Better Answers for Constructed Response

During this past school year, I was very frustrated about how my seventh grade students wrote answers to comprehension questions after reading a text selection. I observed that answers were usually written with incomplete sentences, and often didn't even address the specifics of what the questions were really asking the students to think about. Therefore, I am happy to have recently encountered the Better Answer formula.


Simply put, the Better Answer formula is a way of teaching students to effectively communicate their thoughts. The strategy is intended to be introduced to students over a six week period. This gradual presentation of the steps involved allows for ample teacher modeling and repeated student practice. The students are initially taught the strategy using personal questions, but eventually make the transition to applying it to classroom texts.

The Better Answer method is broken down as follows:
Week #1: Students practice restating questions.
Week #2: Students practice constructing gist answers (answers that give main or essential information).
Week #3: Students practice generating supporting details for gist answers.
Week #4: Students practice putting the skills from weeks #1-3 together to create constructed responses that stay on topic.
Weeks #5-6: Students practice applying the strategy to short texts.

I am hopeful that by spending the time to train my students in this method at the beginning of the school year, they will experience more success in constructing answers/paragraphs that present detailed information and show evidence of deep thought.