Revised Question Skills Instruction
Gail Brown © 2015
Question Skills Instruction Level D
Learning Progress Teacher Manual
Date each Progress Assessment, check each rubric for that task, text & questions, &
make decisions for Spelling, Sentences & Adjustments for students with additional
needs, for your class or grade & record marks.
Record specific student errors on class list, and check for mastery, eg, Will made 3
errors with “When” – then scaffold & check in later lessons & assessments.
Date
Task: Lesson & Text
Success
Criteria
Current Skills: Will
Wentworth (12 questions)
Book 1 Skills Progress: Girls
can be Lifeguards too!
(7/8 + 1/2Ext = 8/10)
Book 2 Skills Progress: Young
Francis Greenway Part 1
(7/8 + 2/3Ext = 9/11)
Book 3 Skills Progress:
Beware Box Jellyfish, Part 1
(6/7 + 2/3Ext = 8/11)
Book 4 Skills Progress:
Tanabata, Episode 2
(6/7 + 2/3Ext = 8/11)
Book 5 Skills Progress: What
are Tapirs?
(6/7 + 1/2Ext = 6/8)
Final Skills Progress: Will
Wentworth (12 questions)
Record on
class list
88%
Decisions, Adjustments,
Specific students’ errors
(80%)
(8/10)
88%
(82%)
86%
(80%)
86%
(80%)
86%
(75%)
Record on
class list
General comments, notes:
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Revised Question Skills Instruction
Gail Brown © 2015
Success Criteria & Teacher Decisions
Success Criteria are suggested for each formative assessment included approximately
every 6 lessons within Question Skills. These criteria can include spelling (especially
words copied from tables or texts) and/or full sentences. Full sentence answers start
with a capital letter, end with a full stop and include at least a noun and a verb.
Teacher professional judgement should be used with individual students or with a class to
determine whether these are included as criteria. As well, some guidance is provided for
students with additional needs. Teacher professional judgement, in collaboration with
parents, special educators and executive teachers, should be used to adjust and adapt
materials, assessments, and student responses, to enable students to demonstrate their
learning, depending on their functioning.
Criteria for comprehension (correct answers) are suggested to be at 80% or higher. This
is considered a minimal level to ensure that students can demonstrate that they
understand texts that they read. These criteria are set with two considerations in mind.
For any Progress Learning Assessment, teachers should use their professional judgement
as to how to adjust the number of questions that students with additional needs should
complete, and what mastery criteria they will apply. This also applies to other
adjustments, for example scribing or voice to text, or whatever adjustments are typically
used with individual students. The suggested 80% or higher criteria for each assessment
is recommended for most student, again with teacher judgement.
Firstly, the importance of the concept being mastered. When a concept is foundational
for further learning or skills, criteria should be reasonably high. For concepts like Clue
Words, the criterion is set at 90%.
Secondly, if additional practice is included in subsequent lessons, then criteria can be
slightly lowered – and teachers can focus on correcting specific errors with their class or
individual students. Again, this depends on teacher professional judgement, based on
knowing their students and their class, as well as knowledge of the practice within
Question Skills lessons. Teachers should expect high performance and explicitly say this
to their students, within each student’s abilities.
Identifying such specific error patterns relies on class teachers noting these as part of
correcting and recording each formative assessment within this booklet. Specific error
patterns would include repeated errors with a particular concept. For example, Will has
repeatedly had errors with “When” questions. James has repeatedly had errors with
“Why” questions, or complex questions. Student performance, as well as specific error
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Revised Question Skills Instruction
Gail Brown © 2015
patterns, should be recorded continually within a class record. Such data and evidence will
be critical in enabling teachers to make evidence-based decisions to support all students.
For Think & Search and On My Own Questions, rubrics provide some guidance. To ensure
consistency, teachers should discuss students’ answers that are not included within the
draft rubrics, and their judgements as to whether answers are acceptable, half marks,
not acceptable. These judgements should be confirmed by the teaching team.
Level D & Level E include figurative language, similes and metaphors, and more examples
of On My Own Questions. These require teachers to be more vigilant and attentive in
marking answers, allowing synonymous student responses to be acceptable – probably with
some justification (orally or otherwise) by the student. Oral justifications may be part of
whole class marking, and provide valuable learning opportunities for all students to
improve both comprehension and vocabulary knowledge.
Both classroom teachers and supervising teachers can check implementation and success
criteria to ensure that Question Skills is implemented with integrity. Improvements in
students’ performance cannot be ensured unless these materials are implemented on at
least 3 occasions each week, as in the original doctoral research program.
Both dates and student performance in these formative assessment can provide evidence
of either the need for additional practice or of mastery of skills and knowledge. Given 3
lessons each week, the dates for each formative assessment (Progress Learning
Assessment) should be about 2 weeks apart. If the time difference is more than 3 weeks,
then this may indicate that lessons are too infrequent for students to consolidate and
maintain the concepts and skills within the materials.
Meeting students’ needs relies on this ongoing knowledge of students’ learning over
time, as well as providing appropriate explicit instruction and additional practice in
response to formative and summative assessments.
For any further queries, please email Gail on [email protected] . I am an
action researcher, working with classroom teachers. I have recently revised and edited all
of these materials, and, without paying for a professional editor, I cannot guarantee that
some errors do not remain. Please email me with any of these, and I will revise and email a
corrected file. MANY Thanks!!
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Revised Question Skills Instruction
Gail Brown © 2015
Current Skills, before starting lessons!
Will Wentworth
William Wentworth was born in 1790 on Norfolk Island. He liked to be called
Will. He did not like William because his mum called him William when she
was angry. Will is most famous for being one of the three men who first
walked across the Blue Mountains.
