Marazno: The Frame Question, Giving it a Go

Chapter 3 of Marzano is about Summarizing and Note Taking. This chapter caught my eye because my 5th graders and i were really struggling to produce a good quality summary paragraph using main ideas that were appropriate to what we read, followed by an example from the material/lesson. In this chapter there is a strategy called "The Frame Question" with variations for different applications. The Topic -Restriction-Illustration Frame (T-R-I) is the example that i tried. It was a tough concept to "get", but after we "got it" it became much easier to deal with, and the final product is a summary paragraph that has a main idea that is appropriate with an example that reveils understanding of the objective taught. The T-R-I was worth the trials, and could be effectively used as a evaluation tool.

There are three elements in the T-R-I strategy that were taught and used with my 5th graders in various subjects. The "T" stands for Topic and it is a general statement about the topic or subject to be discussed; "R" restricts or limits the information in some way; and "I" stands for the illustration or example that exemplifies the topic or restriction. The book describes the T-R-I and other variations really well, and i encourage you to give them a glance to see if you could use them in your class next year.