What it is. A question in the margin turns notes into something you can revise from.
Why our test works. A topic word tells you WHERE something is; a question makes you retrieve it. That is the difference between re-reading and self-testing, and it is the single highest-value change to how a child studies — which is why this is the AVID form and why Reading is heading to the same place.
Leans on. Grade 4's margin topic words.
Watch for. A question answerable by one word is a topic word wearing a question mark. Push for WHY and HOW.
Write a question in the red margin instead of a topic word. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher takes notes, then converts each margin topic word into a question the notes answer The class reads Writing Book 5, p.41 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher takes notes, then converts each margin topic word into a question the notes answer, saying why a question is more useful when studying. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class converts two topic words into questions together. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 5 to page 41 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Take notes on a passage and write a margin question for each chunk.
You close on the exit direction — Read one margin question aloud. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: The margin asks; the notes answer.
A question answerable by one word is a topic word wearing a question mark. Push for WHY and HOW.