Reading Strategies Instructions

READING STRATEGIES INSTRUCTIONS
What Is a 3 - 2 - 1?
The idea is to give students a chance to summarize some key
ideas, rethink them in order to focus on those that they are
most intrigued by, and then pose a question that can reveal
where their understanding is still uncertain. Often, teachers
use this strategy in place of the usual worksheet questions on
a chapter reading, and when students come to class the next
day, you're able to use their responses to construct an
organized outline, to plot on a Venn diagram, to identify
sequence, or isolate cause-and-effect. The students are into it
because the discussion is based on the ideas that they found,
that they addressed, that they brought to class.
How Does It Work?

Students fill out a 3-2-1 chart with something like this:
3 Things You Found Out

2 Interesting Things
1 Question You Still Have
Now, that's just the suggested version. Depending upon what

you're teaching, you can modify the 3-2-1 anyway you want.
For instance, if you've just been studying the transition from
feudalism to the rise of nation-states, you might have
students write down 3 differences between feudalism and
nation-states, 2 similarities, and 1 question they still have.
Got A Version I Can Print Out?

But of course! You can download and print a version of a
blank 3-2-1 chart and the generic version as described above.
They are both on the same sheet; you can copy and cut them
into half-sheets.
Strategies for Reading Comprehension
Vocabulary Word Maps
What Is It?
A vocabulary word map is a visual organizer that helps students engage with and think about
new terms or concepts in several ways.
How Does It Work?

The new term goes in the middle of the map. Students fill in the rest of the map with a definition,
synonyms, antonyms, and a picture to help illustrate the new concept.
Help Me Visualize A Vocabulary Word Map.

Got a good graphic for me?
Venn Diagrams
[with thanks to Father John Venn]
What Is a Venn Diagram?
Venn Diagrams have been around a long time. We borrow them from the field of math,
but their application to all subjects is pretty well-established now. They are a visual
representation of the similarities and differences between concepts. Created by overlapping two
(or three) ovals, students record features or characteristics of the concepts in the respective
ovals, making sure that any shared characteristics are written in the overlapping portion of the
ovals.
What's the Use?

The value of the Venn diagram is in the "doing" of it. They are for us simply a graphic organizer,
in this case one whose purpose is to help structure the way students thinkabout the similarities
and differences between concepts. They work best when we have the students completing
them, not when the teachers are doing it for them. Students are already able to compare things,
because they do it all the time: they compare clothes, they compare movies and TV shows, they
compare musical artists, they compare parents, they compare boyfriends and girlfriends. It's not
that they lack the capacity to compare. What we want to do as teachers is to channel and
support their thoughtful consideration of important similarities and differences.
How Do I Teach Them?

You can and should model how you want them to use the Venn, but you should also move
quickly to putting the task into their hands. Chances are the strategy is not new to the students.
Even kindergartners use Venn diagrams; I've seen many creative uses of hullahoops
overlapping on the floor that these youngsters then place cards or pictures in. But still you
should keep it simple at first. What MAY be new to students is your request of them that THEY
complete the Venn diagram instead of merely copying what you put on the overhead or front
board. [Remember: the value of the Venn is in the doing of it!] This means they need to first be
able to identify significant characteristics of the topics or concepts (see some of the other
stratregies, such as selective underlining/highlighting, or consider the usefulness of Post It notes
for text reading selections).
Early on, use familiar topics (for instance, at the beginning of the year, have students pair up
and complete a Venn diagram on the similarities and differences between the partners). Or pick
a popular topic, fad, event, and so on. Keep pushing them to note significant traits or attributes
of topics; keep the focus on how to compare them. As students begin producing their own Venn
diagrams, DO NOT fall into the trap of thinking there is a right Venn and a wrong one. (The
worst thing I can imagine happening is that you let students create their own, and then tell them
you're putting the "correct" on the overhead!) Judge them on how well they selected out key
characteristics and whether they can justify the classification of similarities and difference.
What Are Some Social Studies Topics for Comparing?

It is an endless list, but consider having students compare regions of the state or country;
economic features of the North and South before the Civil War; Washington, Jefferson, and
Lincoln; terrorist versus freedom fighter; capitalism vs. communism vs. traditional economies;
branches of government; political parties; US invasion of Iraq vs. Russian invasion of Chechnya
(or Georgia); national vs. state vs. local government; or CIA vs. FBI.
Download and Print:

Venn Diagram Venn Diagram
for 2 Items for 3 Items
Venn Diagram Venn Diagram

with summary (Rotated)
blanks
Venn Venn
Variation #1 Variation #2
Something for the fun of it, if you need some time to kill: a humorous collection of possible Venn
diagrams from Frank Sparrow's Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frank-
sparrow/. Please note: I'm not promising that all of them are appropriate!
tegies for Reading Comprehension
Three-Minute Pause
[as modeled by Jay McTighe]
What Is a Three-Minute Pause?

At a wonderful workshop on the backwards design planning
process (as suggested by Ralph Tyler and further developed
by Grant Wiggins), Jay McTighe incorporated a Three-Minute
Pause as a break in large sections of content. The Three-
Minute Pause provides a chance for students to stop, reflect
on the concepts and ideas that have just been introduced,
make connections to prior knowledge or experience, and seek
clarification.
How Does It Work?

1) Summarize Key Ideas Thus Far. The teacher instructs
students to get into groups (anywhere from three to five
students, usually). Give them a total of three minutes for the
ENTIRE process. First, they should focus in on the key points
of the lesson up to this point. It's a way for them to stop to
see if they are getting the main ideas.
2) Add Your Own Thoughts. Next, the students should

consider prior knowledge connections they can make to the
new information. Suggested questions: What connections can
be made? What does this remind you of? What would round
out your understanding of this? What can you add?
3) Pose Clarifying Questions. Are there things that are still

not clear? Are there confusing parts? Are you having trouble
making connections? Can you anticipate where we're headed?
Can you probe for deeper insights?
Why Should I Take the Time for a 3-Minute Pause?

It depends on how much "stuff" you want students to be
thinking about before they get a chance to process the new
information. If you don't want to have to keep reteaching
information, then you should give your students time to think
about, make sense of, organize, and reflect on their learning.
The Three-Minute Pause is a perfect bridge, a chance for
students to consolidate and clarify their emerging
understanding, before you move on to teach more new ideas
or concepts. It's simple, straightforward, productive, efficient,
and instantly useful.
The Three-Minute Pause has been around for a while, and it's
taken a lot of different forms. This version of it I wish to
credit to Jay McTighe. He is the co-author, with Grant
Wiggins, of the well-regarded Understanding By Design,
published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
ABC Brainstorm

What Is An ABC Brainstorm?

