Asking Text-based Questions,

Supporting Meaning-based Interactions

8:30 – 9:20, 1:00 – 1:50

Steven Wichtswicht@dugsiacademy.org

MELEd Conference, November 7th, 2015

Text-based Questions Comprehension of texts is critical to

language learning; however…

How can we go deeper? How do author’s purpose, the audience, the message, and the text organization interact to make meaning in academic content areas?

Theories on TBQs and Meaning-making Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), developed

by Halliday, is a functional analysis of how language is a tool to make meaning for different purposes.

Genre pedagogy uses SFL to inform analysis of how subject-specific texts make meaning. Researchers include Brisk, Derewianka, Gibbons, and Schleppegrell.

Rose and Martin, 2012, draw attention to the historical and social development of genres in each subject. Without explicit instruction, these specific language features can negatively affect ELs access to academic discourse communities.

Categories of Text-based QuestionsThree Primary Questions, Three Levels of Meaning: Who does What to Whom?: Information (the

message)

How does the author communicate with the audience?: Interaction (purpose of the message: argument, explanation, recount)

How does the text connect information?: Organization (discourse features for

cohesion)

Writing, Reading, and Author’s Purpose9th Grade English, Levels 3-4

Students justify who is responsible for the death of Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men with evidence.

Justify means to make an argument with specific evidence. (What genre is the text?)

Text-based question: How do we effectively write an argument ?: Interaction and Organization

How do we make an effective argument ? 1. “Lennie is most responsible for Curley’s

wife’s death because he killed her. He stroked and broke her neck while petting her soft hair. Lennie doesn’t know his strength; he didn’t know that he did something wrong until Curley’s wife flopped like a fish.”

2. “I think George is most responsible for the death of Curley’s wife because he should take Lennie wherever he goes and whatever he does, he should do with Lennie. This way, Lennie will not get in trouble and nothing will happen.”

Can you identify an argument? Can you produce it? While students struggled to use the structure of an

argument in their writing, they were able to identify the author’s purpose when reading.

Next Steps: Guided writing with the features of an argument:

Interaction Reread for author’s purpose: Interaction Revise argument if necessary: Interaction and

Organization Write with an authoritative voice: Interaction

Summary: Students will focus on their purpose for writing.

Text-based Questions in Elementary Science: The Magic School Bus

Narrative Text: Text-based Questions:Ms. Frizzle drove out into the country and parked the bus next to the hives. The beekeeper was late, so Frizzie took out a picnic basket. “Some light refreshments will pass the time while we wait,” she said.Sometimes our teacher has good ideas!But just as she opened a jar of honey, her elbow knocked a strange little lever. The honey jar fell, and we heard a weird buzzing sound.It was the bus. It was vibrating, and getting smaller. So was everything in it – including us!

Who is the narrator? Interaction

What is the purpose of this text? Interaction

How does the author keep the reader interested? Interaction, Information

How does the author connect characters and events? Organization

Author’s Purpose and Language ChoicesInformation Report Text-based QuestionsWhy Do Bees Sting?By Phoebe

Stinging is the way bees protect their hive. Bees usually sting only if they have to. That’s because they die soon after they sting.

Honey bees have barbs, or hooks, on the end of their stingers. When a honey bee stings, the stinger gets stuck in the victim’s skin. The stinger is pulled out of the bee’s body, and the bee dies.

What is the purpose of this text? How does the author interact with the audience?

What text features show the purpose of the author?

What questions can help support students as they interact with this text?

Advantages of Text-based Questions in Elementary School Reading

Students develop awareness that language choices are important when we communicate ideas.

Academic language choices will change with Information, Interaction, and Organization choices made by the author.

Identifying the differences between arguments and information reports helps students identify main ideas.

Text-based Questions in Math Focus on Information and Interaction. Word problems are usually recounts with missing

information. Text-based Questions:

Who or what is involved?: Information What information do we know?: Information What information do we need to find out?: Interaction

and Information How does the word problem explain relationships?:

Interaction and Information

Elementary Math Word Problem Ubah and Mustefe are comparing how many rocks

they have. Ubah has fifteen rocks and altogether, they have 22 rocks. How many rocks does Mustefe have?

Text-based questions: Who or what is involved? What do we know? What do we need to find out? How can we find the missing information?

Elementary Math Word Problem:Asking Text-based Questions

What do you notice about the text organized this way?What questions can help students make meaning?

Who or what is involved?

Doing what? / Relating?

What is done-to?What is related?

Ubah and Mustefe

are comparing (doing action)

how many rocks they have.

Ubah has (relating) fifteen rocks.They (Ubah and Mustefe)

have (relating) 22 rocks (altogether).

Mustefe has (relating) how many rocks?

8th Grade Word Problem A squirrel is at the top of a tree 5 meters tall. It sees an

acorn on the ground 2 meters from the tree. A wire runs from the top of the tree to where the acorn lies. About how far from the acorn is the squirrel?

Red: Who or What is involved?Black: Actions (“sees” and “runs”) and Relations (“is”)Purple: Where? In what manner?

Text-based Questions: Who or what is involved? What information do you know? What information do you need to find? Is there information you don’t need?

8th Grade Word Problem:Asking Text-based Questions

How can you rewrite the text?: Information / Interaction

Tree is five meters tall distance from squirrel to acorn is ___ meters?

2 metersText-based Questions:What figure did we draw? What equation can we use?

Importance of Text-based Questions in Math Students who are low-proficiency/SLIFE/Long Term EL

may guess at operations before reading.

Relates strategic language thinking to strategic math thinking.

Prompts analysis of significant and insignificant information given in the problem.

Students have a language to talk about math with peers.

Text-based Questions in Science:Producing Information Reports

The next slide shows two descriptions of scientific thinking.

Work with a partner. Think of Text-based Questions that may guide students to talk and write like scientists.

Consider Information, Interaction, and Organization. How is information given? How does the author interact with the audience? How is the discourse organized?

Information, Interaction, and OrganizationText 1: What text features are

used?Text 2: What text features are

used?Sand stays hot for a long time (beach)Jar has a good seal, glass heats wellWood chips – filler to surround cup.Newspaper because it was used in the past. could help on the outside

The first decision made was concerning the shape and size of the water vessel. We decided on a small, tall, thick glass lidded jar to decrease air space and trap the heat. Next, we chose the housing device, a conveniently brought lunch box. We packed the lunch box with towels and peanuts to surround the jar and reduce the air space. We wrapped the lunch box with a jacket (Mountain Hardware soft shell) and placed it inside a plastic bag to trap the heat.

Using Text-based Questions to Support Academic Discourse

How did the two texts compare with respect to the information they presented?

How did the two texts compare with respect to the author’s interaction with the audience?

How did the two texts compare with respect to text organization?

Text-based Questions and Meaning Making Deepen learning by exploring purpose and

organization of text.

Students enter into academic discourse communities, producing genre-specific texts with scaffolding.

Text-based Questions are immediately relevant and facilitate language and content-area development.

What Questions Do You Have?

Suggestions for SFL and Genre Reading Maria Brisk Beverly Derewianka Z. Fang & M. Schleppegrell Pauline Gibbons D. Rose & J.R. Martin