Determining Importance

Book List for Determining Importance

The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Rudi’s Pond by Eve Bunting

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy

The Empty Pot by Demi

Several non-fiction books

Determining Importance in Nonfiction

Anchor Chart of Tips for Reading Nonfiction

Think of facts, questions and responses. Write these down as you read. Reading nonfiction takes time. You may have to reread to make sure you

understand. Reread so you don’t forget what you are reading. Reading fiction is like watching a movie. Nonfiction is more like a newscast

or watching a slide show. Stop often and ask yourself if what you are reading makes sense. Important to abbreviate when you take notes. Think before you write. Nonfiction reading is reading to learn something.

Determining Importance Tips from

Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller

Determining Importance at a Glance

What’s Key for Kids

Readers distinguish the differences between fiction and nonfiction. Readers distinguish important from unimportant information in order to

identify key ideas or themes as they read. Readers use their knowledge of narrative and expository text features to

make predictions about text organization and content. Readers utilize text features to help them distinguish important from

unimportant information. Readers use their knowledge of important and relevant parts of text to

answer questions and synthesize text for themselves and others.

Determining Importance Tips from Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey

Chapter 9 Determining Importance in Text: The Nonfiction Connection

{Throughout Stephanie’s education, teachers had instructed her to highlight

the important parts. But no one had shown her how. She assumed that if

the writers of these massive textbooks had written it down, it must be

important. So she highlighted just about every letter of print. Highlighting is

easy; determining what to highlight is the challenge (page 117).|

Stephanie Harvey writes, {Determining Importance means picking out the most

important information when you read, to highlight essential ideas, to isolate

supporting details, and to read for specific information. Teachers need to

help readers sift and sort information, and make decisions about what

information they need to remember and what information they can disregard

(page 117).|

{Readers of nonfiction have to decide and remember what is important in the

texts they read if they are going to learn anything from them. (page 118)|

Debbie Miller says, {We must teach our students what nonfiction is. Teaching

our students that expository text has predictable characteristics and

features they can count on before they read allows them to construct

meaning more easily as they read.|

Nonfiction books are organized around specific topics and main ideas Nonfiction books give you information that is true. Nonfiction books try to teach you something. When readers read nonfiction books they make predictions about the kinds

of things they expect to learn. They activate their schema and the topic and what they know about the type of text they are about to read.

Nonfiction books have features

FQR Chart Facts-Question-Response Chart

The strategy emphasis supports students to ask questions, determine

importance in the text, and respond, voicing their own opinions and thoughts.

Eventually the children will be able to use this response method independently

to read for information in text they have chosen at their own reading level.

The children record factual information, ask questions, and respond to merge

their thinking with the content.

When students have the opportunity to share and explain their own thinking

about text, they learn and remember important information.

Example: {The Comeback of Humpbacks| National Geographic for Kids (Sept 2000)

Facts Question Response

Leaping out of the

water is called

breaching

Is all jumping called

breaching?

30x more than in

1965

WOW! That is a lot. That was a

good comeback.

Humpbacks were

almost gone until a

law was created to

protect humpbacks

I don’t like the hunters using only

one part of the whale.

Reminds me of the white men

wasting the buffalo.

Reading with Meaning, pages 149-150

Identify what the conventions of nonfiction text are and how they help us as readers. Debbie Miller suggests spending one day on each convention. The teacher should bring in examples of at least five places in nonfiction texts that support that convention. Then the children look for the convention and share them with a partner, small group, whole group. It is not enough to identify the convention and purpose, we must also identify how they help us as readers.

Conventions Purpose How they help us as readers

Labels Help the reader identify a picture or photograph and/or its parts.

Photographs Help the reader understand exactly what something looks like.

Captions Help the reader better understand a picture or photograph.

Comparisons Help the reader understand the size of one thing by comparing it to the size of something familiar.

Cutaways Help the reader understand something by looking at it from the inside.

