Strategies To Help Students Meet Standard on the Reading WASL

1. Whatever subject you teach, use the reading WASL stem questions in your teaching.

• For study guides, reviewing, and tests
• As part of an assignment, have students create questions using the stems
• Have students work in pairs and then groups designing questions based on the stems for a review
• Use stem questions in quiz games
• Use stem questions for warm-ups, journal writes, or closers
• Use the short and/or extended response to lead into essay writing
• Create WASL-ettes in your subject area to add to your curriculum. Write 4-5 multiple choice questions, a couple short answer questions, and an extended response. This is a great way to prepare your students so that they’ll feel comfortable with the style of the WASL.

2. Teach students key terms in the stem questions.

Have students underline or circle key terms when they come across them in test questions. Practicing this skill could also be an activity in itself. Some of the most common terms include: list, predict, contract and/or compare, identify, restate, describe, summarize, infer, document/support, explain, conclude, distinguish, refute, defend. There’s a great chart on p. 53 of the Reading GLEs showing many more of these key terms.

Don’t assume that all of your students know these terms; even many high school students are still having trouble with these. One of the items from last year’s WASL asked students to: Contrast how postal service was paid for in the 1800s with how it is paid for today. Include two details from the selection in your answer. Many students didn’t get all the points because they didn’t seem to understand “contrast,” and/or they didn’t include two details.

3. Make sure students are carefully reading test questions.

Focus on teaching students to write in response to their reading. They need instruction on including details from the text for evidence—not personal experience. Often, a set number of details/traits/examples is asked for. Student writing on short answer and extended responses frequently indicated that students had comprehended the meaning of the passage. However, they would only get partial credit for their answer because they would only give one detail or example. To check for understanding, have students practice restating the tasks of the question. Examples of tasks kids need instruction on are:

• Explain your answer using information from the text. (Providing information means demonstrating understanding of main ideas or concepts from the passage by referencing at least one idea, detail, or example as support).

• Include two ideas from the text in your answer. (Providing ideas means referring to main ideas, concepts, or theme to support a statement made by the student).

• Provide an example from the passage to support your answer. (Providing examples means choosing actual events or experiences from the text that illustrate a character trait or an author’s purpose, etc.).

• Include details from the text in your answer. (Providing details means citing an actual quote from the author or a character, or including a descriptive detail about a character or an event from a story).

4. Tighten up the language—be specific.

Remind students not to use words such as “things,” “it,” and “stuff” in their writing. These words (and others like them) can be too vague and confusing when it’s time to score their answers.

5. Work with students on theme and main idea.

This is a key comprehension issue. Recent scores have indicated that students are still struggling to identify a theme or main idea for a passage. Use strategies that help them sort out details and opinion from the main topic of a passage.

6. Interpretation and Evaluation

Students are able to demonstrate basic comprehension—order of sequence and main ideas, but they are still struggling with interpretative and evaluative types of comprehension—inference, analysis, interpretation, comparison/contrast, and evaluation. Many of the stem questions would be useful for these areas.

7. Work with Rubrics

Students need experience working with scoring guides in reading. They need to experience them as part of daily classroom instruction, not just for WASL preparation. Work with students to first create the questions, then create a scoring rubric. The OSPI website also has rubrics included with their released items.

8. Additional Emphasis on Poetry and Literary Devices

Students need instruction on poetry. At all grade levels they struggle with literal comprehension as well as higher levels of understanding poetic information.

Additional instruction is also needed on literary devices. They might be able to perform the task with explanation of terminology, but they do not recognize and apply an independent understanding of terms such as simile, metaphor, alliteration, personification, conflict, resolution, point of view, author’s purpose, and/or theme.

9. Students need to learn to use “because” statements. I think this because …”

10. Students need to be introduced and intentionally taught informational text features. Even though students may work on a daily basis with headings, graphs, charts, maps, captions, subheadings, fact boxes, and glossaries, they still struggle to pull key information from these devices. On the WASL, students need to be able to interpret data, putting together information from graphs and reading passages. Many struggle to find information in charts and transfer it to a written answer.

The SQ3R Strategy

The SQ3R Strategy addresses many of the WASL learning targets.

• Survey
• Question
• Read
• Recite
• Review

Before reading, use the title, headings, and illustrations to predict what the reading is about.

Survey: Consider the author’s purpose.

Question: Ask yourself what you already know about the topic and what you may want

to learn.

During reading, consider the order/sequence of the plot.

Read: Figure out the meaning of words from context.

Think of how the story/article direction relate to your own experiences.

Revise your predictions—were you correct or incorrect?

After reading, summarize the reading to yourself by finishing these statements.

Recite What is this reading about?

and What is the main point of this reading?

Review What are the important points to remember about this reading?

This is only one strategy of many. The reading or language arts teachers in your building are excellent resources for specific reading strategies. Many reading strategies can also be found online.

Recommended Reading:

"Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques to Improve Student Reading " by Jim Burke

“I Read It But I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers” by Cris Tovani

“Texts, Forms, and Features: A Resource for Intentional Teaching” by Margaret Mooney

Tips for Parents

Share Reading

Students in middle and high school are often old enough for you to read and exchange books. If you can get more than one copy, find a book you both like and read it together. Take a trip to the library or discount bookstore. Letting your kids see you read, talking about books, and sharing your favorite authors and genres can make a huge impact on student reading.

Talk about the Books They’re Reading in School

Find out what reading they’ve been assigned and ask them to explain it. Try and tie what they’re reading to real-life experiences.

A Place for Reading

Make sure your student has a quiet place to read, with few distractions. This is especially important for students who struggle with reading. Some kids find it helpful to use a note card to help keep them on the right line. This also helps them focus on a smaller block of text at a time; visually, two full pages of text can be a distraction for some.

Help Start A Habit

In addition to a quiet place to read, help your student find a good time to read on a daily basis, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day. Many enjoy reading before going to sleep as a way to calm their minds from their busy lives. Read and exchange sections of the paper in the morning; discuss current events. Sunday papers usually have a section with the current top-selling books, a great place to start book talks. In addition to school reading, encourage students to look for books about things they’re interested in.

Communicate With Your Student’s Teacher

Keep teachers aware of any reading difficulties your student may have, as well as strategies you’ve already tried that work or don’t work for them. Encourage your students to ask questions if they’re having problems understanding.