Before having your students talk about a major topic, it's essential to activate their background
knowledge about it. One way to do this is the ABC Brainstorm. The idea is meant to be fairly
simple. Students try to think of a word or phrase associated with the topic, matched to each
letter of the alphabet.
How Does It Work?

Have students list all the letters of the alphabet down a sheet of paper (or use the printable ABC
Brainstorm sheet available through ReadingQuest), leaving room beside each letter to write out
the rest of a word or phrase. Let them work individually at first, thinking of as many words as
they can that could be associated with the topic you identify. Do note: The topic should be big
and general enough that students can actually think of a lot of possible terms. Then, in no
particular order, let them begin filling in the blanks beside each letter of the alphabet. For
instance, if the topic were World War II, students might list Allies, Bombers, Concentration
Camps, Dachau, Europe,French Resistance, Germany, Hitler, Italy, Japan, and so on.
It seems to work well if you give students enough time to think of a lot of ideas, but then let them
pair up or work in small groups to fill in blanks for letters they had not yet completed. In this way,
you can let the brainstorming function like a Think-Pair-Share. This would be the "Pair" phase.
Then, go around the room or get students to report out ("Share") possible terms for the different
letters of the alphabet. Be open to a wide range of possibilities! Make sure students know that
you're not looking for exact answers, just justifiable and relevant ones.
What Sorts of Topics Are Good for an ABC Brainstorm?

I say, keep it more broad and relevant. Topics like government, Islam, war (or a specific war),
the Great Depression, or a broad geographical region are probably pretty fertile for an ABC
Brainstorm. Topics previously studied, about which students know much, can be good recap
brainstorms. This might include topics like The Gilded Age, Progressivism, a given decade (the
Sixties or the Roaring Twenties, for instance), or capitalism. It's doubtful whether a narrow topic
(Saddam Hussein, Circular Flow Diagram, the Constitution) would provide enough latitude for a
good ABC Brainstorm, but you won't know until you try.
What Variations Are There?

An idea that has been credited to Janet Allen is AlphaBlocks. Rather than brainstorm ideas for
all 26 letters of the alphabet, students brainstorm ideas within groups ("blocks") of letters (ABC,
DEF, GHI, and so on). This simplifies and speeds up the brainstorming, while still causing
students to turn their attention to and think about the topic at hand.
Another variation of ABC Brainstorm involves turning the topic on its side, and writing the letters
of the topic down in the same was a name poem or an acrostic. Students then brainstorm a
word or phrase associated with the topic, one for each letter of the topic starting with each letter
of the topic. For example, if the topic were COMPETITION in Economics, students might think
of: Compete, Options, Monopoly, Perfect, Economy, Trade, Imperfect, TV ads, Inside
information, Oligopoly, Natural.
Carousel Brainstorm
[recommended by Susan Rubel of Connecticut]
What Is a Carousel Brainstorm?

Whether activating background knowledge or checking understanding after studying a topic, a
carousel brainstorm allows you to have students pull out and think about what they know about
subtopics within a larger topic.
How Does It Work?

Begin by putting students in groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a sheet of newsprint/chart paper.
Each group's sheet has a different subtopic written on it. One student serves as the recorder
and has a particular color of magic marker. Explain that the students will have a short time (say,
30 seconds) to write down on their chart paper all the terms they can think of that they associate
with their topic. Explain upfront that you will then have them pass their sheet over to the next
group, and a new topic will be passed to them. Make it clear which direction you'll have them
pass the sheets so that this is orderly AND so that each group will receive each of the subtopic
sheets. At the end of the 30 seconds, tell them to cap their markers, remind them to keep their
markers, but have them pass their sheets to the next group according to the pre-determined
path for passing. After three or four passings, you will probably want to extend the writing time
to 40 seconds, then 45 seconds, and perhaps up to a minute, because all the easy ideas will
have been taken by previous groups, and the students will need more time to talk about and
think of other terms to be added to the brainstorm list. Keep having students brainstorm, write,
and pass until each group has had a chance to add ideas to each of the subtopic sheets. Let
them pass it the final time to the group who had each sheet first.
The first time I saw this strategy used was actually in an 8th grade science class. The topic was
the Circulatory System, and students had read the textbook chapter on it the night before. The
teacher began the day with Carousel Brainstorming. The individual chart paper sheets were
labeled with subtopics relevant to the Circulatory System: Heart, Lungs, Capillaries, Arteries,
Veins, Exchange of Gases, and so on.
Isn't This Like "Graffiti?"

Yep, almost exactly like it, but the difference is that with Graffiti, the sheets are posted on the
wall, and the students move around from sheet to sheet. With Carousel Brainstorming, the
students stay seated and the sheets are passed. Otherwise, it's hard to tell the difference.
How Might I Push It a Step Further?

I like to go beyond the simple brainstorm and have the group who started with the sheet look it
over when it returns to them, note all the other ideas that were added after it was passed around
to the other groups, and then circle the three terms that they think are most essential, most
important, or most fundamental to the topic at the top of their sheet. That way, they spend some
time critically evaluating all the possible terms and topics and making decisions about which are
most representative of or most closely associated with the given topic. Sometimes, students do
this quickly or almost glibly, but often the groups will spend quite a while hashing this out. That
tells me that they are really thinking about it. Then, I'll have them try to write a definition for their
topic, a statement that explains to someone who is unfamiliar with it what that topic is really
about. I tell them that since they have already circled three terms that they consider essential or
fundamental to their topic, they'll probably want to USE those three terms in their definition, or
be darned sure to consider them for inclusion in their definition. While this has the limitation of
having students think deeply about only ONE of the subtopics (the sheet they have before them,
not all the other subtopics on the other sheets), I still find great value in the depth of thinking and
conversation as we take the strategy this much further.
Clock Buddies
[shared by Penny Juggins, Fairfax County, VA]
What Are Clock Buddies?

Clock Buddies is meant to be a quick and easy way to create pairs for partnered activities while
avoiding the problem of kids always having the SAME partners. It begins with a clock face, with
slots for names extending from each hour on the dial. The basic idea is that each student has
his or her own copy of a Clock Buddies sheet, with the names of 12 classmates on each hour's
slot. Each of those other students, in turn, has this student's name in the matching hour slot on
each of their clock sheets.
How Does It Work?

