Document-Based Questions - Debra J. Housel, M.S. Ed. 2008
Introduction
About This Book
The primary goal of any reading task is comprehension. Document-Based Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking uses high-interest grade-level nonfiction passages, related documents, and critical thinking assessment practice to help you develop confident readers who can demonstrate their skills on standardized tests. In addition, you will build the comprehension skills necessary for a lifetime of learning.
There are five topic areas with six or seven lessons in each. Each lesson consists of three pages: a passage, a related document, and an assessment practice page containing multiple choice, true/false— explain, and short-answer document-based questions. This gives your students practice in all of the question types used in standardized testing. The students respond to the document-based questions based on the information gleaned from the passage plus its related document. Such questions improve a student’s ability to apply prior knowledge, integrate information, and transfer knowledge to a new situation.
Readability
These passages have a 4.0-4.9 reading level based on the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formula. This formula, built into Microsoft® Word™, determines readability by calculating the number of words, syllables, and sentences. Average readability was determined for each of the five topic areas. The topics are presented in order of increasing difficulty.
The documents are not leveled. Many of them are historical pieces and therefore replicated with the exact wording. Some terminology may be challenging, but your students can handle difficult words within the context given.
Preparing Students to Read Nonfiction Text
One of the best ways to prepare students to read expository text is to read a short selection aloud to them daily. Reading expository text aloud is critical to developing your students’ ability to read it themselves. Since making predictions is another way to make students tap into their prior knowledge, read the beginning of a passage, then stop, and ask them to predict what might occur next. Do this at several points throughout your reading of the text. By doing this, over time you will find that your students’ ability to make accurate predictions increases.
Your questions will help students, especially struggling readers, focus on what’s important in a text. Also, remember the significance of wait time. Research has shown that the amount of time an educator waits for a student to answer after posing a question has a critical effect on learning. So after you ask a student a question, silently count to five (ten if you have a student who really struggles to put his or her thoughts into words) before giving any additional prompts or redirecting the question to another student.
Talking about nonfiction concepts is also important. Remember, however, that discussion can never replace reading aloud because people rarely speak using the vocabulary and complex sentence structures of written language.
Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy
The questions on the assessment practice pages in Document-Based Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking assess all levels of learning in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Benjamin Bloom devised this six-level classification system for comprehension questions. The questions on each assessment practice passage are always presented in this order. They progress from easiest to most challenging.
✵ Level 1: Knowledge—Students recall information or can find requested information in an article. They recognize dates, events, places, people, and main ideas.
✵ Level 2: Comprehension—Students understand information. This means that they can find information that is stated in a different way than the question. It also means students can rephrase or restate information in their own words.
✵ Level 3: Application—Students apply their knowledge to a specific situation. They may be asked to do something new with the knowledge.
✵ Level 4: Analysis—Students break things into their component parts and examine those parts. They notice patterns in information.
✵ Level 5: Synthesis—Students do something new with the information. They integrate knowledge and create new ideas. They generalize, predict, plan, and draw conclusions.
✵ Level 6: Evaluation—Students make judgments and assess value. They form an opinion and defend it. They can also understand another person’s viewpoint.
These skills are essential to keep in mind when teaching comprehension to assure that your students practice the higher levels of thinking. Use this classification to form your own questions whenever your students read or listen to material.
Assessment Practice Pages
Teach your students to read the passage and its related document before answering any of the questions on the assessment practice page. Armed with this information, your students can more rapidly and accurately answer each question.
Multiple Choice Questions
The first three questions are multiple choice. Based solely on the information given in the passage, they cover the knowledge, comprehension, and application levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
For these questions, demonstrate your own thought process by doing a “think aloud” to figure out an answer. Tell your students your thoughts as they come to you. For example, suppose the question was: “In Yellowstone National Park, grizzly bears (a) do tricks, (b) roam free, (c) stay in cages, or (d) get caught in traps.”
