MAPS-It Strategy

Project ACCEL, MSU

Read It Strategy Lesson

Lesson, Cuecards and Read-It Log

4. Read-It Strategy Lesson

Read It Strategy Lesson

Cuecards and Read It Log

Read It

A Framework of 4 Strategies that Strategic Readers and Writers Use when they are reading Challenging Expository Text

Summarize (Category and 3-4 details
Question
Clarify
Connect

Purpose:

Make Reading anActive Process of

Interacting with Text (vs. passive)

Reading becomes Search for Understanding – Monitoring
Readers Learn to Regulate Understanding
Using Reading Log to Write down information for later

Read It Strategy Lesson

Cuecards and Read It Log

Read It Strategy Lesson

Cuecards and Read It Log

Prompts to Support Use of Read-It Strategies

Read It Strategy Lesson

Cuecards and Read It Log

Read It Strategy Lesson

Cuecards and Read It Log

Read-It: Partner/Mental Reading and Read-It Log

Objectives

Summarize main ideas and related details
Generate questions
Clarify your thoughts
Generate connections
Predict upcoming information

Materials

Text
Partner
During Reading Log
Any textbook

INTRODUCE Partner/Mental Reading Log

Preview the Lesson

Today I’m going to explain and model a Read It Log and show you how to use it. Effective readers (and writers) use a variety of strategies during and after the learning process. We are going to use 5 during reading strategies that will help you become an effective reader.

Purpose Statement: Introduce Partner/Mental Reading Log

The Read It Log is designed to help you learn and remember five reading strategies while you read or study, alone or with a partner.

These five strategies are (put up overhead): (a) Summarize; (b) Question; (c) Clarify; (d) Connect; and (e) Predict.

Introduce and Describe Partner/Mental Reading Log

Do you remember our Dresser or Closet example? (put up an overhead) Have you ever looked into a messy closet or a messy drawer and you couldn’t find anything?

When you organize your room or desk, you put related things together. You might put all your socks in one drawer to help you organize your things; or in the case of your desk, you might put related papers in a folder or notebook to help you organize and find your work.

Good Readers are Organized

In a similar way, good readers also are organized. In their heads or in written notes, they put related ideas together to make it easier to store, remember, learn, and retrieve things. Sometimes readers do this mentally, and sometimes they make notes to help them store, organize and remember the information. They Organizethe information.

The Read-It log helps you find the organization within and across paragraph. It can help you analyze and remember information. It can help you study for a test, such as in social studies and science. It offers a system for labeling, storing, and putting related ideas together. When it is completely filled out, it helps you in four ways.

First, in the first two columns, you can see notes relating to the main idea categories and details of a chapter or section. That is your summary of the important ideas in the chapter.

Section, in the question column (with the question mark on the person’s head), you will write questions that you can ask yourself when you study for a test. Sometimes the answer to those questions will appear in the first two columns. So it is a good way to study for the test by self-testing and self-questioning yourself over the information. You can also ask text structure questions to get at deeper meanings and help you understand the information more completely.

In the third column, you will be able to clarify new vocabulary or ideas that you do not understand or are not clearly explained. You will be able to ask others the meaning of those words or ideas.

In the fourth column, you are going to try to connect the ideas to what you already know from other books, chapters, yourself, and the world.

Finally, you predict what you will read next.

We are going to review these five strategies and try them out with a partner. You’ll share your part with a larger study group. Then we’ll discuss them as a class.

1. Summarize : Topic and 3-4 details – What is this text all about?

The first two columns on your log is your summary area. You are going to determine what a portion of the text is mostly about. It’s the category or main idea of a small chunk of text, such as a paragraph. If we were thinking about the example of the dresser drawer, the main category is the label that we would put on front of the drawer to tell us what is in the drawer – and what we can put in the drawer. That label tells what’s inside or what is special about those items. The summary is a short statement/word for a set of related ideas.

