Learning Center
reading
Guide small groups through constructed-response writing
october 3, 2023
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.)
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?
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.