Research School Network: Check-Link-Connect A framework for asking questions; a framework for understanding barriers – Steve Trafford shares his insight.

We have written before about Check-Link-Connect (CLC), our framework for questioning pupils during reading. CLC questions are designed to scaffold comprehension of complex texts and to promote active reading and processing.

They also bring some of the often hidden processes of reading comprehension to the surface, something that as teachers and skilled readers, we might neglect: in other words, a kind of ​‘expert-induced blindness’.

In a nutshell, CLC gives teachers three different types of question to ask during reading to scaffold understanding:

- ​‘Check’ questions ask pupils to identify basic factual details in the text

- ​‘Link’ questions encourage pupils to make connections within the text (local cohesion inferences), for example tracking an idea across multiple different sentences.

- ​‘Connect’ questions involve pupils making connections between the text and their background knowledge (global inferences).

Getting delivery right

One way of delivering CLC is through ​‘cold call’ questioning, giving pupils sufficient wait time to process both the question and the text. It goes without saying that this won’t work unless an effective classroom routine is in place for pupils to follow the text closely as they read, and they know that the only way to answer the questions is to read carefully.

Indeed, the EEF’s Secondary Literacy Guidance Report reminds us that one of the things we need to do to develop pupils’ ability to read complex, academic texts is to ensure pupils ​‘actively engage with what they are reading’. This sounds blindingly obvious, but it doesn’t always happen, and certainly isn’t something teachers should take for granted.

While this type of 1−2−1 questioning is useful, an over-reliance on it can lead to some pupils’ attention waning. Other modes of answering CLC questions such as all pupils writing an answer on mini-whiteboards, or partner talk, can help increase whole-class participation and guarantee that all pupils are thinking at once.

A framework for understanding barriers

Increasingly, I’ve come to see Check-Link-Connect as not just a framework for asking questions, but also a framework for understanding how reading comprehension works, and therefore, what kind of barriers pupils might have with a specific text.

Teachers deploying CLC questioning will read the text before the lesson and pre-script their questions. There are numerous benefits to this, one of which is really seeing the text through the lens of the pupil and thinking about the likely barriers they might face. A teacher might notice when a paragraph has lots of pronouns to keep track of (local cohesion inferences), or when a part of the text requires a specific piece of background knowledge to fully understand it.

These barriers are going to be particularly pronounced for pupils who are less confident readers or have had less exposure to challenging texts, and so should be at the forefront of teachers’ thinking if they want to create an equitable classroom experience.

Once these barriers are identified, teachers can then plan for how to address them, whether that is through a ​‘think aloud’ to model tracking an idea, or activating pupils’ prior knowledge about a specific concept or time period before reading.

Find out more

The Research Schools Network’s Clips from the Classroom continues to be a fantastic resource, offering video explanation and exemplification of a number of evidence-informed approaches.

Our most recent contribution to this, focused on Check-Link-Connect, can be found here.

Additionally, join us for Monday’s webinar Check-Link-Connect – a free webinar exploring our framework for supporting comprehension during reading.