Tell the students all your thoughts as they occur to you:
“Well, the grizzly bears living in Yellowstone National Park are wild bears. So of course they don’t do tricks. And it didn’t mention that they stay in cages. They probably only do that in zoos or circuses. So I’ll get rid of choices A and C. That leaves me with ’roam free’ or ’get caught in traps.’ Let me look back at the passage and see what it says about traps.” (Refer back to article.)
“I don’t see anything about traps in the passage. And I did see that it says that in Yellowstone National Park the bears are protected and their population is increasing. That means they’re safe from traps, which are dangerous. So I’m going to select (b)—roam free.”
True/False—Explain Questions
The fourth question is true false—explain. It tests the analysis level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This question may require students to use information from both the passage and the document to generate an answer. Just a one- or two-sentence response is required. To respond correctly, the student must not only distinguish facts from falsehoods but also explain them. This requires logical reasoning and analytical thinking. They cannot receive full credit without an adequate explanation. You must demonstrate how to write a good explanation. For example, in response to the statement: “Thomas Jefferson wrote the Gettysburg Address,” the students could write, “False. Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address” OR “False. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.” Either answer is acceptable and worth full credit.
When the statement is clearly true, the student must state that and add information. For example, in response to the statement: “Early pioneers in the Midwest had to cope with grasshopper plagues,” the students should write, “True. The grasshoppers destroyed crops and even damaged buildings.”
Make sure that your students know that sometimes both “true” and “false” responses can be correct. For example, in an article about rescuing Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, it states how hard it was to convince the parents to let the rescue organization take away their children. It also details the methods used to get the kids past the guards (crawling through sewers, sedated babies in toolboxes). In response to the question, “ During the rescue operation, the most difficult part was getting the parents to release their kids to the rescuers,” some students may respond “True. Many parents did not want to let their children go. They were not sure that the children were in danger and thought that they could protect them.” But others may say, “False. The hardest part was getting the kids out of the Ghetto without the Gestapo discovering what was going on.”
Either response is worth full credit because it is adequately defended. This promotes critical thinking since the students must digest the information in order to take a stance.
Document-Based Questions
The remaining questions require the students to integrate the information provided in the passage with the information shown in the document. You must guide your students in understanding and responding to the document-based questions. Again, the best way to teach such skills is to demonstrate how the formulation of an answer is achieved through a think aloud.
Short-Answer Questions
The fifth and sixth questions test the synthesis and evaluative levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Synthesis questions make your students draw conclusions based on information gleaned from both the passage and its document. Their response requires only a few sentences. Show your students how to restate the words from the question to formulate a cogent response. For example, in response to “Why were some people against the building of the Hoover Dam?” the students could write, “Some people were against the building of the Hoover Dam because it backed up a river, forming a huge lake. Historical Native American sites were flooded and animals’ homes destroyed.”
The final short answer question will be evaluative—the highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy. This means that it is an opinion statement with no right answer. Evaluative questions demand the highest thinking and logical reasoning skills. The child must take a stance and defend it. Although there is no correct response, it is critical that the students support their opinions using facts and logic. Show them a format for the defense—by stating their opinion followed by the word “because” and a reason. For example, have a student respond to this question “Do you think that whales should be kept in aquariums and sea parks for people to enjoy?” The student may respond, “I do not think that whales should be kept at sea parks because they are wild animals and don’t want to be there. They want to be free in the ocean.” Do not award full credit unless the student adequately supports his or her opinion.
Sample defenses are given for the evaluative questions, but students may present other valid opinions as well. Also, it would be most effective if you used the defenses written by the students themselves. Thus, before passing back the practice papers, make note of two children who had opposing opinions. Then, during the wrap-up discussion, call on each of these students to read his or her defense to the class. If all the children had the same conclusion, give the opposing opinion from the answer key to show them both sides of the issue. When it’s obvious that a topic has generated strong opinions in your students, you can encourage your class to debate.
Practice Suggestions
Read aloud the first passage in each of the five topic areas and do its related questions with the whole class. Such group practice is essential. The more your students practice, the more competent and confident they will become. Plan to have your class do every exercise in the Document-Based Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking. The activities are time-efficient so that your students can practice each week. To yield the best results, practice must begin at the start of the school year.
