That's a GREAT Answer! Teaching Literature-response Strategies to Elementary, ELL, and Struggling Readers

by Nancy N. Boyles

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The ability to comprehend and to respond meaningfully to text is a skill students need every day--not just on test day. That's a GREAT Answer! provides complete and ready-to-go support to help teachers get great answers to open-ended comprehension questions from the students who need help the most--elementary students, struggling older readers, and English language learners. In this revised second edition, Nancy Boyles now includes new Common Core State Standards-based objectives, step-by-step lesson sequences, collaborative tasks that link teaching to learning, insightful new teaching tips, updated and enhanced bibliographies, and student targets on the CD that specify how to meet each objective and answer a particular comprehension question. Her ready-to-go student scaffolds then break comprehension objectives into fifty-three specific, measurable, open-ended questions divided among four thinking strands. A chart shows the correlation between all objectives and the Common Core State Standards for comprehension--easily aligned to the literacy objectives of any state curriculum. Each open-ended question includes: a step-by-step lesson sequence; a template for a related oral collaborative task; teaching tips; a bibliography of fiction and nonfiction picture books aligned with the question; a template instructing students how to find key evidence for the objective before writing their response; an answer frame scaffold for initial response practice that helps students at any grade level organize and elaborate; and a target on the CD that specifies for students how to meet each objective and answer a particular comprehension question. The included CD provides all of the answer frames and targets for the open-ended questions, as well as rubrics, criteria charts, planners, and an extensive master bibliography that matches key fiction and nonfiction literature models with appropriate objectives. From setting a foundation with great standards, books, and instruction through guidelines for assessment, That's a GREAT Answer offers a (now more) complete, great answer for teachers who want to empower their students to respond well to open-ended questions. … (more)

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a great resource that offers book titles to use to address LA and CCC objectives. k-6 Includes lessons ideas and activities.

tracyhintz | Dec 2, 2012 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

This book was written for use at the elementary level, but this is also good resource for any English teacher, special education teacher or ESL teacher even at the high school level. I like the focus on Language Arts skills and the various suggested texts. I think that some of these texts may even work in the high school for an ESL or SPED classroom that is reading below grade level. They also might provide a nice introduction for high school students when modeling how to analyze more complex literature. I also think the simplicity of some of the language arts concepts such as theme may be a good place to start for teaching students in a regular education setting and then building more depth. I love the various graphic organizers the author provides to help students process text and evaluate why a particular text is "good" literature. Many of the writing prompts could easily be modified to use with older students. If all elementary teachers were using this type of pedagogy, reading skills at the high school level would be much more sophisticated. An excellant resource to have! (

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speedy74 | Feb 24, 2012 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

I teach Language Arts at the middle school level and found this book to be very applicable to direct classroom instruction. Often, I read material that is “pie in the sky” and does not share direct and explicit ideas that can be immediately used. I found the availability of the information to be applied directly to my current classroom lessons to be my favorite part of the book. The other parts of the book I found to be positive are:

- The explicit examples as mentioned above are by far the best part of the text and need to be reiterated.

- The gradual release model of instruction was applied in the examples. This is something my principal is always asking us to incorporate.

- An explanation as to why the new common core standards are important to the field of teaching.

-Rubrics for selecting picture book and other literature. This is important as a simple list of texts is ever changing.

-I liked that there was an emphasis on reading. Being a Language Arts teacher I feel that often, other subject areas such as History, Science, and yes, even Math need reading skills. This text was applicable to all subject areas. The open-ended question style could be applied to a passage from any subject area.

I received a review copy in Adobe format so I did not get the chance to use the CD that is included with the book so I cannot comment on it. I did find the text to be a valuable tool and would recommend that others teachers use it to come up with new ideas in their classroom.

Acacia11 | Jan 4, 2012 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Great resource for ideas for teaching reading in various ways. Includes many useful rurbrics to help with planning, instruction and grading. Also has great lists of recommended reading. Geared more to younger readers, but still has some great ideas.

hollicolli | Dec 29, 2011 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

As an elementary school librarian, That's a Great Answer! is going to be a resource that I'll go back to again and again. I especially liked the bibliographies and rubrics for literature selection, which I will be incorporating into my purchasing decisions. The many tables in this book are a great text feature. They break concepts down into organized, easy-to-understand, implementable steps. Although some material in this book is too high level for my students (pre-k through 2nd grade), I can see this being an excellent resource nonetheless. I also like that it is to-the-point and concise. Loved it. (

