Strategic Content Reading

Laura Scarpulla~ adapted from Jeff Wilhem

When you finish any unit, students should have a new heuristic

• Transportable piece of knowledge that the student now HAS and takes with them always

• simple transportable tool– IE the 5 Ws in journalism– If anything is odd, it is probably important-

Literacy text– S0 What? Toulmin’s notion of argument– Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Reading for Main Idea:Example heuristics

• Identify the general subject of the text (topic that all details have in common)

• Identify the key details• Identify the pattern or underlying structure of

all key details and the implied connections• Identify main idea or generalization expressed

by this pattern of these details

If Main Idea is what you want students to be able to do independently, then…

• do it over and over and over• Some teachers say if I do just one thing, I have missed

out on other things- NOT TRUE! • Learning is a web- the more deeply you concentrate

on one strategy, the more other strategies fall into place

• Nothing is worse for students than a teacher that stands up there and tries to check off a list of content objectives- students learn nothing well “mile wide, inch deep”

Start with the concrete

Key teaching concept• Short things before longer

things• Directly stated then move

to more implicit• Concrete to abstract

Teaching strategies• See- think- wonder• Bring actual things• Visuals• manipulatives

What is the main idea?

What is the main idea?

What is the main idea- piece of classic art

Parady of art

Parady #2

#3

Scaffolding

• Now students have practice finding main idea with concrete and familiar things

• We want to move this concept to text• Start with short pieces• Start with modeling• Build on the picture practice

The Shark- John Ciardifind the main idea & several key ideas

Teacher scaffolding in reading-“ If you have trouble meet with me”

• Several lines that develop the topic– Shark’s keen eyesight– Shark’s dark thoughts about something to eat– Shark’s capacity to swim without making a sound

Central/ focus/main idea– Sharks have terrible manners– The bright eyes of shark increase it ability to see it enemies or prey– Swimming is dangerous– Watch out when swimming in shark infested waters because the

shark has a voracious appetitite.

Only one person every talks like this

• You’ve missed the point. This poem is not about a shark.

• The only person you ever hear talking like this is a dad to his daughter before she goes out on a date.

• Reread poem through this lens• This is how you know a student has internalized

the hueristic- they start telling you things about the topic you didn’t know

Picture Mapping Directions• Read article• In group of 3-4 students, identify the topic of the

reading• Go through the text and mark or list the key ideas about

the topic--- pay attention to text structure!* first, last sentences;* introductions and conclustions;* paragraphs are often about a single idea* highlights, bolds, italics, bullets, boxes, font changes* pictures, graphs* quoted materials* surprises, shifts, changes in focus, direction or emphasis

Picture Map

• Determine the topic and create a picture or symbol to represent that topic

• After you have drawn the topic, consider how to represent or symbolize each key idea with a symbol or picture.

• Pay attention to the pattern between the images- make sure the relationship between these things is apparent.

• Be prepared to explain your picture map.

Share your posters with another group

Today: two groups share and compare• Other options:– Show and tell- every group gets a brief moment in the

sun– Each complementary article is read by a different

group, must share key info to rest of the class– Different levels of difficulty- text difficulty – Different aspects/angles on the same topic– Small groups respond to material through drama,

reciprical reading