All-Learner Curriculum for Reading Documents

Meeting the needs of all learners is a

growing concern in education. While many

strategies exist, most highlight the use

of visuals as learning resources. While

the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS)

project focuses on using primary sources

as texts to improve student content

mastery and skills, it stresses visual

images. It also emphasizes employing

graphic organizers as instructional

aids.

The TPS All-Learner curriculum combines

ideas from primary-source-based

instruction, visual literacy, and

universal design for learning. The goal

is provide teachers with easy to

implement strategies that will help

improve the document reading skills of

all students, including second language

learners and those with special needs.

The curriculum focuses on reading a

document and has three stages as shown

in the chart to the right. While the

chart divides identifying important

information and making inferences into

two distinct steps, the activity and

graphic organizer combine these two

stages. Teachers have the option of

dividing or combining. Either way,

students can improve content learning

while building important literacy

skills.

Mark Newman, Xiuwen Wu, Costas Spirou, National-Louis University

All-Learner Curriculum

Identifying Important Information

Guided by questions, students identify and highlight important

information in the document and on a graphic organizer

Making Inferences

Guided by questions and information identified in the document, students

make inferences

Summarizing Learning

Guided by questions as well as information and inferences

identified in the document, students summarize what was learned from the document relating that learning to

the topic of study

The All-Learner curriculum has been

created as a PowerPoint file so that

teachers can customize the materials to

meet the individual needs of their

students. We recommended that teachers

model and scaffold learning based on

student proficiency. For more information, contact: Mark Newmanmnewman@nl.edu

Xiuwen Wu xwu@nl.eduCostas Spirou cspirou@nl.edu

Introduction:The first step in using a primary source document to increase content knowledge and literacy skills involves reading to identify pertinent information. This exercises focuses on having identify pertinent context and content information in the text of a document and demark that information by various means on the document itself.

An important note is that this process focuses solely on identifying information. It does include general reading strategies and has been developed for use with those strategies as needed.

Generally documents have two type of information students need to identify:1. Context: title, creator, place of creation, date of creation.In some instances, the context information will be incomplete. The teacher can decide whether the missing information is needed or not, providing it to students or having them conduct research to find it. Often, missing information is just that, missing and cannot be found.

2. Content: important items relevant to the topic of study.Reading to identify content information requires guidance so students know what to look for in the document. Having students answers pertinent questions about the document and the topic of study facilitates the identification process. Typically, the questions cover the relevant four “W”s and 1 “H”: who, what, when, where, and how. In some cases, not all these questions are asked. For some exercises, the “why” is also asked, but that question is not included here and can be added by the teacher as needed. To help all students in their reading, a series of “icons” are provided that students can use to demark information that answers the questions as follows:

Who:

What:

When:

Where: [ ]

How: * *

While the “Ws” and “H” are standard interrogatives, the rest of the question stems must relate to the particular document and task. The questions used here are examples not dictates.

Determined by student expertise, the following progressive sequence of learning is recommended:

1. Whole class modeling with the teacher role receding as students gain proficiency.

2. Independent group work.3. Independent individual student work.

Setting up the reading for information processEither the teacher or students (if they have gained proficiency in this skill), pose questions to focus attention on what information in the document students should be identifying.

Depending on what data is available in the document and student proficiency, the teacher can reinforce the need to identify the relevant context and content information through the reading process.

A sample inquiry model information sheet and a sample document with demarked information are provided on the following pages.

Reading a Document:

Identifying important information

Introduction:

Using the questions below, identify how the song on the accompanying page describes the first Battle of Bull Run. For the context questions, write your answers on the spaces provide. For the content questions, use the “icons”provided to highlight your answers on the song sheet itself.

Context:

1.What is the name of the song? The Retreat of the Grand Army from Bull Run

2. Who is the composer? Ernest Clifton

3. Where was it published? Baltimore, Maryland

Content:

On the song sheet, highlight all the information that answers each of the following question, using the “icons” provided. In some cases, the information is in more than one place on the song sheet.

1. Who was involved?

Identify all the people involved by drawing a circle around their names on the song sheet. If their names appear more than once, just circle the name the first time it appears.

2. What happened?

Identify what the people involved were trying to do at the battle and what happened at the battle, by drawing a rectangle around the appropriate lines of the song.

____ 3. When did it happen?

Identify when the battle occurred by drawing a line under the line in the song that identifies the time of the battle.

[ ] 4. Where did it happen?

Identify the location of the battle by placing brackets around the places on the song sheet mentioned as sites of the battle.

* * 5. How did the outcome affect those involved?

Identify the effect of the battle’s outcome on the people involved by placing stars around the appropriate lines in the song.

Reading a Document:

Identifying important information

[ ]

[ ]

* *

•*

• *

•*

• *

•* • *

Reading a Document:

Organizing information

The Retreat of the Grand Army from Bull Run

Ernest Clifton

Baltimore, Maryland

Unknown

Manassas, Virginia Sunday

Old Lincoln’s Grand Army

Abe Lincoln

McDowell

The Bull

They all ran away

Lincoln blamed McDowell, Lincoln superseded McDowell

McClellan new leader

Grand army in bad state

Reading a Document:

Organizing important information and making inferences

Introduction:Depending upon student ability, it is possible to connect the organization of information and the making of inferences tasks.

Making Inferences is an important step in reading a document. An inference is a conclusion that students reach based on information obtained from the document and their own reasoning. The task involves students using the information they identified and organized from the document as well prior knowledge to state what they think about the document’s content.

The organizer on the following page has students perform several tasks:1.They organize the context of the document including the title, creator, date of creation, and place of creation.2.They organize the information identified from reading the document by writing their answers to teach question in the appropriate place.3.They make an inference about the answer to that question.

Setting up the making inference exerciseMake sure the students know what an inference is and how the process of making one works. The teacher might stress the need to base an inference on information form the document, prior knowledge, and their own thoughts. An inference is not just opinion, but informed opinion.

Instructions:These instructions refer to students completing the “Organizing important information and making inferences” graphic organizer on the following page: 1. On the lines below “What does the document say?,” copy the information highlighted on the

document to answer each question. 3. On the lines below “What do you think?,” make an inference regarding who was involved, what

happened, and the effect of the outcome on those involved.

Reading a Document:

Organizing important information and making inferences

Reading a Document:

Summarizing what was learned

Instructions:

Referring to the “Organizing important information and making inferences” graphic organizer, write a summary of what you learned from the document about the topic you are studying.

How did the outcome affect those

involved?

Who was involved?

Where did it happen?

When did it happen?

What does the document

say?

What do you think?

What happened?

What does the document

say?

What do you think?

What does the document

say?

What do you think?

Organizing important information and making inferences graphic organizer template