Will lived on Norfolk Island until he was six. Then, this family moved to
Sydney. Will lived in Sydney until his dad sent him back to England to go to
school when he was 13 years old. Will came back to Sydney when he had
finished school. In 1810, Will won the first horse race in Sydney on his dad’s
horse named Hector.
When he grew up, Will was given some land out near Penrith. Every day he
would look at the Blue Mountains a lot from his house in Penrith.
Will didn’t know why no one had crossed the mountains. Some people said
that no one could ever cross the mountains. They said that the bush had too
many dangerous animals and insects. Also, people told stories of aborigines
that might kill white settlers. As well, there might be no food or water in the
bush.
Will dreamed that one day people would cross those mountains and live on
the other side. On day, he met two men and they agreed to try to cross the
mountains. The two men were Greg Blaxland and Will Lawson. The next day,
they packed their gear and set off. They walked and walked for many long
days. They used ropes and climbed many difficult mountains and cliffs.
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Revised Question Skills Instruction
Gail Brown © 2015
Finally, they crossed the Blue Mountains. Will was only 23 years old when he,
Greg and Will Lawson crossed the Blue Mountains. He would never forget the
thrill of seeing what no other white man had seen before: The Western
Plains of New South Wales.
Read the text and write full sentence answers to these questions.
1. Who were the three men who crossed the Blue Mountains?
2. What is the main idea of the fourth paragraph?
3. What do you think made Will want to cross the mountains?
4. Other than crossing the Blue Mountains, what might Will be famous for?
5 . When was Will born?
6. How old was Will when he crossed the mountains?
7. Why might Will look out over the mountains all the time?
8. When he was a teenager where did Will go to school?
9. What things did Will and his friends do to cross the mountains?
10. What things do you think might happen next in this text?
11. What reasons did people give for not crossing the mountains?
12. In what year did Will and his friends cross the mountains?
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Revised Question Skills Instruction
Gail Brown © 2015
Draft Scoring Rubric for Answers
Question
1. Who were the
three men who
crossed the Blue
Mountains? TS
2. What is the
main idea of the
fourth
paragraph? OMO
3. What do you
think made Will
want to cross
the mountains?
OMO
4. Other than
crossing the Blue
Mountains, what
might Will be
famous for?TS
5 . When was
Will born? RT
Correct
Will Wentworth, Greg
Blaxland and Will
Lawson
Half Correct
Only first names;
One person omitted
Incorrect
No response
Will wanted to cross
the mountains and he
had to overcome all
the huge barriers;
(Tell reader) why no
one would or had
crossed or dared
cross the mts;
Crossing mts is
dangerous;
Will had a dream to
cross the mts;
To do the impossible;
No one else crossed
them before;
To show people you
can cross the mts;
To see what’s there &
so people could live
there
He might be famous
for winning the first
horse race in Sydney.
Things can be done;
Three brave men can
do anything they put
their mind to;
One day Will dreamed
people would cross
mts & live on the
other side;
Crossing mts
together;
Climbing over
mountains;
About Blue Mts;
Aboriginals try to
kill them;
Show your dreams
will come true;
1790
Adding Norfolk Island
(loses half mark)
No way to cross mts
To live on / see the
other side;
Looking at the mts;
Given some land and
would look
Because he dreamed
of climbing
Find out about the
other side
Building first house on
other side mts;
Won a horse race
(no Sydney / first);
Having no fear and
following his dream
Seeing western
plains;
To be a hero;
He liked to climb;
He likes snow on
the mts
Finding Western
Plains; Seeing
Western Plains;
Famous for
climbing the Blue
Mts; First person
to see other side…
Any other year
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Revised Question Skills Instruction
6. How old was Will
Gail Brown © 2015
23 years old
Any other age
when he crossed
the mountains?RT
7. Why might
Will look out
over the
mountains all the
time? OMO
Dreaming of climbing
the mts that no one
had climbed; He
wanted to climb & see
other side; To see
what no other white
man had seen
8. When he was a
England
Beautiful to climb;
Wanted to cross
climb;
Lived close to (other
side of) the
mountains;
He had a great view
He wondered what
was there
Sydney
He went to school
teenager where did
Will go to school?
TS
9. What things
did Will and his
friends do to
cross the
mountains?TS
Many days of hard
walking, lots of
difficult climbing up
over rocks and
mountains
One of these – or
incomplete
description;
10. What things
do you think
might happen
next in this
text?
Walked back and told
everyone;
To explore more NSW
Talk about Will as an
older man, then died;
He walked back & told
people & then
rewarded; 3 men got
land grants; Convicts
sent to build roads
Build a house in mts /
other side mts;
Crossed again;
Men got famous;
Everyone happy &
congratulated them;
Stayed and lived
there;
They climbed other
mts
(need more than
one) OMO
Look at pretty
flowers and trees;
Crossed in 1813;
Look at people in
bush;
Pretty to look at;
Remembered he
crossed & the fun
Climbed and climbed;
Walked along a
great path;
Because there
was food and
water
Climbed and lived
happily ever
after;
Go back to Sydney
and get married;
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Revised Question Skills Instruction
11. What reasons
did people give
for not crossing
the
mountains?TS
12. In what year
Gail Brown © 2015
Bush had too many
dangerous animals &
insects & aborigines
might kill white people
& No food and no
water (ALL 3 needed)
1813
did Will and his
friends cross the
mountains? OMO
Only two of these;
Incomplete;
Thought it was
dangerous;
They didn’t give
them anything.
1814 – and explained
1832 and explained
Around 1812 or 1813
1810 – any other
year from text;
Any other year;
Will was 1810
years old.
Well Done!
Student Comments: What did I
think about this task?
Was it too easy?
Too difficult? Too long?
Teacher Comments:
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