A Complete Short Answer Response

Here's a challenge, how many times in a day can you write on students paper "RESTATE THE QUESTION?" I am joking.... But really, they should make a stamp of it so that grading takes less time.... hum....

In all seriousness students need to restate the question to get the full credit on quizzes and tests so here is what they need to do.

1. Restate the question
2. Provide an answer
3. Provide evidence.
4. Put it all together in 1-2 sentences.

Use this formula over and over and over and encourage the kids to stick to it! It really becomes second nature to the students in a week or less.

These steps however are really for simple, short answers. I know there are lots of strategies like "RACE" out there but I really found success in using something simple initially. When we got further into the year and were writing entire paragraphs as answers, the "RACE" strategy was so helpful because they explained their answer even further.

Apply this strategy to other subjects too like science and social studies and see what stellar answers you start getting! I co-taught and I did ELA and social studies while my partner teacher did math and science and she LOVED the answers she would get for extended response math questions and science questions because they students were in the habit of explaining their answers.

Want a complete weeks worth of mini lessons on how to restate the question? Click HERE!