Instructional Playbook

QSSSA Question, Signal, Stem, Share, Assess

Click here for Implementation Slides

Overview In this routine, students participate in partner discussions by answering questions using sentence stems or other supports,. Instructional Purpose To encourage students to actively listen, respond thoughtfully, and collaborate with peers Materials/Set-Up Develop sentence stems relevant to concept/article/viewing opportunity Determine AB partners by using Precision Partnering Provide AB partner thought sheet, where partners write down each others ideas to hold them accountable for talk, and provide more access to language acquisition Instructional Routine Teacher poses a QUESTION after students have received content by either reading, listening, or viewing something. Teacher indicates SIGNAL that students will use when they have a response read. Teacher provides a sentence STEM for students to use. Teacher models using the sentence STEM, students recite the STEM chorally together. Teacher indicates which partner goes first. Students SHARE their answer with their partner using the sentence STEM. Teacher ASSESSES student understanding by listening to discussions and randomly calling on students to share what their partner shared.

Access by Language Proficiency Level Entering (1) Emerging (2)

Developing (3)

Expanding (4)

Model use of the questions, stems, signals, sharing. Students may only use general content vocabulary, gestures, or point to important pictures/terms.

Students complete this using general content vocabulary. May need clarification on pronunciation of certain terms.

Students use stems with content vocabulary adding necessary details.

Students may not need stems at this level or may use them adding more complex language.

Sentence Stem Examples

The most important thing to remember about … is …

The most important thing to remember about …is… because…

The most important thing to remember about …is … because …

The important thing to remember about … is … because it affects … For example…