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Featured Structure
Q & A Review
Dr. Spencer Kagan, Miguel Kagan, Laurie Kagan
Do you have any questions you want students to know the answer to? Of course you do! All teachers do. Q & A Review is a great structure for having students learn the answers to review-style questions. Medium-length answer work best. Here's a good history example:
Q: Who is Martin Luther King, Jr.?
A: Martin Luther King, Jr. is best known as a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is celebrated for using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
Notice in this example, the problem is not a problem solving questions (Solve for X: 3X + 1 = 15). Nor is it a simple right or wrong question (What year was the cotton gin invented?). Q & A Review works best for those review questions that recquire understanding of a concept (What is electricity?), recall of people or events (What happened at the Alamo?), and any elaborate response.
Q & A Review
Pairs review for a test or master the curriculum by first reading a question and answer, then asking a partner the question and having the partner restate the answer in his or her own words.
Getting Ready
The teacher prepares a sheet with written questions and answers. Test-like questions with elaborated written responses work best.
- Partner A Reads Q & A Partner A reads the question and the answer to Partner B. Partner B listens very carefully. For example, partner A reads:
- Partner B Answers Partner B flips over his or her sheet so he or she cannot see the answer, then responds to the question in his or her own words.
- Partner A Responds Partner A congratulates Partner B for a good answer and/or provides additional ideas or support.
- Switch Roles For each Q & A, partners switch roles for who reads the Q & A and who responds to the question.
Q: How is a lunar eclipse caused?
A: A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth so that the Earth blocks the sun's rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned with the Earth in the middle.
After reading the Q & A, Partner A reads just the question.
Q: How is a lunar eclipse caused?
Q & A is a great structure to commit need-to-know information to memory. Why does it work so well for recall? Repeat after me: "Students remember much more about what they say and touch than what they hear and read."
