Benefits of Using the Strategy: Reading for Meaning

Reading for Meaning

Benefits of using the strategy: Reading for Meaning

1. Text complexity-Reading for Meaning helps students to extract meaning from even the most rigorous texts.

2. Evidence-provides direct, supported training in how to find, assess, and use relevant textual evidence

3. The core skills of reading-helps teachers build and assess the exact skills that the Common Core identifies as crucial to students’ success, including identifying main ideas, making inferences, and supporting interpretations with evidence.

Steps for the strategy: Reading for Meaning

1. Pick a short text, poem, article, blog post, primary document, math word problem, data chart that you want students to “read for meaning.”

2. Develop a list of statements about the text. Students will ultimately search the text for evidence that supports or refutes each statement.

3. Introduce the text and preview the statements before they begin reading. Have students think about what they already know and make some predictions.

4. Have students record evidence for or against each statement while (or after) they read.

5. Students discuss their evidence in pairs or small groups. Groups should be able to come to a consensus about what statements are supported or refuted by the text.

6. Conduct whole-class discussion in which students clarify their thinking and call their attention to evidence that they might have missed or misinterpreted.

7. Use students’ responses to evaluate their understanding of the reading and their ability to support a position with evidence.

As you plan for the strategy: Reading for Meaning

Ask the following questions as you begin to plan:

1. What standards will be addressed?

2. What article, document or passage needs emphasis and intensive analysis?

3. What themes, main ideas, and details do my students need to discover?

4. What thought-provoking statements can I present to my students before they begin reading to focus and engage their attentions?

5. What kind of hook, or attention-grabbing questions can I create to capture the students’ attention?

6. What questions about the content or the process can I develop to engage my students in a discussion though the lesson and after the reading?

Reference: The Core Six by Silver, Dewing, Perini

Eyes of an Immigrant

The musty, foul smelling

Boat rocks

The room is dim

And silent

Everyone is waiting

For the shores of Ellis Island

They hope to have a new life

Start over in America

The room awakens

When the captain yells

"Land ahead"

Everyone cheers

I see the gleaming copper Statue of Liberty

I can smell the fresh salty air

My heart is filled with optimism

My dreams are so close to coming true

But the same cannot be said for others

Some are sent back for illness

Or not enough money

Or no ride

They send you back

To that hopeless land

Back on the dim boat

Where dreams once lived but now are lost

Yet others are let through

To the country of America

Where a better life awaits

Filled with hope

In the land of opportunity

I smile a happy smile

I am almost there

Eyes of an Immigrant

Conditions on ships coming to America were suitable for passengers.

Support / Refute

Immigrants were starry eyed and optimistic about coming to America.

Support / Refute

Deportation is a real concern for those entering America.

Support / Refute