NYC DOE Secondary Literacy Pilot
Task 1: Our Students’ Perspective
Goal of the Interviews
The overall goal of the interviews is to learn about our students as readers in various content areas. The protocols are designed to gather information from the students themselves about what makes certain texts more difficult to read and understand than others.
The information will be used to:
determine supports and scaffolds content area teachers can use to help students learn the concepts addressed in the text
develop instructional strategies for increasing students’ ability to comprehend increasingly complex text.
There are 3 interview protocols for teachers to choose from. These
interviews are not to “score” student comprehension, but rather to better understand how and why our students engage with texts.
Each of these protocols is designed for use with a text that you use for instruction in your classroom. If you are unsure about the
Protocols for Conducting Student Interviews about Text Complexity
Protocol #1 – Highlighting Difficult Text
The purpose of this protocol is to have students identify and highlight anything that they find difficult when reading a text.
Conducting the interview (5-10 minutes)
Explain the purpose of the interview: We’re asking students to tell us what makes certain texts harder to read so that we can determine what teachers can do to help students better understand what they read.
Student reads and highlights the text: As you read the text silently, highlight anything that you find difficult or are unsure you understand. It can be a word, an idea, a diagram, the layout, whatever makes it difficult for you to understand what the text is about.
General questions:
Student retells the text:
Can you tell me about what you just read in your own words?
Student explains the underlined parts of the text and what made them difficult: Now let’s go through the things you underlined. Can you tell me what made those parts of the text difficult for you?
Student advice to the author: If you could tell the author what s/he could do to make it easier for you to read this text, what would you say?
Student advice to the teacher: If you could tell your teacher what s/he could do to help you better understand this text when you read it, what would you say?
Student’s final thoughts: Is there anything else you would like to tell me about reading this type of text?
Protocol #2 – Reading Aloud
The purpose of this protocol is to have students read the text aloud while the interviewer conducts a running record or annotated record.
Conducting the interview (5-10 minutes)
Ask the student to read a piece of text aloud. While you are reading I am going to be taking some notes.
General questions:
Student retells the text:
Can you tell me about what you just read in your own words?
Interviewer asks student about reading aloud: Was it harder or easier for you to understand the text when you read it aloud? Does it help you when your
teacher reads this kind of text aloud to you first before you read it? [If yes] Can you tell me why it makes it easier?
Interviewer asks student about the text based on the running record: I noticed when you got to this part of the text you went back and re-read it. Can you tell me why you did that? Is that something you do a lot?
Protocol #3 – Thinking Aloud about Text
The purpose of this protocol is to have students describe and share their thinking as they read a text.
Can you tell me about what you just read in your own words?
Student perception of the think aloud: Was it easy or hard for you to explain what was going on in your mind as you were reading? What made it easy or hard? When you are reading at home or in class and you come to something in the text that is confusing or difficult are there certain things you do that help you understand or make sense of what you are reading? Can you describe some of the things you do?
Student advice to the author: If you could tell the author what s/he could do to make it easier for you to read this text, what would you say?
Student advice to the teacher: If you could tell your teacher what s/he could do to help you better understand this text when you read it, what would you say?
Student’s final thoughts: Is there anything else you would like to tell me about reading this type of text?
Student Interview Information
1. Source of text(s) used for each protocol
2. What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned about your students as readers by conducting the interviews?
3. What did you learn about way you can help students interact with and learn from text in your content area?
