Something I have noticed over the years is that students struggle to answer questions in a complete sentence. They are writing answers the way they speak. For example, if I ask a student, “Why did the character throw the baseball on the ground?” My students will answer, “because he was mad.” If they are asked to answer that same question in writing, they will write-Because he was mad. Students tend to carry this fragmented writing into their essays, and their ideas become incomplete and confusing.
Turn The Question Around (TTQA) is a strategy for answering comprehension questions by using the words in the question as a base for the answer sentence.
TTQA is typically taught to younger children, but I learned about TTQA while teaching a sheltered English learner (EL) class and used it successfully at both a middle school and high school level. This method will help any struggling writer regardless of age or language barrier. There will be a focus on ELs in the article because that is for whom I originally used the strategy; however, this strategy has benefitted native English speaking writers with and without an IEP, too. So, if you have students writing fragments, give this a try. I promise it can help.
What is TTQA?
TTQA is a strategy that teaches students to construct an answer by restating the question. TTQA uses the words from the question to format the answer. Let me explain that better by looking at a question and the answer.
Who was the first president?
The first president was George Washington.
In this example, the answer is George Washington. If I want to answer in a complete sentence, I can take the answer words from the question and use it in my sentence with George Washington. In this case, the answer words are “the first president”. I turned the question around to be part of the answer by using my answer words, moving my verb to the correct location, and adding the answer from my prior knowledge or the text.
This process comes naturally to the teacher; however, young students and struggling students this may not be an innate process. There are some easy steps for students to follow.
TTQA Steps
- Read the question, and underline the answer in the text.
- Cross out the question words.
- Annotate the answer words.
- Box the subject (who/what) or the noun.
- Circle the verb and move it.
- Write the sentence with the answer.
- Punctuate it.
Okay, don’t give up on me. Let me break down each step with more detailed explanation.
Step 1: Read the Question and Underline the Answer in the Text
While this seems obvious, it is an important first step. This strategy is most easily used for comprehension questions where the answer is either right there in the text or a question the student already knows the answer to, for instance, a personal question like, “What is your favorite color?”
English Language Learners might have to dig a little deeper into the question and translate unfamiliar words before they can provide an answer. Once they understand the question, I strongly suggest finding the answer in the text. (Hint: Remind them to notate the answer some way, so it is not lost: underline, highlight, put a sticky note next to it, etc.)
Now we can move on to dissecting the question.
Step 2: Cross Out the Question Words
Look at the question and cross out any question words. Look for who, what, when, where, why, and how (5W Words + How) and draw a line through the question words. Students will not use those words when the question is turned into an answer because they are no longer asking a question.
Who was the first president?
Who did the judge choose?
Where is the pink poodle?
How to Respond to a 5W Word (+ How)
These 5W Words +How need a little more explanation before moving on to the next step.
As native speakers, we answer the 5W +How questions easily. We don’t have to think about how to format the answer because it is second nature; however, it might not be so obvious to the EL student. Each of 5W +How questions have a specific word or words that should be included in the answer. Most people typically have an innate knowledge of this, yet not every student will make that connection. A visual, like the one below, might benefit a student who is struggling to get started with the answer.
Step 3: Annotate the Answer Words
Look at the question and find the words that are important to the answer. Underline those words. These are words that help us identify what the answer is about and will often contain the subject of our answer sentence.
Who was the first president?
Who did the judge choose?
Where is the pink poodle?
These words will be included in our answer sentence, so we call them answer words.
Step 4: Box the Subject (Who/What) or the Noun
The next two steps will require your students to understand some parts of speech. Honestly, the verb part of this step can get a little tricky for them as the question sentences become more complex, but it’s important to analyze it, so I don’t skip this step. For now, let’s start with the subject.
Identify the Subject
I ask them to tell me who or what is the sentence asking about? They can usually get this pretty quickly unless there is a possessive noun involved.
Example: Where is the pink poodle?
They will probably be able to tell you that the sentence is about a poodle. Most of the time my students include the descriptive words, too. I usually box the entire subject section of the sentence including the descriptive words because it helps them remember what words to include in their answer. However, you can only box the word poodle and remind them to bring the descriptive words along for the answer.
There are a few sentence structure elements to consider. My lower level proficiency students struggle a little more if there are added prepositional phrases, but they can usually dig out the subject with some effort.
Example: Where is the pink poodle from the pool party?