When the teacher needs to quickly pair up students without it always being the same partners
every time, she can say to the class: "Get with your 4 o'clock buddy." Each student will pull out
his or her clock buddies sheet, look at the 4 o'clock slot, and then join the partner indicated. This
works because when the strategy is set up, it is done so that partners always have each other's
names on their matching hour on the clock buddy chart.
Sounds
Complicated...How
Do I Set It Up?
The reason it may sound
complicated is because you
need to see it...reading
about it here is about the
least productive way to
really get it. Nonetheless,
we'll press on! Look at the
example graphic that
appears here.
This is Joey's clock buddies

chart, and 12 of his
classmates are listed on it.
If we were to pull out Rick's
chart, we'd see that Joey's
name is on Rick's 1 o'clock
slot, and other children's
names fill out the rest of his
clock.
What's the Best

Way to Set It Up?
From the Massachusetts
D.A.R.E. Program I get this idea: Clock buddies are chosen by giving each student a clock
handout with a blank line next to each hour. Each student then goes to classmates to find a
buddy for each hour. If Mike goes to Joe, Joe signs Mike's clock at ___PM and Mike signs Joe's
clock for the same time. Students cannot use a name twice and all hours must be filled in. The
clocks are then attached to the inside cover of their notebook or workbook. When you want
students to work with a buddy, you call out a random time, for example, "It's time to work with
your _____ o'clock buddy." Students will then move to and work with the buddy whose name is
at that time slot. [From Massachusetts D.A.R.E.]
I've also set this up using two concentric circles, with half of the students on the inside circle,
and around them in the larger circle is the other half of the group. (I usually take the left half and
right half of the room, or the front half and rear half, to make the two concentric circles. That
way, the opposite circle is composed of students who don't normally sit near each other.) Once
the two concentric circles are formed, each student will have one person directly across from
him or her. (If there is an odd number of students, the teacher joins the circle that has one fewer
student in it.) Have the students in pairs across from each other write each other's name in their
1 o'clock slots. Then, tell the outer circle to move one person to the right. Now, each student
has a new partner across from him or her. This would be the 2 o'clock buddy; students write
each other's name in the 2 o'clock slot. Next, tell the inner circle to rotate one person to the
right. Again, now new partners are matched up, and these should write each other's name in the
3 o'clock slots. Continue until all students have been all the way around or until all 12 clock slots
are filled, whichever comes first. I alternate having the outer circle move, then the inner circle,
then the outer, and so on. If each always moves to the right, you'll have an orderly progression
all the way around.
Download and Print:
 Clock Buddies Chart
You can also check out D. Atkinson's ideas about how to establish Clock Buddies (from Holly
Hills Elementary School in Westhampton, NJ):
http://www.westampton.k12.nj.us/datkinson/clock_buddies.htm
Column Notes
[based on Cornell note-taking system]
What Are Column Notes?

Some of you will think, Gosh - this sounds like the old Cornell note-taking system. Column notes
share characteristics in common with the Cornell system: information is grouped according to its
type, and then arranged in columns. We'll begin with 2-column notes, but you should quickly
see that the number of columns one uses is dependent upon the type of information you are
dealing with and what your purpose for engaging in it is.
How Does It Work?

The column notes format lends itself to many variations. It may be that students would use it as
a note-taking guide for their textbook reading; if so, then main ideas or headings would be listed
in the left column, and details or explanations for each would be written in the right column.
Alternatively, you might have students reading for cause and effect; if so, then causes can be
listed in the left column and the effects in the right column. Students might list key vocabulary in
the left column and definitions, examples, or sentences in the right. It may be as simple as
reworking your typical question worksheets so that questions are on the left and answers are
put on the right.
The Cornell system recommended that the left column be one-third of the page, and the right
column two-thirds. It really doesn't matter much; students may find it much easier simply to fold
their notebook paper down the middle to create the two columns neatly. Using the folded sheet
can be a great study aide: students can quiz themselves or each other with the answers safely
hidden on the other side of the folded sheet, but they can also check back and forth between
questions and answers. This format becomes a very handy tool, but it also shows the
organization of information more clearly, more dramatically, and certainly in a more visually-
useful manner.
Download and Print:
 Blank Chart for Chapter Notes

 Fact or Opinion?
 Prediction Chart
 Examples of Column Headings
Can You Give Me Any Examples?

Sure! Let's look first at what it looks like when we combine Power Thinking with Column
Notes.
Power 1: Main Idea, Chapter Title, Etc.

Power 2s Power 3s
Answers, Details, Definitions, Elaboration, etc.

Questions, Section Headings,

Vocabulary, Subtopics, etc.

What about when you need three columns?
Early Native American Regions
Region/Group Primary Housing Environmental Interaction
 lived near water and

 wigwam
wooded areas
Eastern  made of branches and
 carved canoes from trunks
Woodland bark
 diet of clams, fish, oyster
 teepees made of animal  followed herds of buffalo

hides  food and clothing from
Plains  holes in top for smoke buffalo
to escape  wood scarce on the Plains
 clothing made from cotton

 lived in pueblos  lived in the desert
Southwest  houses made of adobe  extended droughts forced
relocation
ategies for Reading Comprehension
Comparison-Contrast Charts
Comparison-Contrast Charts do just

about what you'd expect them to with a
name like that: they're useful for looking a
two quantities and determining in what
ways they are similar and in what ways
they are different. The chart pictured here
is one way to approach this comparison.
First you look at the similarities. Then you
consider the differences, making sure to
indicate on what criteria you are drawing
out the dissimilarities.
There are certainly many ways to have

students compare things and to represent
that comparison visually. Even more well-
known than the comparison-contrast chart
is the Venn Diagram. The Venn diagram
is also very useful, as long as we keep in
mind that the real value of a Venn is in the
DOING of it...they work best when we have
students, not teachers, determining what
the relevant similarities and differences are
between two or three concepts, people,
places, or ideas. The ReadingQuest.org
website offers several types of
comparison-contrast charts and Venn
diagrams, which can be downloaded and
printed out from the links below.
Download and Print:

<
 Comparison-Contrast ="" p="">
Chart (shown here)
 Venn Diagram for 2 Items
 Venn Diagram for 3 Items
 Venn Diagram with Summary
 Venn Variations
trategies for Reading Comprehension
Concept of Definition Map

[Schwartz & Raphael, 1985]
Concept of Definition Maps

The idea is that it's not enough to know how a word is defined in a dictionary sense. Consider
what happens with the following word that many 9th graders reading To Kill a Mockingbird may
not have encountered before:
ecclesiastical
Definition:
"of or related to a church"
Example of Appropriate Use in a Sentence:
The minister's ecclesiastical robes danced in echo to his wild gestures from the
pulpit.
Example of Sentence Written by a Student:
Church members are reminded to park in the ecclesiastical parking lot, rather
than in the shopping center across the street.
Besides the fact that "ecclesiastical" is probably not central to students' understanding of the
themes of To Kill a Mockingbird, it remains that the definition they were given is too one-
dimensional. They have not experienced its richness of meaning, nor the shades of meaning
that help us distinguish words more precisely from one another. The best way for students to
comprehend a new vocabulary term is for them to experience it. A concept of definition map
helps broaden their experience of new words.
How Do They Work?

