Workshop Wednesday (Restate the Question!)

I am linking up with my amazing bloggy buddy, Jivey, for her Workshop Wednesday:)  

She has a new topic each week!

This week's topic is favorite writing mini lesson.

One of the first lessons I teach at the beginning of the year is how to restate the question when answering a question.  The students have not had practice with this skill prior to 4th grade and we start with simple questions like this:

It takes some practice for students to master this concept and they really hate dislike it at first.  Once they get used to it, they don't even remember the days when they would answer a question like this:

Question:  What did Princess Charlotte do to show that she wanted to be part of the British royal family?  Why was this difficult for her?  Use text details.

Answer Without Restating: She played "God Save the King".  Because she didn't speak English.

Answer With Restating:  Princess Charlotte showed that she wanted to be part of the British royal family by learning to play "God Save the King" on her harpsichord and sing along with the words.  This was difficult for her because she didn't speak English and she learned to sing the words in English.

Why is restating the question a skill I require of my students?  

1.  An accurate statement lets the reader or listener know what we are writing or talking about.

2.  An accurate statement helps us remain clear on what we are writing or talking about.

In other words, students must slow down and answer the question that is being asked.  It is more difficult (although, not impossible!) to NOT answer the question when it is restated.

I found this worksheet available to print for practice.

Click here for an interactive game for students to practice restating the question in a simple format.

This is a screenshot of a page in the game.
Students drag words to the box to restate the question.

Do you have your students restate the question?

I always stress, "Don't start your response with a pronoun!"

Check back with Jivey for more great writing lessons:)