After much deliberation, and development of ideas, I finally coined the term ACE as it appears at the top of this page (do you know how impossible it is to put that horizontal line in with word processing?). Anyway, check out on my website some of the thinking that went into this final product:
Answering Questions About Reading
Read the question.
Think about what you are being asked.
As you read the information, highlight key words or phrases that will help you to answer the question.
Support your answer with information from the text, using the comma-quote strategy. Use at least two examples from the text to support your answer, more if possible.
Extend your answer by:
backing up the information from the text with your personal experience or prior knowledge you have about the topic.OR explaining why this information is important or significant. (This means,... In other words,... I know this because..., etc.)
Answer the question.
Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
Extend or explain your answer.
The first letter of each command spelled ACE. Okay, I thought, ACE is good, but how do we get them to cite evidence and extend again, and maybe even three times?
I wandered into a math class one afternoon when the teacher was drawing a horizontal line over a decimal answer, to show the part of the answer that repeated itself indefinitely. So, that was it! ACE (with the little line over the CE) means Answer the question, Cite evidence from the text, Extend or explain your answer, and then do it again...and again, if you have time.
That is how ACE was born. Ironically, I had emailed many of my thoughts about reading to another teacher, Sandi Roberts, and she was using the "Answering Questions about Reading" with her colleagues and students, and they also landed on the ACE idea. She wrote to me, and I told her that that was how I intended to name it, but at that time, I had not yet devised the little horizontal line.
Okay, so you could tell the kids to ACE things, but how do you get them to understand what that means? The answer lies in lots of modeling, lots of scoring, and lots of transparencies. The kids groan now when they see Mrs. Miller coming with her "transparency show," but every 8th grader in my building knew what ACE meant, could differentiate between an answer that used text support and one that didn't, and they could identify an extension in an answer. Actually, the kids referred to the E in three different ways, and that was fine with me. Whatever they could best relate to was how I wanted them to use it. Some called the "E" extension, some called it "explanation," and some called it "elaboration," a term that their language arts teachers are always using in their writing instruction. So, regardless of what the E means, here is how to introduce and reinforce ACE with your kids.
1) Teach kids the Comma-Quote Strategy.
2) Administer to students a Reading to Be Informed (RBI) activity.
Quicksilver Mess - Grade 8
Billie Holiday - Grade 5
Get Outta My Way! - Grade 3
Make sure to run off the RBI with the "Answering Questions About Reading" steps listed on the back of the article. Before kids do the RBI, go over these steps with them.
3) Score the RBI.
4) Record all their scores in a database you develop, or keep them on a class record sheet.
Make a column for the LU if it was scored, too.
5) Using a large font (20 is good), type up sample answers from the students, two or three illustrative ones for each scorepoint. Be sure to be true to their language usage. Also, no names, please. Put the answers on transparencies. Click here for a sample.
6) Review the answers with the students, paying careful attention to whether or not students have answered the question, and whether or not evidence from the text is being used. Point out where students seem to extend or explain their answers, by putting something into their own words, or adding their own opinions or experiences to help show their understanding of what they have read. Make a big deal of pointing out these extensions and elaborations, because it is really only through example that the kids understand what the E of ACE means. When you introduce ACE, they will understand what the E means.
7) Show the class their results. Show them how many students scored a zero, how many scored a one, and how many scored a two. You can give each class a breakdown or show the class how all of your students combined performed. Add the number of ones and twos, and then divide that total by the total number of students, to show how many students scored at the satisfactory level. Be sure that students are clear that a score of one means SATISFACTORY. They are so used to feeling that a 1 out of a possible 2 means 50%, or failure. In reading, using a two point scale, a score of one is satisfactory. And since the state has said that 70% of our students need to score at satisfactory or higher, then a score of one is great! (See "How to Turn Rubric Scores Into Grades.)
8) Pass the scored papers back to the students. They should not have any questions now as to why their papers were scored the way they were. If the class results were particularly poor, tell them that you are going to teach them a method to improve their scores.
9) Teach ACE.
c) Show students how the letters of the steps spell ACE.
10) Take one of the questions from the most recently reviewed RBI, and model the answer on the overhead, asking for students to help you, following the ACE model.
11) Administer another RBI. Be sure to remind students to use ACE.
Note: If you want to score one of the RBI questions for Language Usage, include the LU icon, and give the question a double score--one for reading, one for LU. Use the opportunity when reviewing the answers to point out why the LU score is what it is. You can get a lot of incidental teaching about spelling, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, sentence structure, and capitalization done this way.
12) Score the RBI and record the results.
13) Review the answers and their scores with students, using the overhead transparency routine. Be sure to include examples from the answers that
14) Show the class the results and compare them to the earlier RBI that you scored before teaching ACE. There should be an improvement!
15) Reinforce ACE whenever possible. Keep it hanging as a poster in all classrooms, and make sure that other teachers who see the same students understand and use ACE, as well.
a) Make a poster with ACE and hang it on the board.
b) Refer to the "Answering Questions About Reading" steps, and point out how it
lends itself to this sequence:
Answer the question.
Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
Extend or explain your answer.
d) Show students how when a number is repeated indefinitely, a horizontal line
is drawn above the numbers that are repeated, to indicate that the number keeps
on going forever.
e) Tell students that the line above the CE means to "do it again." So, ACE really
means, "Answer the question, Cite evidence, Extend or explain, Cite evidence,
Extend or explain. If you have time, do it a third time."
follow the ACE model well.
For comments and inquiries, send email to:
Cam Miller
Curriculum Planner
Stephen Decatur Middle School
(formerly Berlin Middle School)
Worcester County