Concept of Definition maps consider words in light of three properties or attributes:
 category - What Is It?

 properties - What Is It Like?
 illustrations - What Are Some Examples?
Help Me Visualize A CD Map. Got a good graphic for me?

Graphic Organizers
What Are Graphic Organizers?

You can call them graphic organizers, pictorial organizers, webs, maps, concept maps, or
whatever other name you wish to give them...but graphic organizers are basically visual ways to
represent information. You can create maps that arrange information:
 according to main ideas, subtopics, and details

 in sequence
 to show the relationships between the different parts
 according to the similarities and differences between two or more concepts
 by its components, as in the elements of a story
 ...and lots of other ways
There are literally dozens upon dozens of versions of graphic organizers; there are almost as
many books, manuals, and guides, not to mention websites, that can give you a whole range of
examples. For our purposes here, I only want to show you how graphic organizers can be
simply an extension or adaptation of the Power Thinkingstrategy.
How Do They Work?

Since you know that some of your students are visual learners, and that a picture is worth a
thousand words, then you should have in your toolbox some ways to organize ideas, facts, and
concepts graphically. Graphic organizers are just the thing.
Using boxes, circles, ovals, rectangles, and other shapes, not to mention lines for connecting,
students can show information according to its level (main ideas, subtopics, details or
elaboration, and so on). They can show how two ideas compare to one another (as in a Venn
Diagram) or Comparison-Contrast Chart. They can trace the order or sequence or stages of a
process. They can show how characters in a story, or officeholders in a government, work with
and relate to one another. In economics, that time-honored Circular Flow Diagram is an
example of a graphic organizer.
Don't You Think It Would Be Helpful If I Could Actually See an

Example of a Graphic Organizer?
I imagine it would be; I've put one example below.
You should also check out what the North Central Regional Education Library offers, by going
here: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm
Here's a traditional web layout when you employ Power Thinking notions into your graphic
organizer:
gies for Reading Comprehension
History Frames/Story Maps
What Are History Frames?

Here is one of the strategies that we ought to be using in history and social studies classes
because it lets us take advantage of a tool that students probably already possess ... namely,
the story maps they've been using in English and Language Arts and Literature for years and
years.
When looking at stories and novels, students are often asked to focus on the "elements" of
story: setting, characters, plot, and theme, among others.
When we look at historical events, we're interested in the same things:
 where and when did the event take place?

 who was involved?
 what was the problem or goal that set events in motion?
 what were the key events?
 how was it resolved?
 and, for theme, so what? what's the universal truth, the reason this matters?
[For you science teachers our there who have stopped by this site, you might also consider
taking advantage of the traditional story map (if your students are already using these maps in
other classes) to have them write up their lab reports ... see the chart below.]
How Do These Frames & Maps Work?
1. Characters: Who are the people who were involved in this? Which ones played major
roles, and which ones were minor?
2. Setting: Where and when did this event take place? Over what period of time?
3. Plot: This section is broken into three parts:
o Problem/Goal: What set events in motion? What problem arose, or what were
the key players after?
o Events/Episodes: This is to get students to focus on summarizing...they focus
on the key steps or events that capture the progress of the situation.
o Resolution/Outcome: How was the problem solved? Was the goal attained?
(It's probably pretty important to stress to students that they should go back to
the problem or goal they identified in order to say how it was resolved or
whether it was met.)
4. Theme. I think of this as the "so what?" of a history frame or story map. You might think
of it as the universal truth or revelation, the larger meaning or importance, the moral, the
"what we've learned from this," and so on. A wonderful teacher named Donna Feary
suggested to me that the theme ought to be the way that a student relates the event to
his own life, and we decided that perhaps the Theme can be divided into two
components:
o a universal truth
o a personal truth
Seems like a good idea!

w About Cross-Disciplinary Applications?
Good question. Below you'll find ideas for using the same basic story map in history, English,
and science. (And couldn't it be adapted for drama, math word problems, even auto mechanics?
I think so.) You can also print out the information from this chart in portable document format
[pdf].
History English Science
Setting Where and When Where and When Time and Conditions
Who were the key Who were the major Equipment Used
players? (and minor?)
Characters characters taking
part in the action of
the story?
What were the What event or What is the

key players after? situation sets the hypothesis the
What problem story in motion? students intend to
Plot: Problem/Goal were they What do they main test?
tackling? What characters hope to
goal did they do?
hope to achieve?
Key events Key events Steps in the

Plot: Key Episodes experiment
What resulted? Was the problem What results did you

How was it resolved, or was the obtain?
Plot: resolved? Did the character's goal
Resolution/Outcome key players solve met?
their problem or
attain their goal?
Why is this event What is the So what? What do

still important to message for us or these results mean
us today? What is for the rest of to us, to our
its enduring humanity? What's understanding of
Theme significance? the moral, the science, to our
What is there to universal truth, the ability to use
be learned from common science to solve real
it? understanding? problems?
Inquiry Chart
What Is An I-Chart? Inquiry Charts were developed by James V. Hoffman, based on the work
of McKenzie, Ogle, and others. I-Charts offer a planned framework for examining critical
questions by integrating what is already known or thought about the topic with additional
information found in several sources.
How Does It Work? On a given topic, you'll have several questions to explore. These are found
at the top of each individual column. The rows are for recording, in summary form, the
information you think you already know and the key ideas pulled from several different sources
of information. The final row gives you a chance to pull together the ideas into a general
summary. It's at this time you'll also try to resolve competing ideas found in the separate
sources or, even better, develop new questions to explore based on any conflicting or
incomplete information.
How Does It Look, Generally? The I-Chart that appears below is merely a suggestion. You
and your students can create for yourselves an I-Chart to help you analyze several sources of
information. You should feel free to modify the I-Chart, such as including a bottom row to list
new questions.
Inquiry Chart
Question Area 1 Question Area 2 Question Area 3 Question Area 4
What I Think

