Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

---

This video was created by REL West as part of the Toolkit for Teaching K–3 Reading Comprehension. In this video, you’ll see a third grade teacher engage her students in asking and answering questions to better comprehend and learn from informational text. The instruction utilizes a focal question, “What is the author telling us?” to deepen and extend the learning. The teacher supports students as they discuss a text as a whole class and in pairs, using the focal question and three sentence stems to respond. Over two days of instruction, she provides a gradual release of responsibility from direct instruction and modeling to providing more independence as students read a second text with a partner.


This recording was prepared for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) under Contract 91990022C0003 by Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West at WestEd. The content of the publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of IES or the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.