Talk:Appropriate Meaning-Making Strategies/ Forms for Critical analysis for understanding Text and Novels/@comment-28516457-20160522082225

In my experience in the last couple years as a teacher, I have learned a few strategies for teaching to students how to make appropriate meaning from texts and novels. One of the first things I think is important is to activate student’s background knowledge. By asking students certain questions to see what they know, you are not only finding out what they know, but also cuing them in for what they may be learning next. This also allows students to connect the background knowledge with any new information they will be learning (text to text, text to self, text to world). I also like to use Writing in the Margins and Marking the Text.

Writing in the Margins, students write notes (sticky notes) on the side of the text with a question, note or comment.

Marking the text, students will use different colored highlighters/pencils, or simply a pencil. As they read, they mark the text differently to indicate and show different things. You may have students circle or highlight the subject, then underline or highlight with a different color the importance of the subject. Or circle a new word/concept and underline/highlight the supporting information or definition for the concept. This can be done in multiple ways.

   Other strategies to include while reading for students to understand would be to have students visualize, summarize, clarify, connect, respond, and question. All these strategies are also taught for AVID critical reading strategies.

Visualize what the author is saying then draw and illustrate in margin.

Summarize the paragraphs or section to keep track of important information.

Clarify complex ideas by analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information (define key terms, reread sections of text, connect ideas in text and summarize)

Connect their reading with their own life and to the world.

Respond to ideas as they read (interesting ideas, emotional arguments, provocative statements, author’s claims, facts, and data).

Question the ideas in the text and their own understanding. (Determine whether this is important, how does it connect, do they agree/disagree).

A few great pages to go to find out more are the following:

http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/st_read2.html

https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=85

http://www.smusd.org/cms/lib3/CA01000805/Centricity/Domain/1674/Annotating%20Text.pdf

Or one can attend different trainings on these skills, one being AVID institute, which is pretty awesome. I have learned many of these strategies by attending a few of these seminars and from being at a school that really tries to incorporate these and other learning strategies they have incorporated.



<p class="MsoNormal">Reading Strategies such as  SDAIE have also worked well with struggling readers.