Source #1

Source #2

Source #3

Summary

K-W-L
[Ogle, 1986]
What Is K-W-L?.
K-W-L is the creation of Donna Ogle and is a 3-column chart that helps capture the Before,
During, and After components of reading a text selection.
 K stands for Know
This is the prior knowledge activation question.
 W stands for Will or Want
What do I think I will learn about this topic?
What do I want to know about this topic?
 L stands for Learned
What have I learned about this topic?
How Does It Work?
1. On the chalkboard, on an overhead, on a handout, or on students' individual clean

sheets, three columns should be drawn.
2. Label Column 1 K, Column 2 W, Column 3 L.
3. Before reading (or viewing or listening), students fill in the Know column with words,
terms, or phrases from their background or prior knowledge. If you are having them
draw on a topic previously learned, then the K column may be topic-related. But if the
topic is something brand-new, and they don't know anything (or much) about it, you
should use the K column to have them bringing to mind a similar, analogous, or broader
idea.
4. Then have students predict what they might learn about the topic, which might follow a
quick glance at the topic headings, pictures, and charts that are found in the reading.
This helps set their purpose for reading and focuses their attention on key ideas.
5. Alternatively, you might have students put in the middle column what they want to learn
about the topic.
6. After reading, students should fill in their new knowledge gained from reading the
content. They can also clear up misperceptions about the topic which might have shown
up in the Know column before they actually read anything. This is the stage of
metacognition: did they get it or not?
Common Issues with K-W-L
 "My students don't have background knowledge!

The reason to do the K column of the K-W-L is to have students bring to mind
something they already know, as a hook to which new information can be attached.
Some people who use K-W-L complain that their students either don't know anything or
what they know is wrong. That's a great sign that the students have been asked not
about what they know, but about what they don't know. Please "know" this: ALL
students have background or prior knowledge. As teachers, we have to know our
content well enough that we know how it's like something that would be familiar to our
students. That should determine what we ask in the K column. It may OR MAY NOT be
the topic.
 "I ask what they want to know, and they think of a zillion things!"
Especially with younger elementary children, they'll suggest all kinds of questions for
what they want to know. And with older kids, maybe they say, "Nothing!" That's why I
like Pat Widdowson's suggestion: Use the W to ask what they think they WILL learn.
Then, it's predictive, which is what good readers are anyway
Opinion-Proof
What Is Opinion-Proof?
Opinion-Proof is a particular application of column notes. It's designed to take the power of
students' own opinions about their content and harness them as tools of learning. The basic
idea is that an opinion can be put forward, but it should be a supported opinion, based on ideas,
facts, or concepts found within the material being studied (or based on research that a student
has done).
How Does It Work?

Two columns are set up for the basic Opinion-Proof chart. Label the left column "Opinion". Label
the right column "Proof". Whatever opinion the teacher assigns or which students choose
themselves is written in the left column. Then, support for that opinion is culled from the text,
video, newspaper, story, or other source of content. Students can then use their Opinion-Proof
charts to write a persuasive essay, compose an editorial suitable for a newspaper, or to prepare
themselves for a classroom debate, among other things.
What Does an Opinion-Proof Chart Look Like?

Imagine using the following as a pre-writing activity for a persuasive essay.
Opinion-Proof
OPINION PROOF
President Truman  The Japanese government and military had
was justified in committed to fight to the last man.
resorting to the use  The alternative to atomic bombing was an
of the atomic bomb invasion of Japan, which would have
in the final days of resulted in enormous numbers of casualties
World War II. among U.S. troops.
 The United States was in a race to develop
atomic weapons and had no idea whether or
if the Japanese were also developing their
own weapons of mass destruction.
 A continuation of the war indefinitely would
cost untold thousands of military and civilian
deaths on both sides of the fighting.
continue to drain the resources of the United
States and the other Allied Powers.
further delay efforts to rebuild the war-torn
nations.
Power Thinking
What Is Power Thinking?.

Power Thinking is an alternative system for outlining information that is hierarchical in nature. In
other words, the information can be grouped according to main ideas, subtopics, and details. It
considers information according to which level it belongs on, and we use numbers to signify
those levels.
How Does It Work?
Power 1: main idea, thesis, topic

Power 2: subtopic, category of Power 1, detail of a Power 1
Power 3: detail or subtopic of a Power 2
...and so on...
Can You Show Me What a Power Thinking Outline Would Look

Like?
1: TV Shows
2: Dramas
3: E.R.
3: Pretender
3: Law & Order
2: SitComs
3: Fresh Prince of Bel Air
3: Kramer
3: Everybody Loves Raymond
2: Soap Operas
3: All My Children
3: As the World Turns
3: Young & the Restless
That's Nice, but How About One Related to Social Studies?
Five Themes of Geography

1: Location
2: Absolute
3: latitude and longitude coordinates
3: street address
2: Relative
3: in the Atlantic Ocean
3: west of Madagascar
3: 30 miles south of Albany
1: Place
2: Human Characteristics
3: houses
3: wheat fields
3: cities
2: Physical Characteristics
3: mountains
3: rivers
3: deserts
1: Human-Environment Interaction
2: Depend On
3: living near water
3: trees for lumber, paper
2: Modify
3: clearing land for farming
3: grading to create roadways
3: creating reservoirs
2: Adapt To
3: warm clothes in cold climates
3: building shelter
1: Movement
2: People
3: cars
3: planes
2: Goods
3: railroads
3: trucking
3: ships
2: Ideas
3: newspapers
3: internet
3: television
1: Region
2: Political
3: United States
3: Japan
3: Brazil
2: Language
3: Latin America
3: Arab World (where people speak Arabic)
3: English-Speaking World
2: Agricultural
3: rice-growing
3: tobacco states
3: Grain Belt
2: Industrial
3: Rust Belt
3: Silicon Valley
3: textile region
Problem-Solution
What Is a Problem-Solution Chart?

The Problem-Solution chart is a variation of column notes. It helps students focus on the four
areas critical to problem-solving: identifying the problem, listing the consequences or results of
that problem, isolating the causes, and proposing solutions. It is a great tool to use in social
studies, but you can imagine how it might be every bit as useful in areas such as science or
literature.
How Does It Work?

