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Teaching our students how to make sense of informational sources can feel overwhelming. With a systematic plan for teaching and learning, we can make this easier for ourselves and our students. Visit this updated post for the latest version of the three-phase plan – Meet the Source, Meet the Strategies, Meet the Response.
Are your students citing “text evidence” without really having control of the meaning of that evidence? Do they forget to explain further or elaborate? If either of these is the case for your students, they may need to space to contemplate what one detail or quote from the text means. A simple way to do …Read more
Teaching students to identify the main ideas in a text is sometimes hard. The more explicit we can be, the better students will catch on. My key strategies for teaching main idea include the following… What follows is a description of a three-phase lesson we gave in Waukee, Iowa – a BIG THANK YOU to …Read more
Are your students regurgitating facts from a text without really thinking about the big ideas being conveyed? A few weeks ago a teacher and I conferred with a student reading a book called Gorillas (Pioneer Valley series). When we asked the student, “What’s the main idea?” They shrugged. Here’s a version of what happened during …Read more
When reading multiple sources, noticing the author’s purpose can help a student 1) remember the content of the source and 2) begin to notice the similarities and differences between sources. I’ve created a Padlet with a text set on recycling – one for each type of author’s purpose (e.g. P.R.I.D.E.) (4th-8th grade). Please feel free …Read more
Noticing an author’s purpose helps us 1) determine what’s important in a source, 2) begin to think critically about the information in a source, and 3) remember what we read. What follows are a few recommendations for teaching “author’s purpose.” Integrate WHY into your discussions of author’s purpose The WHY of noticing an author’s purpose …Read more
I just spent seven weeks on the road working with so many amazing teachers. We spent a lot of time talking about how to teach vocabulary and there were a lot of important (and reoccurring) questions like: Tried & True How Based on the research of Beck et al. (Bringing Words to Life), these are …Read more
No doubt. When school is almost out, some of our students are harder to engage in reading. They’re tired and they’re ready for summer break. (You probably are too;) To keep students energized, shake up your independent reading routine. Here are a few simple, low cost ideas. Change the Location A change in environment might …Read more
When we realize a student does not understand a complex chunk of text, we may need to stop asking questions for understanding and “think aloud” for the student, modeling how to make sense of the text. What follows is an excerpt from a middleweb.com column “Letting Go is Messy” that I co-wrote with Julie Webb …Read more
Preparation Select a text that has strong supporting/extending features – graphs, maps, photos and captions, etc. Locate 3-4 features that you can focus on during the Phase 2 part of the lesson. If you’re unsure whether the features are strong, think about how you might answer the questions posed in steps 1-3 on the ANCHOR …Read more