Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Text-Dependent Questions - Helpful or Hurtful?

Kylene Beers notes that David Coleman dubbed "'text-dependent questions' (as) questions that answers to which may be found in the text or deduced from evidence in the text."  The term threw me for a loop when I read it.  "Text-dependent"...hmmm, how often have I asked text-dependent questions to my students?  How often have I based units of study over years and years of teaching on text-dependence.  Too long.  I still do it.  Doesn't everyone?

The idea that I have subjected generations of students to inauthentic questioning because I did not understand the importance of letting students self discover is a scary one to me.  Whether it be through a series of questions I thought the answers were important to in a text, or the guidance of a textbook that has directed me to ask questions that "scaffold" thinking, I have been a classic example of text-dependent learning.

I have pushed students to simply find the answer rather then to think deeper about the text.  To ask their own questions.  I have not encouraged them to connect to the text, to draw upon the experiences of the characters and relate them to their own life.  I have simply taken the book and determined what I thought the authors purpose was and then in turn taught students to believe that was the author's purpose.  I did not allow them to draw upon their own experiences and relate them to the text.  I made the assumptions that they understood loss, or grief, or happiness they way that I have.

Beers is quoted as saying, "The most rigorous reading the student can do involves more than simply drawing upon the basic definition of words; it involves exploring the understandings of those words that the student brings to the text and weighing them against the apparent understandings of the author."

As I consider these words and the notion behind text-dependent questioning, I can not help but think that I could have done more to support deeper understanding then stifling it.  Students should be able to develop their own questions to drive the conversation.  This will foster the accountable talk that seems to be at the core of the Common Core in Speaking and Listening Standards.

It's time for me to rethink what conversations about the text look like.  What I thought was right I now think was wrong even though I really thought what I was doing made sense. As much as I thought I was helping my students I wasn't.  While I don't think I ruined them completely, I certainly did not help them as much as I could have.

4 comments:

  1. Good reminder to go to higher level questions. I find that some sort of review of the story or text questions is needed to help make sure they get the basic ideas in the text. But if we stay there that is when their is the problem and wasted potential.

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  3. Text-dependent questions? We cannot live without them!

    I do sincerely believe that all strategies are needed to support comprehension. If we look closely at our students’ learning styles, we will realize that text-dependent questions and other reading comprehension strategies are needed. However, to rely solely on one, with no regard to the others, will do a great disservice to our students.

    Beers and Probst have indeed reminded us that, as educators, it is important to remember that we are training the thinkers of tomorrow. Therefore, we need to think about what kind of society we want to live in. Will we trust these future decision-makers (I am talking about our students) who depend on their elders for solutions and understanding of this world? Or will we trust them if they were able to think through and address the complexity of this world?

    There is no need to beat ourselves up for doing what we thought was the greatest instructional strategy ever. We shall learn from the past (that is why it exists) and move forward to a brighter future.

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  4. Kristen, I have to agree with you that text-dependent questions--especially if only posed by the teacher--can be limiting. But I agree with Jennifer--don't be too hard on yourself. After all, TDQs are one of the Six Shifts in literacy instruction being handed down by EngageNY and pushed for by the DOE. So, from a DOE/David Coleman perspective, you've been doing it all right! I don't think Beers is staying these kinds of questions are evil. I would argue that they are important, and can be good thinking tools. For too long teachers have been asking the "what does this remind you of" kinds of questions that tend to lack rigor and sometimes take kids away from the text. I think Beers is concerned (as am I) that teachers may start to (or continue) to do little else than make kids answer their TDQs, and thus create dependent readers. She also disagrees with New Criticism theory, an interesting concept for advanced literary analysis, but, I must agree with Beers, it leaves out big parts of the reading process. So what's the middle ground here? I'm thinking a variety of strategies, as Jennifer says. What do you all think of Beers's protocol for having students create text dependent questions?

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