LAUSD 2012-13 – CA TREASURES – Text-Dependent Question Template
Creating Text-Dependent Questions for Close Analytic Reading
An effective set of text dependent questions delves systematically into a text, to guide students in extracting the key meanings or ideas found there. They typically begin by exploring specific words, details, and arguments, and then moveon to examine the impact of those specifics on the text as a whole.
Along the way, the questioning targets academic vocabulary and specific sentence structures as critical focus points for gaining comprehension.
While there is no set process for generating a complete and coherent body of text dependent questions for a text, the following process is a good guide that can serve to generate a core series of questions for close reading of any given text.
***THOUGH THE STEPS ARE NUMBERED, THE PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING A LESSON IS RECURSIVE.***
Step 1: Identify the Core Understandings and Key Ideas of the Text
As in any good backward mapping process, teachers should start by identifying the key insights they want students to understand from the text. Keeping in mind the major points to be made is crucial for crafting an overarching set of successful questions.
This step is also critical for creating an appropriate culminating assignment.
Step 2: Target Vocabulary
Locate the most powerful words in the text that are connected to the key ideas and understandings. Craft questions that draw students’ attention to these specifics so they can become aware of these connections. Vocabulary selected for focus should be academic words and high-utility words that are abstract and likely to be encountered in future reading and studies.
Needs of English Learners, SELs and SWDs should be a major focus in planning, e.g., contrastive analysis, vocabulary strategy practice, cognate connections, tiering vocabulary, clarifying common multiple-meaning words, vocabulary choices for particular registers, etc.
Step 3: Tackle Tough Sections of the Text: Syntax & Text Structures
Find the sections of the text that will present the greatest difficulty, and craft questions that support students in mastering these sections. These could be sections with difficult syntax or text structure, use of the passive voice, particularly dense information, tricky transitions, or places that offer a variety of possible inferences. This is another opportunity to engage contrastive analysis strategies, e.g., L1-L2 phrasing, analyzing passive & active voice structures, translation from home language(s) to school and academic language, contexts for use of particular registers, etc.
Step 4: Create Coherent Sequences of Text Dependent Questions – Start Small to Build Confidence
The opening questions should help orient students to the text, and be specific enough to answer so students gain confidence.The sequence of questions should not be random but should build toward more coherent understanding and analysisto ensure that students learn to stay focused on the text to bring them to a gradual understanding of its meaning.
Step 5: Identify the Standards That Will Be Addressed in the Whole Lesson
Take stock of what standards are being addressed in the series of questions and decide if any other standards are suited to being a focus for this text (forming additional questions that exercise those standards).
Step 6: Create the Culminating Task
Develop a culminating activity around the key ideas or understandings identified earlier that reflects:
(a) Mastery of one or more of the standards,
(b) Involves writing, and
(c) Is structured to be completed by students independently.
Grade: 1Unit: 2 Week: 4 Our Families, Our Neighbors
Core Understandings & Key Ideas of Text
Step 1 – Identify Core Understandings and Key Ideas of Text / Selection Title: The Pigs, the Wolf, and the Mud(Main Selection Day 3)Big Idea for Unit (Unit planning page xvi): We all work together to help one another.
Better Big Idea: Relationships help build our community.
Big Question for Unit(Unit planning page 2/3): How do families and neighbors help one another?
Better Big Question for Unit: How do relationships help build our community? Why is relationship building important?
Selection Concept - Each selection builds to a larger understanding of the Big Idea.
How does this selection connect to the Big Idea?
The selection is a fantasy about 3 pigs that share a messy home. A wolf wants to eat them, and when he eventually destroys their home he is so disgusted by the muddy mess that he runs away without hurting the pigs.
This selection highlights how these three pigs lived happily together in their mess, then feared for their lives when the wolf arrived, and later rebuilt their home together after the wolf destroyed it.