Strategy Rationale for Summary Strategy:

Good readers are always looking for clues in the passage that help them know what the text is about. Good readers try to identify the main topic. This is the main idea or summary label. Sometimes the author will give you a clue in a subheading. The author might put words in bold. At other times, you might find several words in a paragraph that refer to the same thing. Good readers are always searching for clues and asking themselves: “What is this passage or paragraph mostly about?” “What is the category that tells what this is about?” When we read, we act like reading detectives who sift through the sets of ideas to identify the label for the ideas in each paragraph. We search for the organization by reading and rereading the details and figuring out the main ideas and categories that the author has used.We’re uncovering the author’s map of main ideas and details. If we don’t find one, we’ll use the clues to invent our own. The picture at the top of the Summarize column is a symbol to remind you to organize the paragraphs as you would organize the file folders or objects in a cabinet or dresser drawer.

Discuss HOW to summarize

Sometimes the author gives you a clue to help you identify the main idea category. The author will repeat words or statement. That help tells you that it is important.

Sometimes the author will use words like ‘types’, ‘parts’, ‘topics’, or ‘numbers’ to help you know what it is important to know. For example, an author might say there are four parts … Then you listen for the four parts or the details related to those parts. As an example, the author might say ‘types’ of clouds’, or ‘types of storms’. Or the author might say that a person accomplished ‘four outcomes’ during their presidency. Then you read or listen for those things. The category would be called “Types of _____” or “Parts of a ______”. The details would be the instances, types of parts.

Sometimes the author puts several important ideas in a piece of text rather than a single main idea. For example, a social studies textbook author might talk about a particular country’s climate and provide several details about the climate in the same paragraph where he provides several details about plants and trees. Then you record both ideas, ‘climate’ and ‘plant life’ as main ideas in separate categories. So if a category is too big, we break it into two smaller main ideas.

Sometimes the author doesn’t provide any clues but details. Then you read through the clues and ask what do all the details have in common? What are the details mostly about?

Model. Make an overhead of a section of the text. Model and think-aloud as you guide students in identifying the main idea for sections of the text. Think aloud as you identify topics based on headings, subheadings, repeated words, bold or italicized texts, and captions. Point out the clues you use to identify possible topics. Read through the details in the paragraph, and model how you infer the main idea category from the details. Articulate your thinking. Show students how to identify and search for the main idea in your think-aloud. You can highlight the main ideas and later transfer the main ideas to the Reading Log (overhead), or summarize the main ideas immediately. Discuss types of clues you use to identify details and summarize.

1. Think aloud as you look for and point out cue words and phrases that identify main ideas

Numbered ideas

Words such as kinds, types, sections, parts

Note the big ideas around key words, e.g., “Parts of an ant”. “Types of storms”

2. Look for fonts and print clues that signal important ideas

Bold-faced type

Italicized type

Underlined words

Color print

Bullets

3. Invent a main idea or category when none is provided or identify two main ideas when the information in a section of text is too broad and has too many details. Ask yourself – What is this mostly about?

What’s the big idea or theme?

Are there two or more details about that idea?

4. Model the self-questions that you ask yourself

Does this main idea represent the most important idea?

Is this main idea supported by several details?

What main idea label or category best describes these details?

Read It Strategy Lesson

Cuecards and Read It Log

Strategy Rationale for Adding Details:

Good readers are also looking for details that support the main idea. This helps them comprehend by remembering the important information. Good readers are always searching for details by asking themselves: “What is this passage or paragraph mostly about? What details provide information about this subtopic or main idea”?

Related details give specific and important facts about the main idea or subtopic. They support the main idea. They provide bits or pieces of information that are related to the main idea or summary.

To identify details, listen or read. Ask yourself, does the idea provide more information about the main idea? Is it an example, fact, or detail that gives supporting information to the summary

Distinguish important details from what’s interesting. Is it an important or critical idea to remember? Does it provide additional information that helps me understand the summary?

Details may include:

Words in a list or series

Different print styles (bolded, italicized, underlined text)

Words that follow cue words, e.g., If it says “parts of ….”, then the details are the parts that follow.