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aurora2615 | Dec 18, 2011 |

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The ability to comprehend and to respond meaningfully to text is a skill students need every day--not just on test day. That's a GREAT Answer! provides complete and ready-to-go support to help teachers get great answers to open-ended comprehension questions from the students who need help the most--elementary students, struggling older readers, and English language learners. In this revised second edition, Nancy Boyles now includes new Common Core State Standards-based objectives, step-by-step lesson sequences, collaborative tasks that link teaching to learning, insightful new teaching tips, updated and enhanced bibliographies, and student targets on the CD that specify how to meet each objective and answer a particular comprehension question. Her ready-to-go student scaffolds then break comprehension objectives into fifty-three specific, measurable, open-ended questions divided among four thinking strands. A chart shows the correlation between all objectives and the Common Core State Standards for comprehension--easily aligned to the literacy objectives of any state curriculum. Each open-ended question includes: a step-by-step lesson sequence; a template for a related oral collaborative task; teaching tips; a bibliography of fiction and nonfiction picture books aligned with the question; a template instructing students how to find key evidence for the objective before writing their response; an answer frame scaffold for initial response practice that helps students at any grade level organize and elaborate; and a target on the CD that specifies for students how to meet each objective and answer a particular comprehension question. The included CD provides all of the answer frames and targets for the open-ended questions, as well as rubrics, criteria charts, planners, and an extensive master bibliography that matches key fiction and nonfiction literature models with appropriate objectives. From setting a foundation with great standards, books, and instruction through guidelines for assessment, That's a GREAT Answer offers a (now more) complete, great answer for teachers who want to empower their students to respond well to open-ended questions.

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Nancy's comprehension and written response strategies give teachers the first-tier Response-to-Intervention (RTI) help they need to get students off to a great start!

The ability to comprehend and respond meaningfully to text is a skill students use every day—not just on test day. How can teachers get great answers to open-ended comprehension questions from the students who need help the most—K-3 students, struggling older readers, and English-language learners?

Nancy Boyles supplies the solution in That’s a GREAT Answer! She begins by discussing the foundations of a great answer—great objectives, books, instruction, and discussions—and adds valuable guidance on assessment. Her ready-to-go student scaffolds then break down the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) objectives into forty specific, measurable, open-ended comprehension questions that can be correlated with the literacy objectives of any state curriculum.

Each open-ended question includes:

• teaching tips

• a bibliography of fiction and nonfiction picture books aligned with the question

• a worksheet template with the reading strategy (finding the best evidence in the text) and the writing strategy (what criteria produces a quality response)

• an answer frame scaffold for initial response practice

The included CD allows you to adapt and print the scaffolds, and an extensive master bibliography organized alphabetically saves you time by matching key fiction and nonfiction literature models with appropriate comprehension questions.

This book offers teachers the support they need to empower their students. It’s the complete, great answer!

The ability to comprehend and to respond meaningfully to text is a skill students need every day—not just on test day. That’s a GREAT Answer! provides complete and ready-to-go support to help teachers get great answers to open-ended comprehension questions from the students who need help the most—elementary students, struggling older readers, and English language learners.
In this revised second edition, Nancy Boyles now includes new Common Core State Standards-based objectives, step-by-step lesson sequences, collaborative tasks that link teaching to learning, insightful new teaching tips, updated and enhanced bibliographies, and student targets on the CD that specify how to meet each objective and answer a particular comprehension question.
Her ready-to-go student scaffolds then break comprehension objectives into fifty-three specific, measurable, open-ended questions divided among four thinking strands. A chart shows the correlation between all objectives and the Common Core State Standards for comprehension—easily aligned to the literacy objectives of any state curriculum.
Each open-ended question includes:

a step-by-step lesson sequence
a template for a related oral collaborative taskteaching tips
a bibliography of fiction and nonfiction picture books aligned with the question
a template instructing students how to find key evidence for the objective before writing their response
an answer frame scaffold for initial response practice that helps students at any grade level organize and elaborate
a target on the CD that specifies for students how to meet each objective and answer a particular comprehension question

The included CD provides all of the answer frames and targets for the open-ended questions, as well as rubrics, criteria charts, planners, and an extensive master bibliography that matches key fiction and nonfiction literature models with appropriate objectives.
From setting a foundation with great standards, books, and instruction through guidelines for assessment, That’s a GREAT Answer offers a (now more) complete, great answer for teachers who want to empower their students to respond well to open-ended questions.

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