I'm so excited to share this with you today. It's something I started back during the school year that I've finally got ready to share with the world!
When I first went back to school after my maternity leave, I had my big clinical review 2 weeks after I started. My students were struggling with answering questions in complete sentences---not to mention just answering the question correctly! So this packet was born.
I mean, what kid is a master of answering questions anyway?
"What was the story about?"
"I went to Disney World last summer!!!" sigh......
I whipped up these posters that helped the kiddos realize what we were looking for in the answer. If we ask a "who" question, there better be a person or character in the answer. If we ask a "why" question, then the word BECAUSE better be in their answer!
They helped dramatically! I was so proud of their work. When we would answer questions from stories/passages, I would have them highlight the question word before answering. They were instructed to look at the poster to make sure they answered correctly. If a paper came in without highlighting---it went right back out. Another thing we did is I found passages that I could print out for my students, so that they could write right on their paper. The needed to highlight WHERE they found their answer, or if it wasn't directly stated, WHAT they used to support their answer. {Now, we do our Language Arts curriculum a little different... we don't have a big box company curriculum but rather we have "themes" that we need to find things on our own---or create them. So much of what I found were already made in books that my coworkers had, because it was my first year in second grade----and being back half a year made things a bit stressful! This year I plan on creating more passages of my own, which will most likely be added to this pack!}
{I had these up on my board for a few weeks while we got used to searching and answering questions better}
I've added to this pack to have more activities and I imagine it will end up growing more as I teach the entire year. There are matching cards where students are matching an answer to what question word they believe was used to get that answer. I plan on using that in small groups-but as a whole group activity. (We will work in small groups to find the matches, and then discuss whole group what the matches were and what questions could have been asked)
{This is just part of the page for memory}
There are around the room activities, which, if you have been following me, it's something I LOVE to do with my littles. Getting up and working with clipboards around the room just have a magical effect on engagement!
The first activity has a question asked at the top of the card with 2 possible answers below. They need to walk around and read the question and decide if A or B is correct as the answer. They will also write what question word is used in the question on their recording sheet.
{These are on half sheets-to give you an idea of how big they are; copyright info is only on the pictures for my blog-not on your download}
The second activity has a photograph and a question below. Students will look at the picture and read the question. They will need to write a complete sentence to answer the question as best as they can.
{Copyright info on this picture is not there on your download}
The third activity has a photograph as well (same ones are used), but an ANSWER is under the photograph. Students will have to work in REVERSE to figure out what QUESTION was asked and write that on their recording sheet!
{Copyright info on this picture is not there on your download}
I plan on using these during the beginning/first half of second grade to work on our question/answer skills, along with having students use text to find answers as well.
This is how my mini bulletin board ended up afterwards:
If this is something that you could use, you can check it out in my store!
