I find that one of the hardest skills to teach children is how to quote accurately from a text (standard RI.5.1 and RL.5.1) when answering reading comprehension questions. I think there are a few reasons for this:
- All the punctuation involved
- Being able to select the best quote to support their comprehension answer can be tricky
- Knowing how to structure their answer can get them in a muddle
- There are so many acronyms and ways of doing it – it can be confusing for students
Getting started with quoting accurately
The perfect place to start is with a quoting accurately checklist or anchor chart for students to use. This can be done with students or done beforehand and handed to them. Here is the checklist I like to use:
Some teachers like an ‘explain’ element to quoting accurately, but I don’t really think it’s needed. I sometimes think it confuses students and can mean they end up repeating themselves. It’s up to you though.
Fun ways to teach quoting accurately
One of my favorite ways to teach quoting accurately is through ‘be the teacher’. Give students some answers to quoting accurately questions and ask them to assess how well the fictional student has done. Ensure there are a mix of errors – structural, punctuation and in the chosen quote. I had great fun making my own, ‘be the teacher’ for quoting accurately. It’s available in my store:
I also love a mystery picture, as you might remember from this blog post. For the example below, I wrote a story and then created a mystery picture that shows what happens next in the story. Students answer the questions using quotes on different task cards. As they complete a task card, they follow the instructions to color part of the picture. I find this keeps them really motivated and having fun.
I have loads more quoting accurately resources in my store here. In fact, they are my favorite resources to create and the most popular resources in my store!
What are some of the common errors students make?
The biggest pitfall to teach students to avoid is going straight to the quote without making a point first. This might look like the answer below:
I know that it was raining because it says in the text, “Sally opened her umbrella.”
In this example, the student has failed to make the point first. Look at the correct example below and you can see where they’ve gone wrong.
I know that it was raining because Sally gets her umbrella out and opens it. I know this because in the text it says, “Sally opened her umbrella.”
Other mistakes include not including a quote, punctuating the quote incorrectly and including a quote that’s too long. It can be quite handy to ‘accidentally on purpose’ make some of these errors in your teacher demonstration to the students.
Have fun!
As always, this is my main message! This area of reading can be a little dry if you’re not careful, so try to have some fun with the students when covering this standard. If they’re having fun, they’re more likely to be engaged in what they’re doing.
Don’t forget, if you would like to try out my resources for free, you can get my seasonal poems resource by clicking on the link below.
