Date: December 24, 2003
Grade Level: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Subject(s):
Duration: 1-2 Weeks, depending on students
Description: : In the primary grades boys and girls learn decoding skills, but in the upper grades students are supposed to transfer their ability to sound out words into the comprehension of those words. As subject areas departmentalize in these grades, teachers feel inadequate to teach these reading comprehension skills. Many teachers of middle and high school students “assume” that their students already know how to take notes from readings, films, and lectures. They also “assume” that students understand main idea and detail and can pull out the most important information from text or lecture. Often this is not the case. Many students, even into college, will copy or underline everything in a text or try to reiterate word for word what a lecturer is saying. This unit is a series of lessons that can be used with any informational text to teach students that by writing key concepts, reviewing, discussing, and elaborating, they will discover the real importance of taking notes to clarify meaning and understand what they have read or heard. The unit might take a few days out of the curriculum, but it will lead to comprehension of the subject matter, and in the process students will be learning skills for a lifetime.
Goals: : (Standards for the English Language Arts)
1. Students read a wide range of print and non print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features.
6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions, media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.
7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
Objectives:
Teacher Materials: :
(Scroll down linked teacher materials page for all handouts.)
Vocabulary: See "Vocabulary to Think About"
Procedure:
Preparation:
Day 1: The first day should be spent in a discussion of types of reading and the skills we are taught as readers. Students in the primary grades are taught decoding skills to find the pronunciation of words, thus enabling them to draw from their oral vocabularies to discover the meanings of words. Most primary and intermediate students know the basic elements of a story: characters, setting, problem, events, and resolution; however, when they begin to read across the curriculum they need to learn to become strategic readers, looking for meaning, or comprehension. Early literacy does not automatically transfer into the type of reading and writing that children will need for the rest of their lives. Strategies for reading, note taking, and writing can be taught. To begin, hand out the sheet entitled “Words and Their Meanings”. The page will serve for brainstorming what your students already know and give you an idea of what they need to know. The first column simply asks students to list everything that they read. This could include traffic signs, newspapers, books, tests, etc. Anything that they think of should be recorded. I would suggest letting them brainstorm alone for several minutes, then in small groups for several minutes (getting ideas from others), and then come back together as a class to make one inclusive list. This could be on a transparency or large paper or the chalkboard. The second column will require more thinking on the part of your students. If they do not understand the word “strategy” just substitute “How they understand what they read.” This might be difficult for most of your students. Hopefully, answers will range from looking at the pictures, noting definitions, rereading, looking at the text before and after unknown words, looking for words that compare and contrast, looking for words that show sequence thus being able to use prior knowledge, etc. Again, I would follow the above method of individual brainstorming, small group, and whole class. If few answers come to the group discussion, let students know that they are going to be learning some strategies that will help them. The third column will also require more thinking. Most students have been taught some form of webbing, note taking, or outlining. Some may say that they write down key words. Others may say they remember by drawing pictures or discussing with a friend or classmate. Again, whatever is said is acceptable and will inform you what you will need to teach. Follow the same three groupings, ending with the whole class and recording ideas. Let students know that tomorrow they will begin exercises to help them with learning to be critical readers and gatherers of information.
Day 2/3: Again, to get students thinking about words, hand out the sheet entitled Words and Why They Are Important. Students might need some prodding to get started, so it might be good to start with the whole group. Brainstorming allows all ideas to be used. The first column asks what makes a word important when reading. Hopefully, students will explain that it could be some of the following: it gives a definition, it shows a sequence, it compares and contrasts, it describes an historical event, you can see a picture of it in your mind, it is a noun or verb, etc. In the second column, some students might site the following: it’s a preposition, it’s an article, it’s a conjunction, it doesn’t have meaning, it can’t be defined, you can’t see a picture of it in your mind, etc. When the discussion of words is over, ask students to get out paper and pencil. From the section of informational text that you have chosen, read two or three sentences. Pause and allow students to write down the two most important words that they heard. When they have had a few minutes to do this, let students compare their answers with a neighbor or two. Come back to the whole group, write down all of the answers, and through discussion, narrow the list down to two words telling why they are the most important. Using The Important Word Page would add to the discussion and be a concrete page for future reference. Continue reading, letting students record two words, sharing, and discussing until you have completed a paragraph or two. Depending on how many times you have read and paused, now ask students to narrow the words down even further, to three or four. They could circle those from The Important Word Page. With these core words ask each student to summarize the lesson by putting those three words into several sentences. Share in small groups, come back to the whole group, and talk about what everyone has written. You could repeat the process as often as you feel it would benefit your students.
