investigating informational texts - arareading - home · · 2012-11-03what is a strategy?...
TRANSCRIPT
Investigating Informational
Texts presented by:
Lisa Bailey
Literacy Coordinator SEAESC
and
Karen Robinson
Literacy/Math Facilitator
Monticello School District
Nonfiction vs. Informational
There is no difference between nonfiction books and informational books. Like “true books,” “real books,” and” reality books” (my personal favorite), they are titles in which the content is 100 percent true and verifiable. That’s it. It’s really simple.
Nonfiction vs. Informational
• Nonfiction (or any other name we might choose to use) includes books about science and history and math and the Arts. It includes biographies and how-to books, radio interviews and documentaries, newsletters and newspaper articles. And it includes materials that express personal truths–letters, journals, speeches, memoirs, personal essays, and opinion pieces.
• The good news is that Common Core’s definition of nonfiction/information text is broad as well as rigorous. So you can use it with confidence.
Essential Questions
• How do we help students with the struggles associated with informational text?
• What role do reading strategies play in comprehension?
• What is close reading? How is it used in the classroom?
“Struggling readers can do the
same thing as strong readers, but
they need more help, more
support, and more scaffolding to
perform in this way.”
Dr. Judith Irvin
Classroom Implications for
Informational Reading
• CCSS K-5 Teachers need to spend at
least as much time reading and studying
informational texts with their students as
they do reading and studying fiction.
• CCSS 6-12 Teachers need to spend
MORE time reading and studying
informational texts with their students as
they do reading and studying fiction.
Classroom Implications for
Informational Reading
• Both literature and nonfiction reading need
to be based on:
Careful modeling
Guided practice
Lots of Discussion
Opportunities for reading-based writing
Beginning
End
What strategies are used by proficient readers?
I see how it
all fits!!
Five things proficient readers do
when processing informational text:
• Preview the text
• Use prior knowledge, sense of purpose,
and questions to screen the information
they read
• Pay attention to text patterns
• Organize knowledge
• Paraphrase and summarize and/or reread
Narrative Structure vs. Expository Structure
Unfortunately reading informational
text differs significantly from reading
narrative text, and the lessons
students learn while reading,
discussing, and writing about stories
do not necessarily transfer to
nonfiction reading.
What’s the big idea?
BIG Ideas in Nonfiction
• Purpose
• Intention
• Motivation
• Bias
• Viewpoint
• Credibility
• Reliability
• Craft
What is a strategy?
Strategy – an over all plan that requires
higher levels of reasoning and is
flexible in application
Previewing Strategies (Use BEFORE Reading)
THIEVES
SQ3R
Chunking
DRTA
Read Aloud
Think Aloud
Looking for Clues
• Captions
• Labels
• Graphics
• Images
• Font
• Color
• Layout
• TOC
• Glossary
• Headings
Convention Purpose How it Helps
Caption Information directly relating to a photo
or illustration
Tells me what to focus on in the
picture that is important
Comparison Show size relationship between two or
more objects of ideas
Helps me take something familiar to
show how it relates or compares
with something new
Close-Up A smaller more detailed section of the
larger photo or illustration
It allows me to see inside or a
smaller part of a large area so we
can understand it in a more detailed
way
Table of
Contents
Located in the front of the book to
share a list of key topics or chapter in
which the book addresses in the order
in which they appear in the text
It allows me to see the chapters and
topics and know exactly what pages
they are on so I can get to the
information I need in the quickest
way.
Glossary
Index
Cutaways
Print Size
Informational Text Structure
• Informational texts do not follow the same
structures as literature.
• Informational texts draw on different kinds
of background knowledge than literary
texts.
• Informational texts are designed to be
remembered and used.
