Three-Phase Plan for Learning with Informational Sources (UPDATED POST)
Posted on September 10, 2024Share This Content
close reading informational text
Noticing an Author’s Purpose Can Lead to Transformative Understanding
Posted on February 9, 2023Noticing 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
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Thinking Aloud for Students – The What, Why, How & When
Posted on January 13, 2022When 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
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Don’t neglect connectives like “even though”
Posted on January 20, 2021BUT. DESPITE. WHEREAS. ALTHOUGH. IN CONTRAST. INSTEAD. HOWEVER. YET. WHILE. NEVERTHELESS. NOTWITHSTANDING. Our students may gloss over these words as they read, not realizing how powerful they are. Words like these signal a causal relationship that is in opposition to what a reader might have expected. These words are a BIG DEAL. Technically they’re called …Read more
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Three-Phase Plan for Learning with Informational Sources (UPDATED)
Posted on January 12, 2018I offer a three-phase guide to teaching students how to effectively engage with informational sources such as texts, videos, and infographics. Phase 1 involves introducing the source, Phase 2 focuses on teaching strategies for understanding, and Phase 3 requires students to create a response, enhancing comprehension.
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Helping students explain a main idea statement
Posted on March 10, 2017Can your students explain what their main idea statement means? Is a superficial understanding or misunderstanding of the main idea impacting their ability to identify or explain supporting details? We may need to give students space & time to unpack the main idea. What follows are a few suggestions for helping students unpack a main …Read more
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Do our students notice “definitions” & “examples”?
Posted on November 16, 2016Do you students notice when authors provide definitions and examples? Many nonfiction authors use these and other types of details when they describe concepts like forces, magnets, weather and so forth. Readers need to recognize these types of details to understand these concepts. I was surprised one day to find out the middle grade students I …Read more
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Three Phase Lesson – Explaining Supporting Evidence
Posted on August 15, 2016Do your students ever need help with explaining how key details support a main idea? Here are a few thoughts and artifacts from a three-phase lesson I gave. Phase One – Meet the Source The students read the article entitled “Tortoises battle it out with Marines for the right to stay put.” Suggestion – Before …Read more
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NEWSELA–I like this site but beware…
Posted on August 2, 2016Just be careful. NEWSELA is a great site for short informational articles for students to read. The content is usually worthy of student-led discussions and writing about in response. The beauty of NEWSELA is that the same article is available at different Lexile levels. (When you click on an article, check out the blue bar …Read more
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Complex sources? Give students a head start with THIEVES
Posted on September 5, 2015Teaching students to use the mnemonic THIEVES (Manz, 2002) to preview a text is an easy way to nurture students’ sense of agency as they tackle feature-dense nonfiction sources. The poster below (created by a colleague!) reveals the details of this strategy–students preview, predict & then summarize their predictions. A FEW TIPS Create THIEVES bookmarks …Read more
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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.