Chapter 10: Determining Importance in Text: The Nonfiction Connection

Students are constantly asked to determine the  main idea, highlight details, and read for specific information.  This is a difficult task for many students because they have not been taught strategies to help them determine important information when reading nonfiction text.  Furthermore, many students do not have exposure to non-fiction books to become familiar with the text structure and information found in them. Harvey and Goudvis (2007) remember having many books read aloud to them in school yet "can never recall having had a piece of nonfiction read aloud  or even seeing it in school" (page 156).  They go on to say "It was as if the genre didn't exist" (page 156).   I believe many people would agree with those statements which is alarming!  Students need to have exposure with informational texts in order to have opportunities to respond to them.  Otherwise, students become frustrated and confused when trying to apply strategies to nonfiction texts.

There are many strategies to help students determine important information in text such as scanning the text before they read, highlighting important words and facts, writing notes as they read, and paying attention to illustrations and text structure.  In order for students to become familiar with locating important information, teachers need to model this and provide opportunities for students to practice.  This is a skill students will need to be successful on end of grade assessments and all through life so it is critical for this instruction to begin as early as Kindergarten.  

 Here are a few strategies that will help teachers guide students to be better equipped with determining the importance the text they are reading:

Building Background Knowledge of Nonfiction Features (p.159)
This strategy is a great to being awareness to nonfiction features and scaffold the ability to note the purpose of nonfiction features.  You will need a wide variety of nonfiction texts in the classroom for read alouds and independent reading, in addition to 8x11 sheets of paper.  
Students will create little booklets from the paper folded over and stapled together with construction paper for the cover.  Each time the teacher reads a nonfiction book, she will select a feature to let the students add to their booklet.  Once this has been done several times, students will then be able to add features that they find during their independent reading.


Making Students Aware of Primary Sources (.p.164)
This strategy is to help students become more adapt to noticing primary sources and learning from them.  When teachers introduce students to nonfiction features, they share their purposes, what to notice, think about, so naturally they need to do the same for primary sources .  Teachers need to point them out, talk about them, and discuss how they relate to and enhance the narrative (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p.165).  The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey, by Louise Borden is an excellent book to being this journey with.  This book helps to inform the reader that primary sources help to give a reader a sense of history, inform them about specific content (without being altered) and to help breathe life into a time period.  Once the teacher has shared the book with the class, encourage students to find other books that are primary sources and discuss what makes them a great resource to use.


Finding Important Information Rather Than Just One Main Idea (p.166)
Throughout a piece of text, there may be several important ideas, rather than a single main idea.  Getting young readers to shift their thinking from finding the "main idea" and finding several important ideas can start with three sticky notes labeled with a *.  First the teacher will give the class a common text and ask them to label 3 places in the text they think is important.  Then the teacher will model this process by reading a book and noting her main ideas.  Naturally, no one will have the exact places they deemed important, so students are guided into citing evidence and explaining their thinking to help defend their choices.  By having students do this, they gradually learn that nonfiction texts may have several important ideas as opposed to one main idea.


Important to Whom? (p.167)
This strategy can be easily adapted to fit any lesson or content being discussed due to the fact you can use any article from magazines such as Time for Kids, Scholastic News, National Geographic Explorer or any nonfiction trade book.  Teachers need to ask students to make a distinction ebtween what they think is most important and what the writer wants them to take away from the article.  In order to do that have students, 
1. Write down something they learned that they think is important to remember.
2. Draw a line under that response and with down what  they think the author most wanted them to learn and remember.
Sometimes the response will be the same, other times the response is very different.  It is key to help students now that nonfiction writers have something in mind that they are trying to to convey to the reader and that it is the readers' responsibility to pick up on that as well (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p.167).  
This is a great strategy to point out that when taking a standardized test, they should keep in mind that the right answer reflects what the author wanted them to keep in mind (what was the writer's big idea versus what they think is most important).
 

Chapter 11: Summarizing and Synthesizing Information: The Evolution of Thought

     When we summarize, we pull out the most important information and put it in our own words.  Along the same lines, synthesizing is when background knowledge is reinforced or new ideas provide a new perspective of what is already known (p. 179).  Therefore, synthesizing helps readers "build and enhance understanding" (p. 180).  Both processes teach students strategies for adding information to their "store of knowledge" (p. 180).

Retelling to Summarize Information:
This strategy asks students to use sticky notes to retell one-word ideas from a text.  Students are instructed that when readers summarize, they:

• Remember to tell what is important.
• Tell it in a way that makes sense.
• Try not to tell too much (p. 181).

The sticky notes are used to record the most important information that students can then write a summary from.

Comparing and Contrasting in Science and Social Studies:
A key aspect of synthesizing is making connections.  Three-column notes can be used to compare and contrast information in science and social studies.  Contrasting ideas go in the outer two columns while similarities are noted in the middle.  This form can help students understand "two different properties or concepts" (p. 185).