Investigating Text Structures (Use DURING Reading)
• Description
• Compare/Contrast
• Cause and Effect
• Chronology/Sequence
• Procedural
• Persuasive
• Question/Answer
• Problem/Solution
Look for Text Clues
Text Clues Point the Way…
Text Structure & Clue Words
For instance For example Furthermore
Such as Also
To begin with Most important
Also In fact
In addition And to
illustrate
Since Because
This led to On account of
Due to As a result of
For this reason Consequentially Then…so… Therefore
thus
In like manner Likewise Similar to
The difference between
As opposed to After all However And yet
But Nevertheless On the other
hand
One reason for the…
A solution A problem
Where The question is One answer is
Recommendations include
How When What Next Why Who
How many The best estimate
It could be that One may conclude
Until Before After Finally Lastly
First…last… Now…then On (date) At (time)
First, second Meanwhile
Not long after initially
Description/ Hierarchical List
Cause & Effect
Compare/ Contrast
Problem/ Solution
Question & Answer
Sequence
Helping the Struggling Reader
Develop a list of problem-solving questions to
guide students.
• How does the information seem to be arranged?
• Is there an organizer that best matches the text’s
organization?
• What cueing words should I look for?
• What’s the important information to write on the
organizer?
• Does my completed organizer adequately summarize
the reading?
Graphic Organizers help
students to:
• Represent abstract ideas in more
concrete forms.
• Depict the relationships among facts
and concepts.
• Organize ideas.
• Store and recall information.
Organizing DURING Reading
It has been shown that
explicitly engaging students in
the creation of graphic
organizers stimulates and
increases activity in the brain.
Graphic Organizers
• Topic Description
• Compare Contrast
• Sequence
• Problem/Solution
• Cause/Effect
• Position/Opinion
Topic Description
Topic
Subtopic
Subtopic Subtopic
Subtopic Subtopic
Comparison/Contrast
Attributes of A Attributes of B
Attributes of both
A and B
Sequences
First Event
Next Event
Last Event
Problem/Solution
Possible
Solution
Possible
Solution
Possible
Solution
Problem
Cause/Effect
Effect
Effect
Effect
Cause
Position or Opinion
Reason # 1 Reason # 3 Reason # 2
Conclusion
• a personal statement • a prediction • a summary
End
Mid
dle
B
egin
nin
g
Why the Strategy is Beneficial
Providing students with visual
organizers that mirror the text helps
them to learn to manage information.
The ability to reason while reading
helps proficient readers focus on and
work through difficult passages or
areas of a text.
Becoming Text “Wise”
Teaching students how to
recognize and represent the
organizational patterns commonly
used by authors can significantly
influence students’ learning and
comprehension.
Palinstar, Ogle, Carr,
Making Inferences (Knowledge in your head + clues in the text)
Using what they know about the clue
words and the structure of the text,
students can write a sentence stating what they
think the main idea of the passage may be.
These statements may be revised, confirmed, or
rejected and then turned into questions to be
answered during reading. When students make
these types of inferences, they are setting a
purpose for reading.
Additional Visual Organizers
• Concept Maps
• T-Notes/Cornell Notes
Concept Map
Concept Map
T-Notes/Cornell Notes
T-Notes/Cornell Notes
T-Notes/Cornell Notes
“Good readers think not only
after reading, but also before,
and especially during reading.”
Harvey Silver
Gaining Information Through
Questioning
Before Reading
Listing Questions
Categorizing Questions
During Reading
• Knowing When You Know and Knowing When You Don’t
• Gaining Information Through Questioning
After Reading
• Using Questions to Expand Thinking
Knowing When You Know and
When You Don’t
Monitoring comprehension to clarify
confusion or answer questions about the
text is essential.
Questioning That Leads to
Expanded Thinking
• Record questions as you read
• Answer questions as you read
• Discuss questions and answers
• Discuss unanswered questions. Where
might these answers be found?
Synthesizing Information
“Synthesizing involves merging new information with existing knowledge to create an original idea, see a new perspective, or form a new line of thinking to achieve insight.”
Stephanie Harvey
Synthesizing While Reading
Expository Text
• Read the passage
• Reread and bracket important information
• Attach sticky notes
• Write the most important information from
inside the brackets in your own words on
your sticky notes.
• Use the sticky notes to help process what
you have read.
Synthesizing Information
Synthesizing While Reading Informational
Text
Make Comparisons in Science and Social
Studies
Read for the Gist
Synthesize/Summarize
AFTER Reading
“Research has demonstrated that
making students aware of the specific
structure in informational text helps
them to summarize that information.”
