considerations for teaching students to determine ......main idea “finding the main idea has never...

ConsiderationsforTeachingStudentsto

DETERMINEIMPORTANCEAND

TheChildren’sLearningIns?tuteatTheUniversityofTexasHealthScienceCenteratHouston©2015TexasEduca?onAgency/TheUniversityofTexasSystem 1

IDENTIFYMAINIDEA

MainIdea

“Findingthemainideahasneverbeenfunformoststrugglingreaders.Theyhavebeenaskedtofinditcountless?mesandhaveproducedinadequateanswers.”

(Zwiers,210,pp.31-32)TheChildren’sLearningIns?tuteatTheUniversityofTexasHealthScienceCenteratHouston

©2015TexasEduca?onAgency/TheUniversityofTexasSystem 2

MainIdea

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Themainideacanusuallybestatedinonesentence.Themainideasentenceincludes•  thetopicand•  theimportantinformationthatissaidaboutthetopic.

ToolsforDeterminingImportance

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©2015TexasEduca?onAgency/TheUniversityofTexasSystem 4

ScantheText,No?ceTextFeaturesandStructure

Goodreaders•  no?cethelengthofthetext,•  no?cetextfeaturesthathavebeenincludedtosupportthereadingofthetext,

•  lookforsignalwordsandorganizationwhichindicatetextstructure,and

•  thinkaboutwhatthetextappearstobeabout.

TheChildren’sLearningIns?tuteatTheUniversityofTexasHealthScienceCenteratHouston©2015TexasEduca?onAgency/TheUniversityofTexasSystem 5

UseBackgroundKnowledgeandMakePredic?ons

Goodreaders•  makeconnec?onstobackgroundknowledgeifthetopicisfamiliar,

•  makeconnec?onstorelatedtopicsandconceptsifthetopicisunfamiliar(e.g.Springthaw…icecubesmelting),and

•  makepredictionsaboutthetext.

TheChildren’sLearningIns?tuteatTheUniversityofTexasHealthScienceCenteratHouston©2015TexasEduca?onAgency/TheUniversityofTexasSystem 6

SetaPurposeforReading

Goodreadersidentifyapurposeforreading.–  TeacherComprehensionPurposeQues?on

–  StudentComprehensionPurposeQuestion:•  Relyon?tlesorheadings•  Reviewtestques?ons•  Considerpredic?ons•  Consider,“WhatdoIwanttolearnfromreadingthistext?”

TheChildren’sLearningIns?tuteatTheUniversityofTexasHealthScienceCenteratHouston©2015TexasEduca?onAgency/TheUniversityofTexasSystem 7

BeforeReadingDemonstra?on

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BeforeReadingDemonstra?on

CPQ:Whatchangesoccurinanecosystem?

TheChildren’sLearningIns?tuteatTheUniversityofTexasHealthScienceCenteratHouston

Think

Turn

Talk

Howmightthinkingaloudbeforereadinghelpyourstudents?Howmightyouusethischecklistwithstudents?

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YourTurn

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Usethes?ckynotestorecordwhatyouwillsayinyourthink-aloudbeforereading.

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©2015TexasEduca?onAgency/TheUniversityofTexasSystem