CCSS Focus Standard(s): Reading Standards for LiteratureK-5
#3 – Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
#7 – Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
Essential Question- Connect the CCSS Focus standard to the selection concepts in the form of a question:
How would you describe the relationship between the pigs throughout the story? What evidence supports this?
Vocabulary & Text Structure
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING THIS TEXT / HIGH UTILITY WORDS FOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT – Words ELs & all students need, to access this and other learningStep 2 - Target Needed Vocabulary / TEACHER PROVIDES DEFINITION
Not enough clues provided in the text / Pg Words Clues/Supports
95 huff/huffed demo
95 puff/puffed demo
96 dust / Pg Words Clues/Supports
90 lived
91 mess illustration/demo
96 Yuck! Demo
97 again
103 best
Step 2 - Target Needed Vocabulary / STUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE MEANING
Sufficient context or word structure clues text / Pg Words Clues/Supports
90 hut illustration
92 tossed demo
102 bricks illustration
102 sticks illustration
102 could explain it’s an option; it’s a choice/possibility / Pg Words Clues/Supports
Cover pigs illustration
Cover wolf illustration
Cover mud illustration
92 yelled demo
93 bell illustration
93 rang demo
98 kick/kicked demo
99 fell demo
102 make illustration/demo
Step 3 – Challenging Syntax & Text Structures / p. 92 says ,“Get this!” What is “this?” (mud) What is Pig One going to do when she says “get this?”
On p. 94 the pigs are afraid the wolf will “…eat us up”. What is eat “up” mean? (he will eat all of them; eat them completely)
Coherent Sequences of Text-Dependent Questions
Text-Dependent Questions / Evidence-Based AnswersStep 4 - Craft questions that start small, address vocabulary, and build toward the key understandings and standards / pp. 88-89
The story, The Pigs, the Wolf, and the Mud is a fantasy, which is a made-up story. What evidence can you find on the cover page that this story is a fantasy?
p. 90
This page says the pigs lived in a mud hut. Is the entire hut made of mud? Which part of the hut is made of mud?
What materials were used to make the other parts of the hut?
How would you describe the setting of the story at this point? The characters? / Pigs in clothes; pigs seated at the table holding a plate; pigs in a home; a wolf jogging in clothing and a hat, etc.
No. The walls are made of mud.
The roof is made of straw and/or sticks; the chimney is made of bricks; the door is made of wood.
A hut in an open field (other responses might be: meadow, countryside, country, etc) in the middle of the day.
The 3 pigs are characters. (The title also implies a wolf will be a character)
pp. 91-92
When Pig One says “It is a mess,” what is “it?”
When Pig One says, “Get this!” what is “this?”
Why is she throwing it?
How are the characters feeling up to this point in the story? What supports this?
On p. 92 how would the meaning of the text change if instead of it saying, “She tossed mud to Pig Two,” it said, “She threw mud at Pig Two”? / The hut.
Mud.
To play; to have fun.
Happy. Smiling faces; Pig Three saying “mud is fun”; Pig Two saying that pigs like a mess.
It would not sound like they were having fun and playing a game; it would sound like one was throwing mud out of anger.
p. 93-94
Who is the new character that has entered the story?
How would you describe the relationship between the 3 pigs and the wolf? How do you know that? / The Wolf; the Big Bad Wolf.
Not friendly. Pigs look scared and they say they are afraid of being eaten by the wolf.
p. 95
The wolf says “Then I must huff and puff.” This implies he’s doing it because of something else. What is causing him to huff and puff?
If huffing and puffing means to blow really hard, what is the wolf trying to accomplish?
p. 96
Why is there so much dust around the hut?
Why can’t the wolf huff and puff in the dust? / The wolf must huff and puff because the pigs won’t let him in.
To blow down the house to get to the pigs.
It could be because the pigs are so messy; it could be because dry mud creates lots of dust.