Armbruster, Anderson,and Astertag,
Paraphrasing
• Paraphrasing provides an opportunity for readers to process what they have read by organizing and explaining it to others in their own words.
• Paraphrasing causes student to identify crucial points and support information.
• It also reinforces sequencing since it demands remembering information, events, and processes.
• It encourages interacting with the text from a variety of perspectives: their own, their audience’s, and the author’s.
Writing to Learn
Using the graphic organizers associated
with text patterns, students can produce a
“blue print” for writing their paper.
Express Writing
(Bellringers)
Social Studies Topics:
In what ways has technology created a
global economy?
Do individual rights outweigh the rights of
groups?
Why should you vote?
Slips
Exit slips provide open feedback or have them use a stem such as the following:
– Today I learned . . . .
– I don’t understand . . . .
– I would like to learn more about . . . .
– I need help with . . . .
– A question I have is . . . .
– Please explain more about . . . .
– The most important thing I learned today is . . . .
– Three things I learned today are . . . .
– The thing that surprised me today was . . . .
– I am still confused about . . . .
– I wish . . . .
– The best part of class today was . .
Reading for the Gist
• Activate Comprehension Strategies
• Take Notes as You Read
• Write a Response in Your Own Words
RAFTS
• a Role from which to write
• an Audience to address
• a Format in which to write
• a Topic about which to write
• a Strong verb that states the purpose of
the writing
“We do not teach the brain to
think.
We can help learners to
organize content to facilitate
more complex processing.”
Dr. David Sousa
Close Reading
Close reading isn’t in the Common Core State Standards. However, an analysis of the Common Core State Standards really says you’ve got to learn the text well. The Common Core State Standards require that students provide evidence and justification for their answers. The only way we know how students can do this - that they really learn to provide evidence and justification - is if they closely read.
What is close reading?
Close reading is having students encounter the text first, without any kind of pre-teaching or any kind of frontloading… maybe pointing out a couple of really complex words… but really letting students encounter that text the first time, inviting them to read that text, asking them some text-dependent questions - which might be about the key details, the general understanding, the structure, the vocabulary, the author’s purpose - but inviting them back into that text several times.
What does close reading look like?
• Close reading involves reading with a pencil – taking notes as they read.
• It’s an ongoing and recursive process where students go back to the text based on the questions they ask or are asked by the teacher – including inferencing questions - where students go back to the text to look for evidence and really grasp a deep level of understanding of that text.
What does close reading look like?
Close reading can be seen as four separate levels of attention which we can bring to the text.
• Linguistic reading is largely descriptive. We are noting what is in the text and naming its parts for possible use in the next stage of reading.
• Semantic reading is cognitive. That is, we need to understand what the words are telling us – both at a surface and maybe at an implicit level.
• Structural reading is analytic. We must assess, examine, sift, and judge a large number of items from within the text in their relationships to each other.
• Cultural reading is interpretive. We offer judgments on the work in its general relationship to a large body of cultural material outside it.
Close Reading Check List
• Grammar The relationships of the words in sentences
• Vocabulary The author’s choice of individual words
• Figures of speech The rhetorical devices used to give decoration and imaginative expression to literature, such as simile or metaphor
• Literary devices The devices commonly used in literature to give added depth to the work, such as imagery or symbolism
• Tone The author’s attitude to the subject as revealed in the manner of the writing
• Style The author’s particular choice and combination of all these features of writing which creates a recognizable and distinctive manner of writing
Essential Questions
• How do we help students with the
struggles associated with non-fiction text?
• What role do reading strategies play in
comprehension?
• What is close reading? How is it used in
the classroom?
Resources
• Teaching Reading in the Content Areas;
Billmeyer & Barton
• Classroom Instruction That Works; Marzano,
Pickering & Pollock
• Reading Strategies for the Social Studies
Classroom; Dr. Judith Irvin
• Discovering Nonfiction; Silver, Strong & Perini
• How the Brain Learns; Dr. David Sousa
• Project CRISS; Santa, Havens & Maycumber
• Nonfiction Craft Lessons; Portalupi & Fletcher