1) Select an article or a section of text (non-fiction) that supports your content area (or perhaps it is timely, such as for a holiday or a special event such as the Olympics).
2) Read through the article to see if it can be understood by the majority of your students. The article should be short enough so that it can be read and responded to in about 20 minutes, yet long enough so that multiple pieces of evidence can be pulled from the article to support the answer to the question. The article should also be interesting to read, be of interest to kids, and yet still be challenging (not that high-interest, low-level vocabulary stuff, unless your class is significantly below grade-level). Good sources for articles include the newspaper, magazines, and the Internet.
3) Develop a question for the article that will cause students to have to pull evidence from several places within the article, will measure a higher level of thinking/reading than mere recall of facts (unless you are doing two questions, and then the first one can be global, followed by a more challenging second question), and is open-ended enough that a variety of answers can be accepted. (What a challenge!)
a) Consider questions that require students to think about how the article is written (i.e. title, word choice, clarity, vocabulary level, audience, effectiveness) - critical stance
b) Consider questions that require students to bring background knowledge or personal experience to their answer, along with support from the text. (Compare what is in the article with what you know.) - personal reaction stance
c) Consider questions that require students to read between the lines and interpret information at more than a literal level. - developing interpretation
d) Reject questions that can be answered by using information from just one place in the article.
4) After you have decided on a question, write a model response to the answer.
5) Develop a list of answer cues (text support key words and phrases) that are appropriate for the answer.
6) Decide on the wording of the scoring tool.
Sample 8th grade RBI piece with components mentioned above:
Sample 3rd and 5th grade RBIs, with all components but student answers (at this time)
2) Pass out a copy of the article, with the "Answering Questions About Reading" strategy copied on the reverse side.
3) Review the strategy with the students. Remind them to ACE their answers. Point out where dictionaries are in the room.
(Note: If you are going to be generating enough writing for this answer and want to score it for LU as well, include the icon. Review the purpose of the icon before students begin, and let them know this will be double scored.)
4) Pass out highlighters and the question(s) to be answered about the article.
5) Encourage students to use the highlighters as they read.
6) Students should read the article and answer the question(s).
7) Collect the papers and score them, using the scoring tool as your guide.
8) Make notes to yourself about which answers to use as samples for the various score points.
9) Retype the sample answers without names, being true to their LU, and make them into transparencies.
10) Review the scoring tool, answer cues, and sample answers on the overhead. Even if you did not score the question(s) for LU, you can work in lots of comments about their spelling, capitalization, punctuation, usage, and sentence structure as you review, getting in two lessons in one review.
11) Pass back the papers. Students should be fairly clear after the review of answers as to why they received the score they did.
12) If you are a member of a teaching team, as in middle school, discuss the results with your team colleagues, and decide how the team can keep RBI reinforced regularly, in a steady dose, with feedback.