A Problem-Solution chart breaks offers a way to visually organize the distinct components of
problems toward educative ends. Because it uses a format based on column notes, students
can readily understand its layout and function. Students (or the teacher) will first identify a
problem; the effects or consequences of that problem are then listed. Students then brainstorm
all the possible causes of that problem and also come up with solutions to the problem.
But don't think this is only good for content area topics...consider some other uses as well. For
instance, if a student misbehaves, you might hand him a Problem-Solution chart to fill out before
you counsel him about his behavior. Either you can identify the problem, or you can tell the
student to identify the problem. Then, the Problem-Solution chart becomes a way for a student
to reflect on his own behavior, its consequences, and what he might do to change it. Or perhaps
it's time for a class meeting: you can tell your students you've tried everything you can think of,
and you need their help to solve a problem. Put a Problem-Solution chart on the overhead, and
tell them you want to solve the problem of homework not being turned in (or of the noise level in
the lunchroom or...) It's a great strategy for jointly solving thorny issues that the class as a whole
can address.
How Is the Problem-Solution Chart Arranged?

Here's the basic idea...
Problem-Solution Chart
What Is The
Problem?

What Are The
Effects?

What Are The
Causes?

What Are Some
Solutions?

Question-Answer Relationships
[Raphael, 1982, 1984]
What Is/Are Question-Answer Relationships?

Raphael created Question-Answer Relationships as a way to help students realize that the
answers they seek are related to the type of question that is asked; it encourages them to be
strategic about their search for answers based on an awareness of what different types of
questions look for. Even more important is understanding where the answer will come from.
Teaching QARs to students begins with helping them understand the core notion: that when
confronted with a question, the answer will come either from the text or from what kids know.
These are the Core Categories, which Raphael calls
1. In the Book (or video or WWW page...)

2. In My Head
Once students are comfortable with these simpler distinctions (and do note that this does not
take very long!), it will please them to move to the next level of understanding question types.
Raphael divides "In The Book" into two QAR types (Right There and Think and Search); and "In
My Head" into two QAR types (Author & You and On My Own).
Explain Those Four QARs!
1. Right There. The answer is in the text, and if we pointed at it, we'd say it's "right there!"
Often, the answer will be in a single sentence or place in the text, and the words used to
create the question are often also in that same place.
2. Think and Search. The answer is in the text, but you might have to look in several
different sentences to find it. It is broken up or scattered or requires a grasp of multiple
ideas across paragraphs or pages.
3. Author and You. The answer is not in the text, but you still need information that the
author has given you, combined with what you already know, in order to respond to this
type of question.
4. On My Own. The answer is not in the text, and in fact you don't even have to have read
the text to be able to answer it.
What Does This Look Like in Practice?

Good question. Just for practice and as an example, let's apply it to the following passage of
text. Following the passage are one example for each type of QAR.
The sun was setting, and as the

senator gazed out his office window, he
could see the silhouettes of some of the
unique buildings and monuments of
Washington, D.C. Directly in front of him
at the other end of the National Mall, the
stark obelisk of the Washington Monument
thrust dramatically skyward, its red
warning lights blinking in the approaching
dusk. Although he couldn't quite see it, he
knew that beyond the Washington Monument
and the reflecting pool just past it, a
huge statue of Abraham Lincoln sat
thoughtfully in the Lincoln Memorial.
The senator was worried. A bill was

before the Congress, called Safe Surfing
for Safer Schools, that would deny federal
education dollars to states that didn't
have laws against internet pornography on
their books. He was concerned about kids
having access to dirty pictures, and even
more concerned about internet predators
having access to kids. But he also believed
strongly in the right of people to freely
access information, even if it meant
sometimes children might be exposed to
adult materials. And it seemed dangerous to
take money away from schools, where the
need was desperate, if state legislatures
balked at this federal pressure on them.
His constituents had let him know in

no uncertain terms that they supported
strict standards of decency on the
internet. He knew if he didn't support the
bill, his next election opponent would
paint him as pro-pornography, and anti-
child. But he didn't want anything to get
in the way of providing monetary support to
schools through federal grants.
The unique spires of the original

Smithsonian Institution were getting harder
to see, but there was still a faint gleam
on the green dome of the Museum of Natural
History. What was the right thing to do?
Right There What legislation is the senator worried about?
Think and Search What arguments is he having to weigh in his mind?
Author and You How would you advise the Senator, and why would
you advise him so?
On My Own What's a tough decision you've had to make?

Questioning the Author

[McKeown, Beck, & Worthy, 1993]
What Is Questioning the Author?

Questioning the Author is a protocol of inquiries that students can make about the content they
are reading. This strategy is designed to encourage students to think beyond the words on the
page and to consider the author's intent for the selection and his or her success at
communicating it.
The idea of "questioning" the author is a way to evaluate how well a selection of text stands on
its own, not simply an invitation to "challenge" a writer. Students are looking at the author's
intent, his craft, his clarity, his organization...in short, if the author has done well, students can
say so, and they can identify why they say so. Likewise, if students are struggling over a
selection of text, it may be because it hasn't been written very clearly. Students can see this,
and say so, but then they are invited to improve on it.
How Does It Work?

The standard format involves five questions. Students read a selection of text (one or more
paragraphs, but generally not as much as a whole page), and then answer these questions:
1. What is the author trying to tell you?

2. Why is the author telling you that?
3. Does the author say it clearly?
4. How could the author have said things more clearly?
5. What would you say instead?
As developed by Margaret McKeown, Isabel Beck, and Jo Worthy, Questioning the Author
becomes a tool for recognizing and diagnosing inconsiderate text. Sometimes, as we know,
students struggle with content not because they are failing as readers but because the author
has failed as a writer. It is this notion of the "fallible author" that McKeown et al wish students to
become aware of. When they think a failure to understand is their own fault, students often pull
away from their reading. But if they will approach text with a "reviser's eye," as McKeown and
her colleagues put it, they can shift from trying to understand text to making text more
understanable.
Got Some Text I Could Practice On?

