Bethani McIntire

10/14/15

Teaching Reading: Mini Lesson Format (Calkins, 2001)

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Thick and Thin Questions
Grade level: 3rd grade
Objective: The student will be able to know the difference between large global questions and smaller
clarification questions in a content area.
Common Core State Standard/ PASS Standard: CCSS RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to
demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text at as the basis for the answers.
Prior knowledge: (What students already know)
Students should already know how to ask questions and know how to gain information through
questioning.
Observations/Rationale: (Before Lesson) What did you notice in your students work that let you
know this lesson was necessary? (This will be an approximation this semester.)
I have noticed that as we are asking questions throughout our reading, we are having a bit of trouble
telling the difference between our big thinking questions and our smaller clarifying questions. Students
are showing more basic (thin) questions and not expanding their thinking to ask the bigger (thick)
questions.
Materials Needed
Lesson from (Name your source including page number) Strategies That Work by Harvey and
Goudvis, page 115-116
Mentor Text: Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
Materials: 3x3 sticky notes for thick questions, sticky note flags for thin questions, thick/thin sort chart,
thick/thin questions sheet
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): Whole group for read-aloud, small group for question sort
Mini Lesson Format:
Connect (AKA~ Anticipatory Set, Engagement/Pre-reading): Good morning class. I have been
really impressed with the way that you have been absorbing all of the information we have been
going over in our textbooks and in the nonfiction picture books that we have been reading, and you
have been asking some great questions. On Tuesday, Ashley and Madesen both showed us some
great strategies about questioning, and recently I think that maybe we have been getting stuck in
our questions. We are asking a lot of smaller, or thin questions, which is fantastic, but we also
need to really dig deep and ask ourselves some of the bigger and broader thick questions as well.
So today, we are going to talk about these thin and thick questions and learn how to use them both
in our reading to expand our thinking.

Teach (Model/Explain)
We are going to start out by taking some notes in our readers notebook. So if you will flip open
to your next blank page we will get started. First, lets label the top Thick and Thin Questions.

Then, we will write the definition of a thick question and the definition of a thin question. (Write
definitions). Now lets make a 3 column table. Label the 3 columns: Question, How it is
answered, and Example. (Fill out the rest of the table with the information on example sheet).
So now that we have an understanding of what thick and thin questions are, lets try it out in our
reading. We are going to read Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet and I am going to show
you how I would ask a thick and a thin question at the beginning of the book. (Begin reading the
book, stop on the first page and give examples of thin and thick questionsbe sure to demonstrate
the different sticky note visual to students). Now that I have shown you all how to ask these
different questions, while I finish reading the book I want you all to be thinking of any questions at
all that come to mind and write them on the correct sticky note that is on your table. The skinny
sticky note will represent thin questions, and the bigger sticky note will represent thick questions.
(Continue reading the rest of the book).

Active Engagement (AKA~ Check for Understanding: students try it out, teacher observes):
Now that we are done with our wonderful book, we are going to do a quick question sort that
consists of questions that I had while reading this book, or maybe questions that you may have had
while being a great listener. At your table you will work together for about 5 minutes and sort
these questions into the thick and thin categories. So if the question is a big, broad, universal
question you will place it under the thick column, and if the question is a smaller, clarification
question then you will place it under the thin column. (Pass out the sort page and the questions
Give students 5 minutes to do this activity and ask for a thumbs-up when they are done). Now
lets go over these questions and make sure we have them in the correct spot. (Go over
questions). Lets look at the first question, which category does it belong too? How do you know
that? (Continue to ask how do you know, after students tell me what category the questions
belong too. If my students are not getting it and are placing in the wrong categories, go back to the
definition page in readers notebook and discuss the differences in the questions again). If you
would like to go ahead and glue/tape your questions onto the sorting chart and put it in your
notebook you may, or you can also do that later. We dont want to forget about the questions that
you asked yourself as I was reading, so if you will go ahead and stick those in your notebook as
well so that you have some more examples to go back and look at later on.

Link (AKA~ Closing the Lesson [with accountability for the skill/process])
Today we learned a lot about our questions. We can have thin questions, which normally are
small questions with simply clarifying answers, and then we have thick questions, which are the
broad, big thinking questions with more in depth answers. While you continue to do your readings
in your text books, library books, any books at all that you read, I encourage you to go back to this
strategy and mark your thick and thin questions in your text. My challenge for you over this week
is when you are doing your individual reading, try to come up with 2 thick and 2 thin questions
and mark them with your sticky notes. Then next week we will take some time to discuss them. I
cannot wait to hear all about your questions and see how you all continue to expand your
thinking!