Summarizing the Content and Adding Personal Response
In addition to summarizing the material that has been read, it is important to integrate the reader's own thinking with the text and get the reader's personal reaction and reflection.  One strategy used to summarize and generate a personal response calls for the reader to divide a sheet of notebook paper horizontally; the top half of the paper will be devoted to a summary while the bottom half of the paper will be for the reader's response to the text.  This strategy is also a scaffold than can be used in a later kind of writing called a Summary Response (p. 185).  The Summary Response allows the students to combine the two elements.  A Summary Response includes a summary of the most important content, along with the writer's personal response throughout the piece rather than simply as an addendum to the summary (p.185).

Writing a Short Summary
When using this strategy, students are taught to distinguish between a summary of the text and their own thinking.  A two-column think sheet is headed What the Piece Is About/What It Makes Me Think About. Students are then asked to remember the following things when writing a summary.

1.  Pick out the most important ideas
2.  Keep it brief
3.  Say it in your own words in a way that makes sense (p. 189).

Synthesis to Access Content
Reading and understanding requires a great deal of ongoing thinking (p. 195).  To make students aware of this ongoing thinking process and to allow them to articulate their thinking, a two-column form is used with the following headings:  Content (Facts) and Process (Thinking).  The form requires readers to keep track of their evolving thinking, commenting ontheir process of synthesizing information by noting information of the content side of the form and noticing what they did to access that information onthe process side of the form (p. 193).

Readers can put the pieces together
 through content, process, and craft. 

After the students have had practice with this strategy, the form can be modified and used for the strategy entitled Reading Like a Writer.   With this strategy, students add a third column entitled Craft.  The "Craft" column allows students to note and respond to the writing style.  According to Harvey & Goudis, the three column form of Content, Process, and Craft is the ultimate synthesizing response form.  If readers can record factual content, explain their thinking process while reading, and reflect on writing, they are well on their way to becoming truly literate thinkers (p. 196).




Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for                understanding and engagement. (2nd ed.) Portland, Maine: Stenhouse

Chapter 12: Content Literacy: Reading for Understanding in Social Studies and Science

Due to high-stakes testing in reading and math, instruction focusing on social studies and science have been held to a minimum.   However, social studies and science concepts can be easily integrated with literacy instruction since many of the topics are interesting and exciting.

As educators, we need to remember that...

• "Learning is a consequence of thinking." (p. 207)
• We create learning opportunities that can connect us with real-world issues.
• We should engage students' interest and enthusiasm.  
• We should create learning opportunities that should push students to higher levels of thinking.
• We should demonstrate our thinking as to explicitly show how we understanding what we read.
• We should support discussions, debates, and different perspectives. 

Practices for Reading to Learn in Social Studies and History 

• Interactive Read-Alouds with Picture Books (p. 209)
• Creates a common experience for whole class
• Introduces kids to big ideas/themes
• Provides opportunities for role play
• Allows engagement in a variety of responses- talking, writing, drawing, acting

• Book Club Discussions with Historical Fiction Picture Books or Nonfiction Trade Book (p. 210)
• Helps to build kids' background knowledge
• Historical fiction gives kids history along with the "story" elements.
• Biographies work well with book clubs.
• Provide opportunities for students to learn about problems, issues, and ideas of people (that are usually absent from textbooks).

• Create Concept Maps: Visual Representations of Events, People, and Ideas (p. 210)
• Allows students to blend artistic and written expression to share important information.

• Create Journals and Personal Narratives to Understand Historical Perspective (p. 212)
• Narratives or journals of people living in a particular time period are read and discussed in literature circles. 
• Focusing on using different perspectives to better understand history.
• Students then write a journal entry or narrative from the perspective of a historical person.
• This practice integrates reading and writing with history.

Practices for Reading to Learn in Science

Science Journals and Teaching Books (p. 213)

• Students keep track of their own learning by writing down important information in their "Wonder Book".
• Wonder Books allow students to capture, wonder about, and reflect on experiences and observations.
• This encourages natural curiosity and personal reactions.

• Learning Vocabulary and Concepts Through Picture Dictionaries and Content Word Walls (p. 214)
• Kids illustrate and write short definitions for new vocabulary words and concepts.
• Together, the kids create a word wall for a particular topic.
• Kids are more likely to remember what they learn if the concepts are illustrated and written in their own words.

• Noticing New Learning (p. 215)
• Students  use the code "L" followed by new learning or a change in thinking on a sticky note posted on text or photograph/illustrations.
• Students can also keep a two-column chart in their notebooks representing "old-thinking" and "new thinking".
• An anchor chart representing "What I Used to Think" and "Now I Know That..." demonstrates to students the idea that learning is all about developing our understanding.

• Summarizing and Synthesizing Learning on a Mind Map (p. 216)
• Topic is written in the center of a large piece of paper.
• Lines are drawn from the topic to other parts of the paper creating "branches" containing illustrations and information about different aspects. 
• Usually collaborative efforts among students.
• When complete, students discuss reasoning behind their mind map.

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement. (2nd ed.) Portland, Maine: Stenhouse