Here's a selection that's offered just for fun, but I think you'll get the idea.
Each employee must wash

his hands thoroughly
with warm water and soap
after each trip to the
toilet and before
beginning work.
What is the The author is telling me that I must be clean before I can
work at my job; in particular, I have to wash my hands
author trying whether I'm just starting work or if I've just been to the
to tell you? bathroom.
Why is the I think it has to do with who the author is; in this case, I
think the author is the Health Department, which is
author telling responsible for sanitation issues in restaurants. To keep
you that? customers of an eating establishment from getting sick and
to reduce the transmission of disease, employees who
handle food or utensils or plates have to make sure they
have clean hands.
If the author were the owner of the restaurant, though, she

would probably want her employees to wash their hands for
a similar reason, only in her case she is concerned about
different consequences. If people who eat at her restaurant
get sick because employees weren't clean, then it would
hurt her business.
A customer might also express the same sentiment as the

Health Department or restaurant owner, but his motivation
would simply be that he doesn't wish to get sick because of
unsanitary practices by employees.
Is it said
It seems pretty clear and straight-forward.
clearly?
How might Well, it has a real legalistic sound to it. That's probably
necessary because of a uniform health code and the nature
the author of governmental agencies and the way that they
have written it communicate. You can hear the unspoken tagline: "By
Order of the Health Department." In this case, it's probably
more clearly? written pretty clearly and might be hard to improve upon. It
does seem a little wordy. For instance, if you tell someone
to wash his hands, do you have to remind him to do so with
soap and warm water?
What would
you have "Please don't make me eat your germs. Wash your hands
wanted to say before touching my food!"
instead?

Pattern Puzzles
[also known as Mystery Pot]
What Are Pattern Puzzles?

The way pattern puzzles work is this: ideas are mixed up, and students need to sort them out.
Or they are arranged one way and we ask them to arrange them another way. This is a thinking
activity that combines physical manipulation of pieces with mental manipulation of concepts. It
can be an activity undertaken by students individually, in pairs or small groups, or even as a
whole-class activity.
How Do They Work?

Imagine small slips of paper on which key ideas on the given topic have been written. They are
mixed up and put in an envelope; students are to empty the envelope and sort those ideas into
a way that makes sense. Perhaps it is to put them into a hierarchy, by grouping smaller ideas
into larger concepts or categories. Or students might instead need to arrange a series of events
or steps into a timeline or a process. Or they might be placing individual pieces on a Venn
diagram, according to whether they represent similarities or differences. Each of these is a form
of organizing; the pattern puzzle activity gives students a way to sort and process, and through
repeated approximations (or you might say "trial & error") they can arrive at a logical
arrangement of the ideas.
RAFT Papers
[Nancy Vandervanter, in Adler, 1982]
RAFT Papers are simply a way to think about the four main things that all writers have to
consider:
 Role of the Writer

Who are you as the writer? Are you Abraham Lincoln? A warrior? A homeless person?
An auto mechanic? The endangered snail darter?
 Audience
To whom are you writing? Is your audience the American people? A friend? Your
teacher? Readers of a newspaper? A local bank?
 Format
What form will the writing take? Is it a letter? A classified ad? A speech? A poem?
 Topic
What's the subject or the point of this piece? Is it to persuade a goddess to spare your
life? To plead for a re-test? To call for stricter regulations on logging?
RAFT Papers give students a fresh way to think about approaching their writing. They occupy a
nice middle ground between standard, dry essays and free-for-all creative writing. RAFT papers
combine the best of both.
They also can be the way to bring together students' understanding of main ideas, organization,
elaboration, and coherence...in other words, the criteria by which compositions are most
commonly judged. Check out the Framework for Writing & Composition that breaks down these
components of sound writing according to the strategies that help students better understand
them.
Download and Print:
 Blank RAFT Form

 Writing & Composition Criteria Framework
That's Nice, But How About an Example?

Here's one that could be a demonstration that a student has an idea of the circular flow diagram
in economics:
Role William Dollar

Audience U.S. Mint/Bureau of Engraving
Format Memorandum
Topic Plead for Time Off
TO: Personnel Director
FROM: William Dollar
DATE: April xx, 19xx
RE: Request for Vacation
My name is Dollar, Bill Dollar. I've been on the job for

the last twelve months without a break, and I am writing
to request a two-week vacation. In considering my request,
I think it's essential that you understand exactly how
much work we dollar bills have to do during our time of
service for the United States Treasury. One-dollar bills
are the more prevalent, most used, and most abused of all
the paper currency. Our life expectancy is only about 18
months. By comparison, the average $100 bill has been in
circulation around nine years!
My journey through the many hands that hold me begins

after I leave the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and get
sent out to a Federal Reserve Bank. I was shipped to
Richmond, Virginia, although I could have been sent to any
one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks located throughout the
country. While it's nice to travel and see the country,
that first trip involves being bundled in currency
"bricks" and chunked into armored trucks...no daylight or
sunshine for us there! Then we get sent to regular banks
when they need to increase the cash they have on hand for
their customers. So while it seems like our job is pretty
easy to start with, let me assure you it gets much worse
from there.
In my case, I went out of our bank with a whole lot of

other bills to become part of the day-laborer payroll of a
construction company. It turns out there's a lot of house-
building going on in the fast-growing Research Triangle
area of North Carolina, and a lot of temporary help is
hired on that has to be paid at the end of each day. I was
paid out to a guy who'd been hauling sand all day to the
cement mixers. On his way home, he stopped by the Better
Burger place for a buffalo burger and fries, and I ended
up going into the cash register there. When they were
closing up that evening, the manager divided up tip money
among the wait staff, and I was off again.
I went into this very nice woman's purse, but I didn't

stay there long. In fact, I didn't stay any place too
long; I was in and out of cash registers, fed into soft
drink machines, passed back and forth between husbands and
wives and kids, folded into swans and other strange shapes
at late-night dinner tables, crumpled up and wadded into
jeans pockets, and even washed a few times in laundromats.
But I know how crucial we are: employers use us to pay

their workers, and the workers use us to buy food and
medicines and clothes and gas, and then we're used to pay
the people who work in the grocery and drug stores, the
malls, and the gas stations. Then those people use us all
over again to pay not only for goods but also for services
like haircuts and car washes.
It is true that in some ways my life is easier than it was

for dollar bills that came before me, because people use
checks, credit cards, debit cards, and other electronic
transfers more and more all the time. But there will
always be a need for good old hard cash like me. It's just
that I'm awfully tired from all my travels, and I may only
have another year at the most left in me before I'm
recalled, retired, and shredded into thousands of tiny
pieces. I'd like to have time to recover from all this
wear and tear so that I can keep on circulating until I'm
in no condition to continue. Will you consider my request?
Sincerely,
William P. Dollar
Reciprocal Teaching
[Palincsar et al, 1984, 1986]
What Is Reciprocal Teaching?
The creation of Palinscar and Brown, Reciprocal Teaching is in some ways a compilation of four
comprehension strategies:
 summarizing
 questioning
 clarifying
 predicting
Please understand that some think the choice of "reciprocal" in the name of this strategy is
slightly misleading. It conjures up the image of a student in front of the class, or of students
taking turns telling each other important ideas in the text. Instead, the strategy is best at seeking
to promote comprehension by tackling the ideas in a text on several fronts.
How Does It Work?

