Questioning the Text:Slave Narratives

The BLaST IU17 Liberty FellowshipFebruary 9, 2012

Fran Macko, Ph.D.Fmacko@aihe.info

Framing the Session

• Why are history texts often difficult for students to comprehend?

• What skills and strategies do students need to become expert readers of history?

• What can history teachers do to help struggling readers in their classrooms?

What are the keys to reading in history?

• Effective readers of history have a variety of comprehension strategies that they bring to reading a text.– Before reading or activation of background or prior

knowledge– During reading or active engagement with the content– Continuous or metacognition

• Effective readers of history are in charge of the process, monitoring how they read and adjusting to ensure success.

Our Focus Today: Questioning the Text

• Students who ask questions when they read assume responsibility for their learning.

• Questioning improves comprehension in four ways:– by fostering interaction with the text– by creating motivation to read– by clarifying information in the text– by supporting inferring beyond the literal meaning

• Effective readers ask questions when they learn something new or read something unfamiliar.

• Asking questions facilitates the learning of new material and leads to more sophisticated questions.

• Effective readers ask questions before, during and after they read.

• They know that sometimes the answers to their questions aren’t in the text, but are in other sources.

What are some strategies for questioning the text?

• Questions Game• QAR

• ReQuest• R2QA

Featured StrategyQAR

• QAR is an acronym for question/answer relationship.

• This strategy:– supports students in understanding different

levels of questions and the relationships between questions and answers.

– supports students in engaging with and constructing meaning from a text.

– helps students understand their thinking processes and develop their metacognitive abilities.

• Students often respond to questions either with a literal answer or with “It isn’t in the book”.

• QAR presents four levels of question/answer relationships:– In The Text

• right there• think and search

– In My Head• you and the author• on your own

• Each relationship represents a more sophisticated level of thinking.

• The strategy teaches students that answering different kinds of questions requires different thought processes and approaches to the text.

• Some questions require students to find the answers in the text, explain something they have read, or build in what they have learned.

• Other questions ask students to access their own thoughts and feelings about an issue.

What is a “right there” question?• The first two questions in

the QAR strategy are text-based and focus students on finding and organizing information found directly in the text.

• Right there questions ask students to respond at the literal level. – The words used to

formulate the answer to the question can be found “right there” in the same sentence in the text.

• “Right There” questions require students to go back to the passage and find the correct information to answer the question. 

• These are sometimes called literal questions

because the correct answer can be found somewhere in the passage. 

• “Right There” questions sometimes include the words, “According to the passage…”  “How many…” “Who is…”  “Where is…”  “What is…”

What are examples of “right there” questions?

• Right There Questions:– Who wrote the Constitution of the United

States?– What was the Underground Railroad?– What are the three factors of production?

What is a “think and search” question?

• Think and search questions require students to think about how the information or ideas in the text relate to each other.– They need to search the entire passage to find the

information that answers the question.

• “Think and Search” questions usually require students to think about how ideas or information in the passage relate to each other. 

• They will need to look back at the passage, find the information that the question refers to, and then think about how the information or ideas fit together. 

• “Think and Search” questions sometimes include the words, “The main idea of the passage…”  “What caused…”  “Compare/contrast…”

What are examples of “think and search” questions?

• Think and Search Questions:– Discuss how the three branches of government

guarantee the system of checks and balances.– Compare and contrast a command economy

and a market economy.– Summarize the military strategies used by

Grant and Sherman during the Civil War.

What is an “author and you” question?

• The third and fourth questions in the QAR strategy require students to focus on the author’s point of view and how the content can be used and applied.

• These questions are knowledge based because students must use prior knowledge to answer the questions.

• Author and you questions ask students to combine their prior knowledge with information in the text to answer the question.

• “Author and You” questions require students to use ideas and information that is not stated directly in the passage to answer the question. 

• These questions require students to think about what they have read and formulate their own ideas or opinions. 

• “Author and You” questions sometimes include the words, “The author implies…”  “The passage suggests…”  “The speaker’s attitude..,”

What are examples of “author and you” questions?

• Author and You Questions:– What is the author’s conclusion regarding the

effectiveness of the Articles of Confederation?– Based on the information about inventions of

the late 1880s, which invention does the author imply had the greatest impact on American culture?

What is an “on my own” question?

• On my own questions can be answered with information from the student’s background knowledge or from another source.– They do not necessarily need to read

the text.

• This type of question does not usually appear on tests of reading comprehension because it does not require students to refer to the passage. 

• “On My Own” questions sometimes include the words, “In your opinion…”  Based on your experience…”  “Think about someone/something you know…”

What are examples of each type of “on my own”

questions?

• On My Own Questions:– Based on your understanding of historical sites,

what are the historical sites in your community?

– In your opinion, what was the lasting impact of the Civil War?

What are the steps in the process?

• Explain the two broad categories of questions (In the text and In my head) and the four subcategories to students as an introduction to the QAR strategy.

• Provide a reading selection and a set of questions

about its content.

• Model the placement of the questions on the QAR graphic organizer.

• Model how to find the answer to each of the 4 types of questions.

The QAR Graphic Organizer

Category of QAR

question Question Answer How I found the

answer

Right There

Think and Search

Author and You

On My Own

• Next, divide the class into small groups and provide each with a reading selection and a set of questions.

• Have the groups place the questions on the QAR graphic organizer.

• Finally, provide the groups with a new reading selection and ask them to develop questions from its content. Have the students evaluate their own questions in light of the QAR framework.

Modeling the Strategy

The Essential Question

• What was unique about the system of slavery that developed and was sustained in the United States and how did those held in servitude able to develop and sustain their cultures?

Modeling the Strategy

• Form a group of 4.

• Assign one part of the “Narrative of Mary Reynolds” to each member of the group.

• Create 3 questions based on your portion of the text:– “Right There”– “Think and Search”– “You and the Author”

• Summarize what you read and share your questions.

• Then, discuss the process of identifying the category of question and the approach to answering the question.

• Then, as a group, develop an “on your own” question”.

• What are some examples of a/an – Right There Question?– Think and Search Question?– Author and You Question?– On Your Own Question?

• What is the answer to each question?

• Where can the answers to each question be found?

• What is the process involved in answering each type of question?

What types of texts work for QAR?

• Primary Sources• Non-Fiction• Fiction• Poetry• News articles• Videos• Periodicals• Interviews• Music• Art

Adapting QAR to Your Classroom

• How might you use QAR in your social studies classroom?

• What adaptations might you make?

• Adaptations include:– Introduce and model one level at a time before

introducing the next.– Eliminate the “on your own” questions or

introduce them at the end of a unit.– Collapse the four levels into two categories:

“In the Text” and “In My Head”.– Vary the length and sophistication of the text.

• What other adaptations can you think of?

Next Steps for QAR

• Once students are comfortable with the QAR strategy:– Have students create homework questions that reflect

each of the 4 QAR categories.– Have students present their homework questions (as a

“Do Now” or warm-up) and explain how they would answer them.

– Have students review standardized test questions and categorize them using QAR types.

– Create a bank of questions for tests or other assessments.

• What other next steps can you think of?

Final Thoughts

• Students who ask questions when they read assume responsibility for their learning.

• Effective readers ask questions before, during and after they read.

• Questioning improves comprehension in four ways:– by fostering interaction with the text– by creating motivation to read– by clarifying information in the text– by supporting inferring beyond the literal meaning

• Asking questions facilitates the learning of new material and leads to more sophisticated questions.