If you have some students who cannot read the articles independently, allow them to read with a partner, then work through the comprehension questions alone. Eventually all students must practice reading and answering the questions independently. Move to this stage as soon as possible. For the most effective practice sessions, follow these steps:
1. Have students read the text silently and answer the questions.
2. Have students exchange papers to correct each other’s multiple choice section.
3. Collect all the papers to score the short answer questions.
4. Return the papers to their owners and discuss how the students determined their answers.
5. Refer to the exact wording in the passage.
6. Point out how students had to use their background knowledge to answer certain questions.
7. Discuss the document-based questions thoroughly. Do think-alouds to show how you integrated information from the passage and the document to formulate your response.
8. Discuss how a child should defend his or her stance in an evaluative short-answer question.
Scoring the Assessment Practice Passages
To generate a numeric score, follow these guidelines:
Standardized Test Success
A key objective of Document-Based Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking is to prepare your students to get the best possible scores on standardized tests. You may want to practice environmental conditions throughout the year in order to get your students used to the testing environment. For example, if your students’ desks are usually together, have students move them apart whenever you practice so it won’t feel strange on the test day.
A student’s ability to do well on traditional standardized tests on comprehension requires these good test-taking skills. Thus, every student in your class needs instruction in test-taking skills. Even fluent readers and logical thinkers will perform better on standardized tests if you provide instruction in these areas:
✵ Understanding the question: Teach students to break down the question to figure out what is really being asked of them. This book will prepare them for the kinds of questions they will encounter on standardized tests.
✵ Concentrating on what the text says: Show students how to restrict their response to just what is asked. When you go over the practice passages, ask your students to show where they found the correct response or inference in the text.
✵ Ruling out distracters in multiple choice answers: Teach students to look for the key words in a question and look for those specific words to find the information in the text. They also need to know that they may have to look for synonyms for the key words.
✵ Maintaining concentration: Use classroom time to practice this in advance. Reward students for maintaining concentration. Explain to them the purpose of this practice and the reason why concentration is so essential.
Students will need to use test-taking skills and strategies throughout their lives. The exercises in Document-Based Questions for Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking will guide your students to become better readers and test-takers. After practicing the exercises in this book, you will be pleased with your students’ comprehension performance, not only on standardized tests, but with any expository text they encounter—within the classroom and beyond its walls.
Standards and Benchmarks
Listed below are the McREL standards for Language Arts Level II (grades 3-5). All standards and benchmarks are used with permission from McREL.
Kendall, J. S., & Marzano, R. J. (2004). Content knowledge: A compendium of standards and benchmarks for K-12 education. Aurora, CO: Midcontinent Research for Education and Learning. Online database:
http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/
McREL Standards are in bold. Benchmarks are in regular print. All lessons meet the following standards and benchmarks.
Standard 5 Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process.
Level II
Benchmark 3
Makes, confirms, and revises simple predictions about what will be found in a text (e.g., uses prior knowledge and ideas presented in text, illustrations, titles, topic sentences, key words, and foreshadowing clues)
Benchmark 7
Understands level-appropriate reading vocabulary (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homophones, multi-meaning words)
Benchmark 10
Understands the author’s purpose (e.g., to persuade, to inform) or point of view
Standard 7 Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts.
Level II
Benchmark 1
Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts (e.g., textbooks, biographical sketches, letters, diaries, directions, procedures, magazines)
Benchmark 5
Summarizes and paraphrases information in texts (e.g., includes the main idea and significant supporting details of a reading selection)
Benchmark 6 Uses prior knowledge and experience to understand and respond to new information
Standard 1 Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process.
Level II
Benchmark 6
Uses strategies (e.g., adapts focus, point of view, organization, form) to write for a variety of purposes (e.g., to inform, entertain, explain, describe, record ideas)
Benchmark 7
Writes expository compositions (e.g., identifies and stays on the topic; develops the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations; excludes extraneous and inappropriate information; uses structures such as cause-and-effect, chronology, similarities and differences; uses several sources of information; provides a concluding statement)