Learning Center

reading

Guide small groups through constructed-response writing

october 3, 2023

Guide small groups through constructed response
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.)

Constructed-response writing - ELA - Use Yes, MA'AM to answer question - include evidence
Constructed-response writing - teacher as scribe - The Blizzard example
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 with the restatement of 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?

Yes, MA'AM mini-signs with elaboration sentence starters
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. As their confidence builds, they can then tackle this challenging task independently and in writing.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
CompCON 2024
Teach constructed-response writing to boost test success

[reading]

Teach constructed-response writing to boost test success

Create Group Products with Think, Ink, Pair, Square

[reading]

Create group products with Think, Ink, Pair, Square

Scaffold writing experiences

[writing]

Scaffold writing experiences