Huffing and puffing requires lots of big breaths. He will need to breath in deeply and breath out with force, and taking big breaths in the dust will make him cough or gag.
p. 97
What is the wolf doing for the second time?
Do the pigs look less scared than before or more scared? What evidence supports that? / Ringing the bell.
More scared. Words in text and punctuation are more assertive: “We will not let you in!” vs “We can not let you in.” Also, pigs are huddled together in fear more tightly than before.
pp. 98-99
The pigs’ problem is that the wolf wants to eat them. What is the wolf’s problem?
What has the wolf done to try and get to the pigs?
What has the wolf succeeded in doing to the hut, based on the illustrations on these 2 pages?
The wolf is saying “Yuck!” Why is he saying yuck? When else did he say yuck? What does this tell us about the wolf’s character? / He is unable to get into the hut to eat the pigs.
Up to this point he has rang the bell, huffed and puffed, and kicked the hut.
There is no more roof, the walls are broken, and there is no door.
He’s saying yuck about the mud. He said yuck about the dust before. It would seem the wolf dislikes anything messy, or unclean.
p. 100
The wolf calls the pigs a big mess, and now the pigs look happy. Does the wolf look happy?
Why do the pigs no longer look scared?
How have the pigs’ feelings changed during the story? / No, the wolf does not appear happy.
The wolf is laying in the mud; the wolf appears unhappy; the wolf seems disgusted.
In the beginning they were having fun together and were happy; then they were all scared that the wolf would eat them; and at the end they seemed happy again and no longer scared.
p. 101
The wolf yells, “I do not!” What does he mean when he says that?
Where do you think the wolf will go next? / He is responding to the pigs’ comment that they like a big mess. The wolf does not like a big mess.
To get the mud off; maybe to the stream; maybe home to take a bath.
p. 102-103
At the end of the story the 3 pigs decide to make a hut. Why?
Which materials do they consider using to build their new hut?
Which do they all agree is the best material? Why?
Will the wolf most likely return or not? Why? / The wolf destroyed their hut.
Bricks, sticks, or mud.
They all choose mud, because it’s fun.
Most likely the wolf will not return. He is running away, and he expressed “Yuck!” when they decided to rebuild with mud. The pigs are messy and the wolf doesn’t like messes.
Standards Covered in Lesson Sequence –A single lesson can cover multiple standards
Step 5 – Identify Standards Being Addressed in Lesson / Reading LiteratureK-5: RL1, RL3, RL4, RL7
Reading Foundational Skills: RF1, RF4a,
Speaking & Listening: SL1, SL2, SL4, SL6
Language:L1, L2b, L2d, L2e, L4, L5d, L6
Writing: W1, W5
Culminating Task– Describe task and steps students will take to achieve them.
Step 6 – Culminating Task / Teacher provides directions for writing task. She explains that students will be writing what they think happens next in the story, and that all answers will not be the same. They may use the story if they need help with certain words, but they should also practice sounding out their words.
- Draw a picture of the 3 pigs in the new hut that they have built together.
- Describe the new hut to me. What sorts of materials did the pigs use? Is it the same or different than their previous hut?
- Tell me if you think the wolf will be back to bother them in their new hut, and tell me why or why not based on the wolf’s behavior in the story.
Task & Steps:
- Student illustrates new hut.
- Students tell their partners what materials the pigs are using in their new hut, and if the hut is different in any way than the original hut.
- Student writes about the new hut, and writes their opinion about whether or not the wolf will be back. Justify opinion based on wolf’s behavior’s in the story.
- Students share their writing. Partner A asks Partner B, “What do you think will happen next in the story?” Partner B’s writing should address this question.
Additional Tasks – (optional)Ex: to supplement or build toward culminating task; provide additional depth, complexity, novelty or acceleration for advanced students; make content connections; etc.
Notes to Teacher Ex: Which sections of text to focus on for particular teaching points; considerations for grouping; content connections, supplemental resources or links
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S. Leach