Teacher educator Ron Klemp describes a successful strategy that helps struggling readers navigate challenging text using a modified Quickwrite protocol.
By Ronald M. Klemp
Navigating difficult text is not new, but for many middle and high school students, this challenge can be formidable.
The “pandemic hangover,” the ubiquitous issues around cell phones, social media, and AI applications all contribute to this challenge, and teachers and teacher candidates in my graduate courses often cite these factors as obstacles to their instruction.
A recent New Yorker article referenced an aspect of this that speaks to English teachers, but also has implications across the curriculum:
“The most potent enemy of reading, it goes without saying, is the small, flat box that you carry in your pocket. In terms of addictive properties, it might as well be stuffed with meth. There’s no point in grinding through a whole book – a chewy bunch of words arranged in a narrative, or heaven preserve us, an argument – when you can pick up your iPhone.” (Lane, A. 2024).
As a result of these present-day challenges, many of our middle and high school students are somewhat lacking in their reading levels. The possibility of navigating text independently may be remote for many. For some, there may be minimal transfer of information as they read information or narrative, thereby limiting their ability to reflect and understand.
When I began teaching at a community college, I was confronted with all these challenges. My classes were composed of “kids” who were just out of high school (and the occasional senior citizen who was coming back to college). Some students had not graduated but were eighteen years old or older. None of these students could qualify for English I placement, the transfer course requirement for four-year universities. Their reading levels were in the range of middle school, and many had never completed reading a novel while in high school.
These students needed a compass of sorts to assist in their comprehension of texts. To accomplish this, I developed a Quickwrite (QW) protocol that I found to be extremely effective in boosting their understanding.
How the Quickwrite works
We began our first text reading with a novel, and students would read for the first 15 minutes of class each day. (We met twice a week for two hours and forty minutes.)
After spending time introducing the book and reading the first few pages aloud to let them get a “taste” of the tone and inflection, they would then read on their own.
At the end of their reading time, I introduced the four-part Quickwrite protocol. The different components are designed to “train their brains” to become proficient readers. (You can adapt the language and format to your needs.)
Cooperative Literacy Quick Write Response
There are rudimentary or “custodial” parts of the protocol such as name, date, title, and pages read in one sitting. As the QW forms accumulate, we are able to keep track of their reading and easily review their reading “notes” from each of their reading sessions.
The QW is done as a post-reading activity. The reason for this is that many students feel that they can comprehend by simply skimming the text. This activity requires the “skimmers” to reinspect the text and read more closely.
Part 1 of the protocol is a retelling or paraphrasing of what they just read. I put a “limit” of 25 words or fewer so that students will need to deconstruct the text and then parse it into a short but focused explanation.
This process helps with getting their information into long-term memory. Here is an analogy I use with students:
Imagine that you just walked out of a movie or watched a show that was streaming. A friend asks you what it was about. Most likely you would not retell the entire ninety minutes or ten episodes. So you break it apart, distill the most pertinent information, and then parse it into some meaningful language to give them enough information to have a general idea of the topic and the focus of the show.
This is the intent of the paraphrase. Limiting it to around 25 words makes the reader more selective on what they can share.
Part 2 of the protocol asks students to mine the text for five words that will be helpful or integral to their remembering the text. The idea behind asking for five is that short term memory can hold up to five to seven items. Their five words are intended to create a pattern in the brain to assist with memory and retrieval of the information.
Once the words are chosen, students then need to explain why they selected each specific word as it relates to the article. Some students simply define the words, but that is not enough, and they soon learn to meet the requirement with the teachers’ feedback. It is in the justification of the word choices that comprehension is enhanced and reinforced.
Part 3 of the protocol asks students to select and reflect on two direct quotations from the text. This lets students get closer to exploring the language of the text. The quotes should also be significant enough to help them retain important information from the text itself and could lead to further discussion in the post QW debrief. The quotations also will provide an opportunity to dive back into the text to consider the context from where the was generated.
Part 4 of the protocol directs the students to move away from the specifics and consider the text as a whole. When they are asked to note what the selection caused them to consider, ponder, appreciate or dispute, they are triggering a thinking process that proficient readers use routinely to apply the information or ideas to themselves.
Once the protocol is completed, it becomes a springboard for discussing the information. The discussion begins with a sharing of some paraphrases, key words and chosen quotes with explanations for why they were chosen, and ideas based on what the student wrote in the fourth section: “consider, ponder, appreciate or dispute.”
The first few times I tried it, the Quickwrite took much longer than I had anticipated, but once the students were accustomed to the routine, the process went more quickly. One change that I noticed was that when the students were given the signal to begin their reading, their focus increased by a huge margin. I think this is because they knew the QW would be handed out once the reading time allotment ended.
Another change I noticed was that their QW forms became more elaborate, especially when they explained their five word choices. I told the students that they could use their accumulated QW’s on the final exam, which featured questions and prompts on the novel. One young woman, upon handing in her exam, stated, “You said that we could use the QW’s on our final exam, but I didn’t even need it!” I explained to her that was the idea!
How you might use the protocol
This protocol is easily adapted for middle school and can be useful with both narrative and informational text. When we tackled nonfiction articles, the same protocol was used, and the students came to expect it. When I shared the protocol with students in a tutoring center presentation, one young lady explained, “This will change my life!”
Feedback from my community college students was also very positive, and some students asked me for extra forms to take to other classes. The protocol has also had positive feedback during several conference presentations where the protocol has been shared, including from teachers of expository writing. Many of my teacher credential candidates have also begun to use the QW with more regularity.
One middle school teacher who attended one of my presentations stated,
“Thank you for introducing me to the Quickwrite Protocol. I’ve implemented it in both my ELA and Social Studies classes, and the results have been remarkable. Students seem to dig deeper and think more critically about the assigned texts, leading to more insightful discussions. Their increased confidence in sharing their thoughts has been truly rewarding to witness.”
Many middle school students today – across the curriculum – are challenged by their grade-level texts and supplemental materials they are expected to read. The simple, single-page QuickWrite protocol can be an effective tool for them to navigate and process what they read with much greater success.
If you decide to try the protocol, I hope you’ll leave a comment here and let me know how it worked for you.
References
Herman, Daniel. (2022) Herman, Daniel. (2022). ”The End of High School English.”
Klemp, Ronald. (2022). “A Different Quickwrite Protocol to Promote Struggling Readers’ Comprehension: Slowing Down to Speed Up.” California English. 27:4 P.15-17
Klemp, Ronald. (2012). “Building Comprehension for Secondary Struggling Readers with a “Quickwrite” Protocol. In Transition. New York State Middle School Association. 30 1 P.24-29
Lane, A. (2024). “Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?” The New Yorker. Conde’ Nast: Advanced Publications.
Ronald Klemp Ed. D. taught reading, English, social studies, and PE, and was a middle school administrator during his 37 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District. He started the Middle School Practitioner Center as part of the middle school reform movement in the 1990s. Starting in 2001, he coordinated all the reading intervention programs for LAUSD.
Ron has taught in the secondary teacher credential program at CSU Northridge since 1986. He has also taught at California Lutheran University, National University, and Santa Monica College. He has been a presenter at the California League of Middle Schools and National Middle School and has published numerous articles on literacy and classroom management focused on middle schoolers. His secondary reading intervention program, Inside the Text, written with two co-authors, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