Maps Help the reader understand where things are in the world.

Types of print Help the reader by signaling, {Look at me! I’m important!|

Close-Ups Help the reader see details in something small.

Table of Contents Help the reader identify key topics in the book in the order they are presented.

Index An alphabetical list of almost everything covered in the text, with page numbers.

Glossary Helps the reader define words contained in the text.

List of mini lessons for nonfiction texts Scanning Skimming Accessing the text through the index Using headings and signposts to the information we want Strolling through the pictures in order to orientate ourselves to the

text Not reading the text in order

Accessing the text through the table of contents Reading the picture captions Activating prior knowledge or schema Noting characteristics of text length and structure Noting what type of organizational pattern the text is using Determining what to read in what order Determining what to pay careful attention to Determining what to ignore Deciding to quit because the text contains no relevant information Deciding if text is worth careful reading or just skimming Pay attention to surprising information. It might mean you are learning

something new. Guided Reading the Four Blocks Way, pages 58-62 {What’s for Reading<| {You want the children in your classroom to know that they will read something every day during Guided Reading, and as Guided Reading time approaches, you want them to begin asking themselves {What’s for reading<| Then you want them to know they can take a quick peek at the text and see the kinds of reading they can anticipate. {What’s for reading<| is a previewing technique where the children decide what kind of text they are going to read and what special features that text has.| Reading With Meaning, page 146 Have the students look at nonfiction and fiction texts and determine what are the characteristics of both types of text.

Make a Venn Diagram reflecting what they learned.

FICTION BOTH NONFICTION

Beginning middle end

Setting

Characters

Title

Illustrations

Bold print

Index

Table of contents

Problem

Events

Resolution

Stories

Themes

Pictures

Read from front to

back

They help you learn

They are fun to

read

Words

Photographs

Captions

Headings

Cutaways

Information

Ideas

Amazing facts

Read in any order

Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller (Pages 150-151)

Wonder Boxes - Throughout the study of questioning and nonfiction, ask

the children to place a wonder card or two in a basket. Two or three days

a week, draw one out and search for the answer. Another option is to

generate wonder questions and have the students choose one, then do

research for the answer.

Debbie Miller shows them how to think aloud about certain questions:

What do I already know about the topic? What type of book or other source will help me best? Where will I find the information? How is the information organized in the source? How will I go about

locating what I need?

Wonder Question

What I learned…

Source:

After looking through the source of information ask yourself, {What did I

learn? How can I synthesize my learning for myself and others?

Strategies That Work, pages 134-137

Sifting the Topic from the Details

Topic and details form is effective in allowing for the students to list

essential information but lacked a place for their responses. The third

column for response allows kids to interact with text personally and ensures

that they have a place to record their thoughts, feelings, and questions.

Three Column Notes

Topic Detail Personal Response

Determining Importance in

Non- Fiction Mini- Lessons

Based on Debbie Miller’s Reading With Meaning

Materials Needed: Non-fiction texts about Dinosaurs, Flight, Reptiles, Biographies,

Animals, Cars and Trucks, Magazines, Field Guides, First Discovery Books,

Newspapers, Maps and Atlases, Big Cats, Disasters, and more.

Anchor Charts:

My Wonderings (Day 1)

T Chart-Nonfiction is not…./Non fiction is….. (Day 2)

T Chart-I predict ______/What’s the thinking behind my prediction< (Day 3&4)

Venn Diagram-Fiction/Nonfiction (Day 5) (pg. 146)

Words that Signal I’m Learning Something New

What do we know about nonfiction conventions?

Background Information:

If you have not already spent time learning how readers identify key themes

in stories, make predictions about the stories’ organization, sequence,

content and characters, then take a day review how readers use features

of fiction to distinguish important from unimportant information in stories. Do

not assume that just because children know how to read and understand

fiction that they can read and understand informational books, too. In these

mini-lessons, you will explicitly teach them the difference.