Model. Make an overhead of a section of the text.

Model and think-aloud as you guide students in identifying the details related to the summary for . Think aloud as you identify main ideas (Category/Topic column) and 3-4 details that support the summary. Point out the clues you use to identify details. Articulate your thinking. You can underline the details in a different color and highlight main ideas or record main ideas in the margins. If students have a copy of the text, they can underline and highlight too. Later they can dictate the ideas as you transfer the summary and details to the Reading Log (overhead).

Guided Practice/Partner Read and Partner Share

Ask students to work with a partner to fill out the Summarize columns on their Read It Log. Tell them to explain their reasoning for choosing the category/topic and detail columns. Tell them that they should be prepared to explain their decisions and reasons to others.

Pair-Share.

Ask students to work and share with a partner. Students should talk about what they have generated. Each should fill out their Summarize column.

Class-Share.

Ask students to share some of their ideas. Record their responses in the second row (and more) of the Reading Log. Talk about this as a strategy. Discuss differences and reasons. Explain that this is a tool to help them study and learn the material.

As closure, ask Students to look back at the first two columns and provide a succinct summary that includes the topic + 4-5 related details. The summary might take the form of: …. The topic of this section is ______, and the text explained that detail 1 , detail 2 , detail 3 , and detail 4 .

The summary answers the question: What did you learn about the topic?

How does summarizing help you study and learn the information?

Can you summarize if you do not have the Read It! Log? How?

When would you summarize?

Question: Big Idea – My question about this topic is……….?

Strategy Rationale for Question Strategy:

When you read, a second important strategy is to read toask questions and find the answers to question. Questionsare very important, because they help you find answers that are interesting or important. It helps you know when the author has answered your questions, and when you need to read further to get the answers to your questions. The act of asking questions is a good way to check to see if you understand the material. If you read the question column, for example, it should help you self-test to prepare for a test. College students use this strategy all the time to prepare to learn the material for their college classes.

Good readers also ask questions while they read in order to check their understanding. When they do not understand the material, the reread.

Finally, good readers read between the lines to ask text structure questions. The text structures have little symbols at the bottom of the page to help you remember the various text structures. Across several paragraphs, for example, you might find that the author has organized categories as you might in a concept map or classification scheme. The author might have presented information within several sections (or across chapters) that lend themselves to compare/contrast. For example, you might compare or contrast the Greeks and the Romans (social studies), or mammals and birds (science).

Good readers record the questions they have. In this log, we are going to record several types of question.

Questions about the Main Idea/Category Questionstion n

One type of question is about the main idea or category. In this case, you simply look back at the category topic, and turn that idea into a question using one of the question words, such as “What, When, Where, How, Why” (point out question words near the bottom of the page). For example (refer back to the summarize rows and model for first row) “My question about this topic is ______” . When I answer that question, I might find the answer in the detail columns.

Questions about the Text Structure

When questioning the text you should also try to generate questions using text structure. These are deeper types of questions that help us understand the information across sections, chapters, and paragraphs of the book. We can look at information and ask questions based on the types of patterns that authors and readers use to organize the information.

The common types of text structures are as follows:

Type / Organization / Description / Keywords
Problem/Solution /

/ There is a problem and it gets solved through specific actions or attempts / Problem, solution, solve, dilemma
Venn Diagram / / Alike/Differences between two or more people or things / Alike, similar, both, different, contrast, unlike, similarly, differently, however,
Classification/List / / A list or classification of items or topics, such as the parts of an animal or plant, or a taxonomy. Order is not important. / First, second, third, fourth, type, example
Position / / The positions or multiple perspectives of different People on an issue / Position, viewpoint, perspective, argument, debate, agree, disagree
Sequence / Steps in Process
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th / The sequential steps of a process, in which the order of steps is important in achieving a particular result. / First, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.

Look back at the information in the map and text. Even if the author doesn’t organize his or her information in this way, we can read the text and infer these relationships and patterns.