When somebody owns the poodle and they are mentioned in the question, it becomes confusing for some because other languages may not treat possession the way we do in English.
Example: Where is Brandy’s pink poodle?
Because students don’t always understand the use of the apostrophe S as a possessive noun in English, I often get the possessive noun as the answer. They think the question is asking about someone named Brandy and not her poodle. Many of my students will incorrectly tell me that Brandy is the subject of the question.
It is important to expose students to sentences with possessives and extra phrases to help them understand how to find the subject, so make sure your all of the model sentences are not basic sentence structure.
Step 5: Circle the Verb and Move It
“Why is the verb there?” Many of my students have a hard time grasping why the verb is before the subject in the question sentence. Because the verb is after the subject in basic English sentence structure, we have to move it to answer the question in correct English grammar. Sometimes we have to change the verb tense, so we need to analyze the verb. First, we need to find it.
Identify the Verb
Ask your students to find the verb and circle it. After circling the verb, draw an arrow to the end of the sentence to show it will be moved after the subject when writing the answer.
The first example is easy because the verb does not change tense in the answer sentence. The verb identified in the question is the same verb used in the answer sentence, but what if the question had a hidden past tense verb in it? Let me explain.
When an auxiliary verb like ‘did’ is used with the main verb, the auxiliary verb shows the tense and the main verb is in the base form. When the question contains an auxiliary verb and a main verb, they are split apart.
The auxiliary verb ‘did’ tells us the answer verb needs to be past tense. Because the auxiliary verb and the main verb are separated, the students will not see it as controlling the tense. Often, the students will leave the verb in the base form unless you teach them to change the tense in this situation. If you do not draw their attention to the auxiliary verb did, their answer might be, “The chicken cross the road because she wanted to go to the pool.” They didn’t understand that the auxiliary did gives us information that the base verb should change to the past tense in the answer. It should read, “The chicken crossed the road because she wanted to go to the pool.”
Students should
- circle both the auxiliary verb and the main verb
- decide what tense the main verb is going to be based on the auxiliary verb
- cross out the auxiliary verb because it will not appear in the answer sentence
- change the main verb to the correct tense
Step 6: Write the Sentence With the Answer
This step has an order, and we have to review earlier steps to get it right.
Start with the subject → Add the verb → Insert the answer with answer words → Check punctuation
The students will eventually just roll this step into the previous steps as they practice this strategy. While we are learning this strategy, I model it as I write down all the pieces to the answer. You can click here for my video example of how I model this strategy for students. Essentially, once we have marked up the question, we can begin forming our answer. The conversation goes a little like this:
Teacher: “Okay, we are ready to write an answer for this question in a complete sentence. Can somebody please tell me who or what the sentence is about?”
Students: “the pink poodle!”
T: “Yes, the sentence is about the pink poodle. That is our subject, we need to write that down first.”
While I am writing, I remind them about capitalizing the first word of a sentence since ‘the’ did not begin with a capital letter in our question sentence. It may seem silly, but I promise even those high schoolers forget to start with the big letters.
T: “We moved our verb to the end of the sentence because the verb goes after the ______?”
S: “Subject.” (hopefully, they know this now.)
T: “Very good. The verb comes after the subject.”
If we had an auxiliary verb that determined the tense of the main verb, I remind them of that now, and we are sure to write the correct form of the verb for our answer.
T: “What answer word do we need to use next? Let’s look back at the answer we highlighted before.”
The students and teacher will return to the text to find the answer.
T: “Our question word is ‘where,’ so we are going to need a preposition to help show where the pink poodle is. I see that the pink poodle is hiding under a bush. What preposition should we include?”
S: “Under.”
If you are teaching upper level students, you may or may not need to go into details for the answer word unless the question word is ‘Why’ or ‘How’ because the answer will include the important parts, but if you are dealing with very early learners, they may need the reminder.
Step 7: Add Punctuation
Finally, we get to finish the sentence. This is a simple step. Decide what punctuation mark needs to be added. Now you have a beautifully complete sentence for an answer.
Sentence Success!
This may seem tedious and unnecessary, but it will offer them a strategy to be able to produce a complete sentence. It will work. As the questions become more complicated, there might need to be tweaks, but TTQA will give them a great starting point every time. No longer will they have to sit in their seat wondering how to start.
I hope you will give this a try with your students. Be sure to watch the video for a model. Feel free to show it to your class. I have included a link to the Google Slideshow from the video here if you want to use it to model the strategy yourself.
Leave a Comment