Helping Students Restate Questions as Answers in Their Writing

Do your students struggle to provide clear responses to questions? Do their responses feel disconnected from writing prompts? Are you tired of reading one-word answers? In today's post, we're excited to share a few of our favorite resources for helping students restate questions as answers. 

Teach a lesson with this slide presentation about turning questions into answers 

This presentation includes 22 slides with an actionable lesson about turning questions into responses. It explains and models the process from start to finish, as well as provides interactive opportunities for students to practice what they've learned. 

Review how to restate questions in answers with this printable worksheet 

Improve your students' writing skills with this engaging keyword and question analysis activity. This downloadable PDF includes 8 FUN writing prompts, such as "Would you prefer to own a cat that is the size of a horse or own a horse that is the size of a cat? Why?"

With this activity, students will learn to...

• Identify the important keywords in each prompt
• Determine the focus of the question
• Write an answer that includes the relevant keywords
• Check if there are multiple questions in the prompt

By practicing these skills, students will be able to craft clearer and more effective responses to homework questions, essay prompts, and other writing tasks. 

Decorate your classroom with an anchor chart that explains how to turn questions into answers 

Providing visual reminders is an essential tool for teaching strong writing strategies. We love this 12 x 18 in achor chart because it concisely lays out the steps for incorporating questions into answers. When students are struggling to write strong responses during class time, you can point to the poster as a reminder. We recommend keeping this poster up all year round as a way to reinforce what you've taught! 

Use task cards to provide meaningful writing practice

These printable task cards are the perfect way to help your students turn questions into responses. Each task card includes step-by-step directions evaluating the questions and writing thoughtful responses. The thought-provoking prompts have a variety of topics, ranging from time travel to bravely facing fears. 

How do you teach students to turn their questions into answers? Leave a comment below to share your favorite teaching tips!