Lessons and Units for Closer Reading, Grades K-2. Nancy Boyles

of the purpose of the cards and Reader Response Frames and how to use them.

      During Reading Success: It’s in the Cards

      One of the challenges of developing our youngest learners’ comprehension skills is that they are still very concrete little thinkers, while reading is largely an abstract process. Thus, holding onto a card during reading is a gentle reminder to a child that his or her brain is supposed to be doing something to make meaning. I have used many different kinds of cards with students (even older students) over the years and they like them—a lot. Moreover, cards work! The cards begin on page 25.

      Purpose of the Cards:

      The purpose of all of these cards is to keep students actively engaged and to provide the teacher with a quick and easy way of monitoring which students understand a concept or skill fairly well and which students need additional support.

      When to Use the Cards:

      Students (or pairs of students) physically manipulate the cards in response to the lesson’s focus standard and skill. For example, if the skill is identifying story parts, a student might work with a partner during the lesson to jointly summarize the story, referencing the story parts.

      Courtesy of Rick Harrington Photography

      How to Match the Cards to Skills:

      There are different cards for different skills. The lessons specified for Day 3 or Day 4 of the follow-up lessons each week will always indicate which cards will be most useful for that day’s lesson. However, these cards may surely be used independently of the lessons and materials in this book. Use them in your small groups with leveled texts! Use them in literacy centers for independent or partner work. Use your imagination and invent other ways that these cards can help your students become active, engaged readers.

      After Reading Success: Framing Students’ Thinking

      Another challenge of comprehension instruction in the primary grades is that students’ written language skills typically lag significantly behind their oral skills, making it difficult for them to represent the quality of their thinking on paper. Reader Response Frames for open-ended comprehension questions can be one means of moving students toward more solid written response.

      Purpose of the Reader Response Frames:

      The purpose of Reader Response Frames is twofold: to provide an organized structure for students’ written responses and to specify the kinds of textual evidence that a particular comprehension question requires readers to identify. The Reader Response Frames supplied in this book support the twelve standards-based skills reinforced in the weekly follow-up lessons. The goal is for students to capture in writing their thinking about a particular skill as it relates to one of the anchor texts. A written response is often easier to use for assessment because now you have concrete evidence of a student’s strengths and needs.

      How to Use the Reader Response Frames:

      Provide a Reader Response Frame to developmentally ready students after they have had a chance to discuss their thinking aloud about the identified comprehension skill as it relates to the week’s anchor text. Additionally, all frames should be modeled before students attempt to use them independently so they will have a better understanding of what each sentence starter means. Students complete the remainder of each sentence following the sentence starter. Look for responses that are accurate, well-elaborated with specific evidence from the text, and reasonably fluent for your grade level. With the exception of some key words from the text, students should use their own words in their responses—no copying straight from the book! (See page 21 for more guidance about scoring students’ written responses.)

      When to Use the Reader Response Frames:

      Not all students will be ready for written response, and in fact you may want to steer clear of this kind of response entirely in kindergarten. Or, show the frame on an interactive whiteboard or chart and construct the response together. By the beginning of second grade, most students should be ready for this written step. In fact, by midyear in Grade 1, many students should be developmentally capable of writing their own answers to comprehension questions with these frames to scaffold their thinking. Beware of overusing these frames, however. What begins as a critical step in the journey toward independence in written response can quietly lead to dependence if we don’t wean students off this scaffold. Students can get too comfortable with these handy-dandy frames, which organize their thoughts for them; they need to learn to use these frames as models to organize their own thinking.

      Reader Response Frame: Noticing Key Details

      How to Evaluate Students’ Written Responses

      One of the criteria to which students are typically accountable in their written responses is organization. In this case, however, the Reader Response Frame organizes their answer for them so this will not be a factor. For the assessments in this book, I suggest that you consider four criteria, though you will need to decide to what degree each one is appropriate based on the developmental level of your students. Look for the following:

       Accuracy. Above all, the response must be correct based on the content of the text. In most cases there will be one clearly correct response. (What is the text feature? Does the detail support the central idea?) But sometimes more than one answer might be plausible. In such cases, look carefully at the way the student has explained his or her choice before considering a particular answer accurate or inaccurate.

       Elaboration. Remember that all responses will need to be well supported with evidence from the text. This is something that will be important right from the start, even in kindergarten. Look for textual details that are spot-on, showing a clear alignment between the answer and the evidence for the answer.

       Fluency. This is the criteria that will vary the most in the primary grades. If you decide to evaluate student work based on this criteria, you will want to check that the answer makes sense when read aloud. Aim for complete sentences rather than single words or phrases. Aim for language that relies on key words from the text but is not copied word for word. Aim for spelling and punctuation that doesn’t get in the way of understanding.

       Insight. This criteria may not play a significant role when students’ responses are evaluated on high-stakes assessments, but if you want your students to be reflective learners and if you want to maximize the potential of formative assessments for driving instruction, this is a powerful criteria to consider. Can students explain their thinking? Can they tell you how they know and why something might be important?

      The following rubric may need to be adjusted for some responses, but generally these guidelines should help you determine valid scores on the Reader Response Frames. For formative assessment I am less concerned with the composite score and pay greater attention to each of the four individual criteria described above. Note that additional, more specific criteria for accuracy, elaboration, and insights are specified for individual skill assessments under the heading Tips for Evaluating Students’ Responses.

      Rubric for Evaluating Reader Response Frames

      Courtesy of Rick Harrington Photography