Week 1: Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Day 1

Lay out a sea of nonfiction books about snakes, dolphins, gemstones, sharks,

kittens, puppies, wolves, the ocean, shipwrecks, the human body, flowers,

space, earthquakes, astronauts, cowboys, ballerinas, dinosaurs, soccer, Tiger

Woods, volcanoes, bugs, and big trucks for free exploration and for

something to build on when explicit teaching begins. Capitalize on their

questions, and have them record them on index cards. Either use individuals

Wonder Boxes, or Wonder Envelopes or a class Wonder Jar. You may model

how you {skim| through the books to generate a few questions of your own.

{Why are some twisters small and other’s big<| {How do wolves catch elk<|

{Why is the sky blue<| {Why do dogs have wet noses<| Wrap up this lesson

by explaining that one of the main differences between fiction and non-fiction,

is that non-fiction books give us information that is true.

Day 2

Using the text, Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say, ask {What type of text

do you predict this is<| (Fiction) {Knowing that it’s fiction, how might you

expect the story to be organized<| Listen for: beginning, middle, end, setting,

characters, a problem, events connected to the problem, and a resolution.

Ask children to make some predictions about what the story is going to be

about. {Just as with narrative text, expository text has predictable

characteristics and features you can count on before you read which allows

you to construct meaning more easily as you read.| Now hold up, Bugs! Bugs!

Bugs! by Jennifer Dussling. {What do you notice about this text<| Compliment

them on noticing that this kind of text is organized differently that fiction.

Tell them {you won’t find characters, problems, or resolutions either. Instead,

these kinds of books—you already know them as nonfiction—are organized

around specific topics and main ideas, and they try to teach you something.

Nonfiction writing gives you information that is true. Let’s read it and see

what we can learn…|

Day 3

Talk with children about how they can use what they know about this type

of text to make predictions about its content—what the text might teach

them. Use prior knowledge of fiction story features and fiction content to

teach children to make expectations of nonfiction texts as well. {When

readers read nonfiction, they make predictions about the text, too. But they

don’t make predictions about the kinds of things they will expect to happen,

they make predictions about the kinds of kinds things they expect to learn.

Use a book about spiders to teach children that when reading nonfiction they

will activate their schema and background knowledge to make predictions about

what they’ll learn in nonfiction text and what they know about the type of

text they are about to read.

Day 4

Using two or three other nonfiction texts, make predictions about each

story will teach you based on your schema and what you know already, and

what’s in your mental files about that topic. {I’m predicting that this story

will be about different types of bats in the world, and that maybe I’ll learn

where they live, what they eat, their life cycles, and even which ones are

dangerous to humans. { Features to point out would be the title, the

photographs on the cover, the table of contents, the headings, the index,

explaining how these features help me make predictions about the text. Do

the same with one other book.

Day 5

Ask the students to help you make predictions. Release responsibility by:

Asking children to bring a nonfiction book they haven’t read to the rug,

E2E, K2K with a partner, make predictions about what they expect to

learn

Spreading fiction and nonfiction materials out on the rug, with a

partner, get two or three ask themselves, {Is this fiction or

nonfiction and how do we know<|

Asking children to bring a nonfiction book and a fiction book to the rug,

get into pairs and create a Venn Diagram that shows the two books’

differences and similarities.

We then create one large diagram that combines everyone’s thinking.

Week 2: Conventions Notebooks

Day 6

Begin the lesson by sharing an interesting article from National Geographic or

a book about sharks. Think aloud and share inner voice comments as you

read. After reading the interesting facts, verbalize comments such as

{Wow!|…. {That’s amazing!… {I never knew that!|… {And get this….|…. {I didn’t know

that either.| The point of this lesson is to listen to your inner voice (and

outer voice) …these words signal you’re learning something new. Let students

try it as they want to discover their inner voice, too. Record the words

that help them recognize they’re learning something new on chart paper.

