer
Determine as a group which general answer the students think best addresses the prompt.
Restate the prompt
Combine the general answer and demonstrate how to restate the prompt all in a single oral sentence. (Teacher scribes the sentence. See below.)
Return to the text
Encourage students to return back to the text pointing to multiple, specific details to support the general answer.
Use sentence starters
Once they have found the textual details they want to reference, encourage students to use the sentence starters listed on the mini-signs. Hold up the corresponding sign with each facet to the response.
Generate concluding statement
Generate a concluding statement. Discuss how the evidence (from the previous sentences) proves their general answer. Ask students, So what? What’s your point? What does that prove?
The teacher simultaneously captures the oral response as the group crafts it. Reveal the first draft on a whiteboard, then model how to revise it.
When the teacher is the facilitator and scribe, students have the opportunity to co-construct a response orally first, hearing the teacher demonstrate how to restate a prompt. As their confidence builds, they can then tackle this challenging task independently and in writing.
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