What is one recommended approach to teach evaluative comprehension?

• A. Focus on literal recall
• B. Use only multiple-choice questions
• C. Model thinking and provide evaluative sentence stems
• D. Avoid discussing opinions

Answer: (C)

Evaluative comprehension means judging the quality or usefulness of information in a text and explaining your reasoning. A strong way to teach this is to model thinking aloud as you read and discuss how you reach judgments, showing students how to weigh evidence, compare ideas, and consider the author's purpose and any bias. Provide evaluative sentence stems they can plug into their responses, such as “I think this part is convincing because...,” “The evidence here supports that claim, but...,” or “The author might be trying to persuade, so I question this part because....” These stems give students a ready-made language to articulate their evaluations and justify them with reasoning and evidence. This approach helps students practice articulating and defending their judgments, which is essential for evaluative comprehension. Focusing only on literal recall teaches students to remember facts rather than assess meaning; relying solely on multiple-choice questions often doesn’t require students to justify their thinking; and avoiding opinions prevents the kind of discussion that builds evaluative skills.