Day 4: To effectively summarize students must be able to delete some of the information they are reading and substitute some, and keep the most important. One way to help them do this is to copy a paragraph so that each boy or girl has the information. Let them draw lines through any words that they think are unimportant. If they aren’t sure of a word, let them substitute what they think the word means. Finally, have them circle the words that are the most important to understanding the passage. Let students meet with a partner to compare what they have done. Meet as a whole group to compare what the majority feel are the important words that they have circled. Ask students to orally summarize what they have learned. This assignment can be repeated as often as necessary depending on the level of your students and their understanding of main idea.
Day 5: Today you want to see what students can do for themselves when looking for important words. Either assign a paragraph or two from a text or copy a few important paragraphs so that each student has a copy of the information. Ask students to read silently. As they write, they are to decide on the 10 most important words in the text. These can be recorded on The 10 Most Important Words page. When they have been given time to read and record, let them meet with a partner or small group to compare their lists. Allow them to add or delete from their own work. Then ask students to summarize what they have read from the words that they have recorded. Tell them that they are to use all 10 words in a short paragraph of no more than 4-5 sentences. Give them time to work, come back to the whole group, and share paragraphs. Discuss differences and similarities. Again, this can be done for as long as it is beneficial to students.
Day 6: Today asks students to work alone. Before you begin to read information, ask students to have out paper and pencil for webbing. Webbing is simply recording 5 important words, or ideas, in circles and then branching off of those circles with details about the words. Select a passage that you think is important to students’ knowledge of the subject being studied. Be sure that the reading has at least five new concepts with details about those concepts. You could hand out copies of the Webbing Page to each student to record their ideas. Read the passage aloud, but pause now and then to allow students to record ideas. When you have completed the reading, again allow students to work with another student to add to or delete information. Come to the whole group. Compare the circled ideas, most important words. Try to agree on the 5 words. Then share details about each concept. I would make a transparency of the Webbing Page to record collective answers. Finally, ask students to write one sentence for each of the main idea words. You could do this together or ask students to work in pairs. Do this assignment until you are sure that students are able to web what is read with some accuracy.
Day 7: Today will be somewhat different than previous days, but will require students to work alone. Select a passage that you want students to learn. Tell them to read it silently and to record the 5 most important words from the selection. Have them close the text, or put away the copy, and keep out only the ten words. Then have them write a telegram using the Western Union Telegram. Remind students that a telegram can only include ten words and that Stop is written between the words to express another idea. Tell them that they are to send the message to you to insure you that they have understood the material. This assignment could be repeated until you are sure students are able to do the task. After reading the telegrams, you should be able to evaluate each student on his/her comprehension.
Day 8: Today’s lesson will teach students to take their notes and put them into outline form. Again, select a passage that you want your students to learn. Ask them to web the important ideas using the Spider Web to record the main ideas and the details about those words. When the have completed their reading and recording, let them compare their spider webs with a partner. Come to the whole group and show students how to put this web into an outline. Use the Outline Form to guide them. Remind students that each main idea will be a capital letter and each detail will be a number under it. The Outline Form may not fit the reading exactly, so tell students that all the blanks do not need to be filled or others may be added. Again, let students compare outlines (they could be different and still be correct). Then ask each student to write a summary of what they have learned using only the spider web and the outline. Use the Rubric to grade the summary, outline, and spider web. This assignment can be given until students have become adept at pulling out the correct information.
All of the assignments listed in the unit can be done from time to time to insure student learning. Using the unit plan should teach the methods for taking notes and summarizing learning.
Extensions: If students are at a lower level in their reading, one way to have them think about what they have read is to let them draw the main idea and details along with the words. This visual representation will allow some students to better remember what they have read. Thus comprehension occurs. Stress that this might be helpful to everyone.
Assessment: The Rubric, Any of the summaries, Any of the Graphic Organizers, Class participation, Small group participation
Other References: Texts across the curriculum
Special Comments: This unit will be especially helpful to teachers and students across the content areas who are having difficulty reading assignments for information/comprehension. It will teach several strategies that students can use for all informational reading.