Optional: Record new learning on sticky notes as NL an then just writer the

most important part.

Day 7

Today you will begin Convention Notebooks (CN). For the next 15 days, you will

focus on a different feature of nonfiction text. By focusing on teaching the

features, the children will determine importance and construct meaning by

paying close attention to features such as photographs, diagrams, captions,

and comparisons. Each day you will explicitly teach them what nonfiction

conventions are, what kinds of information these conventions give us, and

how they help us determine what is important in a text. CN will have 12

pieces of blank white paper and you can use the provided cover on cardstock

or students may create their own cover with hand printed title with

construction paper front and back cover. Today students will get CN and add

title. Begin with Comparisons. Search your nonfiction library for 5 or 6 books

that make comparisons, flag the pages with sticky notes, locate the

comparisons and read the surrounding text aloud. But noticing and naming

nonfiction conventions are not enough, also think aloud about how they help

us as readers, think aloud about the purpose of each one. Children can either

find examples from the classroom library or create comparisons of their own,

and record one in their CN. For the example of each feature, students should

record in the CN, write the title of the book where the example is found,

and the page number. Daily, share children’s learning in small groups and record

on a two column anchor chart headed {What do we know about nonfiction

conventions<|

Comparisons – Help the reader understand the size of one thing by

comparing it to the size of something familiar (a scissor is as big as a child’s

hand, p. 153)

Day 8

Labels – Help the reader identify a picture or photograph and/or its parts

Day 9

Photographs – Help the reader understand exactly what something looks like

Day 10

Captions – Help the reader better understand a picture or photograph

Week 3: Convention Notebooks (cont.’d)

Day 11

Cutaways – Help the reader understand something by looking at it from the

inside or from a different, sometimes 3-D, perspective

Day 12

Maps – Help the reader understand where things are in the world

Day 13

Types of Print – Help the reader by signaling, {Look at me! I’m important!|

Day 14

Text Bubbles – Help the reader see what’s important by appearing in a box

or bubble.

Day 15

Close-ups – Help the reader see details in something small

Week 4: Convention Notebooks (cont.’d)

Day 16

Tables of Contents – Help the reader identify key topics in the book in the

order they are presented

Day 17

Index – An alphabetical list of almost everything covered in the text, with

page numbers

Day 18

Glossary – Helps the reader define words contained in the text

Day 19

Pronunciation Parentheses – Helps the reader pronounce difficult words that

help with understanding of the context of the word.

Day 20

Graphs – Help the reader see the important information in a more visually

pictorial way instead of reading the information in a paragraph format.

Convention notebooks not only build background information for text features

that children encounter in their reading, but they also can be used as

resources when they synthesize information in order to research questions.

The notebooks help children think through which conventions would showcase

their information best.

Week 5: Locating Specific Information

Day 21

Throughout this study of questioning and nonfiction, ask children to compile

Wonder Cards in their own Wonder Box or the class Wonder Jar. Every

week, pull one out and model for students how you would search for the

answer. Model what we do when we want to find out specific information.

Show them how to think aloud about certain questions:

What do I already know about the topic?

What type of book or other source will help me best?

Where will I find the information?

How is the information organized in the source? How will I go about

locating what I need?

Then, after I’ve looked through the sources of information:

What did I learn? How can I synthesize my learning for myself and

others?

Nonfiction Journal Prompts Directions:

Read the assigned selection and write a response.

Begin each response with the book title and the date of your journal entry.

Example: Book Title Nov. 2, 2002

Before you read the book . . .

What do you know about the topic before getting started on the book?

What do you want to learn?

Why did you choose this book?

While reading the book . . .

What information surprised you?

How can you use this information in your life?

What information do you question or think might not be correct? How

might you check it out?

What is the most important thing you have learned? Why?

What is the most interesting thing you read?

What techniques does the author use to make this information easy

to understand?

Where do you think you could look for more information on this topic?