After introducing and modeling the use of the Question-Answer Relationships, I will assess students' comprehension skills while reading the informational text "The Statue of Liberty".

Students will read through the article and answer the four questions. Each question will be found a different way: Right There, Think and Search, On My Own, or Author and Me.

Based on the answers to the open-ended questions, I can pinpoint what aspects of comprehension students may be struggling with. Example: Is it the questions that require them to use the text or those that require them to pull from their own world knowledge to answer.

Using the data collected from this informal assessment I can determine if I need to re-teach the QAR elements and further explicitly teach locating and answering open ended questions using world knowledge and facts that can be found through reading the text.

If the whole class is struggling, I can teach a lesson solely focusing on finding answers to questions while reading. If only a group of students are struggling with reading comprehension, I can create centers to reinforce the topics; and if it is only a few individual students, I can work one on one with them to review the material and solidify the importance of understanding the Question-Answer Relationships to assist them in comprehending text.

After students read the story "Amanda's News", students will complete the Cloze Activity that will test their reading comprehension skills.

-A cloze activity is when one or two words in a sentence is omitted, and the students have to use their vocabulary and comprehension skills to fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s). For this activity, students will select from the options A, B, or C to indicate which word they believe best completes the sentence.

This worksheet will provide me with insight into their abilities to read and comprehend the text.

The results from this assessment will inform me if I need to focus on reading comprehension for the whole class, a group, or individual students.

Informal assessments (such as cloze assessments) allow me to target the skills that need to be developed and is an opportunity for me to provide immediate feedback to my students.