The order in which the four stages occur is not crucial; you'll want to try out different versions of
the strategy to see if a particular protocol suits your teaching style, and your students' learning
styles, better. You will also want to choose text selections carefully to be certain that they lend
themselves to all four stages of reciprocal teaching.
How Might I Implement Reciprocal Teaching in my Classroom?

Before you can expect reciprocal teaching to be used successfully by your students, they need
to have been taught and had time to practice the four strategies that are used in reciprocal
teaching. Doesn't it make sense that they should already have learned and become comfortable
with summarizing before attempting to use it in a reciprocal teaching situation? Or questioning?
Or predicting? Or clarifying?
One approach to teaching reciprocal teaching might be to have students work from a four-
column chart, with each column headed by the different comprehension activity involved.
You might also consider implementing reciprocal teaching the way Donna Dyer of the North
West Regional Education Service Agency in North Carolina recommends. Here's one way she
suggests you use reciprocal teaching:
1. Put students in groups of four.

2. Distribute one notecard to each member of the group identifying each person's unique
role.
a. summarizer
b. questioner
c. clarifier
d. predictor
3. Have students read a few paragraphs of the assigned text selection. Encourage them to
use note-taking strategies such as selective underlining or sticky-notes to help them
better prepare for their role in the discussion.
4. At the given stopping point, the Summarizer will highlight the key ideas up to this point
in the reading.
5. The Questioner will then pose questions about the selection:
a. unclear parts
b. puzzling information
c. connections to other concepts already learned
d. motivations of the agents or actors or characters
e. etc.
o The Clarifier will address confusing parts and attempt to answer the questions
that were just posed.
o The Predictor can offer guesses about what the author will tell the group next
or, if it's a literary selection, the predictor might suggest what the next events in
the story will be.
o The roles in the group then switch one person to the right, and the next
selection is read. Students repeat the process using their new roles. This
continues until the entire selection is read.
Selective Underlining
What Is Selective Underlining?
Well, there's underlining, and there's underlining selectively. [By the way, even though I'm using
the word "underlining," you can feel free to know that that also means highlighting.] The way to
make underlining useful as a tool for comprehension is for it to be strategic, selective, and
purposeful. The underlining must be undertaken toward particular ends.
Do you remember how wonderful it was to discover the highlighter, perhaps when you were in
college? I know that for me, I was more likely NOT to read the stuff I was highlighting. For some
reason, that's the effect that a highlighter had on me. Or maybe I'd look back at the selection
and find I'd pretty much colored the whole darn thing yellow. With selective underlining (and
highlighting!), the idea is to underline ONLY the key words, phrases, vocabulary, and ideas that
are central to understanding the piece. Students should be taught this strategy explicitly, given
time and means to practice, and reinforced for successful performance.
How Can I Teach My Students to Selectively Underline?

There are several ways to go about it. You may be saying, "Selective underlining is all well and
good, but have you eggheads up in the university forgotten that we use textbooks, and that our
kids only get to use them for the year, but we have to use them at least five years??" That's a
fair question, so how can you teach this strategy anyway?
1. First of all, let's realize that not every single bit of text you have students read is in a
textbook and untouchable.
2. Second, consider seeking out appropriate content sources, such as newspapers, that
students can indeed learn this strategy with while still pursuing meaningful social
studies goals.
3. Third, think about how you can get around the problem of textbooks that can't be
marked in. For instance, in order to teach the strategy, you might photocopy a page or
two out of the text that students use and distribute it to them. Make an overhead of that
selection for yourself. Model for them and guide them in practicing the strategy on the
photocopies. Alternatively, if you have enough of the materials available to you, give
each student a sheet of transparency film, some paperclips, and some overhead pens.
Let them practice directly on their texts by using the transparencies.
Think about how this strategy would work when combined with power thinking. Students might
put a box around Power 1 ideas; an oval around Power 2 ideas; and an underline under Power
3 ideas.
Students might also use different colors in their underlining. Power 1s could be blue, Power 2s
could be red, and Power 3s could be green.
Practice selective underlining for different purposes: underline key vocabulary and its definitions
or explanations, and use this as an opportunity to focus on how authors reveal the meaning of
new terms within the context. Or have students underline cause and effect. Or ask them to
underline the facts and concepts that support a particular viewpoint, as might be useful with a
strategy such as Opinion-Proof. Remember, you're limited only by your own imagination with
teaching and applying selective underlining.
Semantic Feature Analysis

[Johnson & Pearson, 1984]
What Is It?
With a Semantic Feature Analysis chart or grid, one can examine related concepts but make
distinctions between them according to particular criteria across which the concepts can be
compared.
How Does It Work?

A set of concepts is listed down the left side (or across the top; it doesn't much matter which)
and criteria or features are listed across the top (or down the side). If the concept is associated
with the feature or characteristic, the student records a Y or a + (plus-sign) in the grid where that
column and row intersect; if the feature is not associated with the concept, an N or - (minus-
sign) is placed in the corresponding square on the grid. For instance, consider types of
government: democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, oligarchy, theocracy, and republic. What might
be the characteristics of governments that might be associated with various types?
Help Me Visualize A Semantic Feature Analysis Chart.

Got a good graphic for me?
FDR JFK Nixon Reagan Clinton
Democrat
+ + - - +
War Time
President + - + - -
Congress of Same
Party -/+ + - -/+ -/+
Re-Elected
+ - + + +
Served in
Congress - + + - -
Won Majority of
Popular Vote + - -/+ + -
Summarizing
What Is Summarizing?
Summarizing is how we take larger selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials:
the gist, the key ideas, the main points that are worth noting and remembering. Webster's calls
a summary the "general idea in brief form"; it's the distillation, condensation, or reduction of a
larger work into its primary notions.
What Are We Doing When We Summarize?

We strip away the extra verbiage and extraneous examples. We focus on the heart of the
matter. We try to find the key words and phrases that, when uttered later, still manage to
capture the gist of what we've read. We are trying to capture the main ideas and the crucial
details necessary for supporting them.
When You Ask Your Students to Summarize, What Usually

Happens?
 they write down everything

 they write down next to nothing
 they give me complete sentences
 they write way too much
 they don't write enough
 they copy word for word
What Did You Want Them To Do?
 pull out main ideas

 focus on key details
 use key words and phrases
 break down the larger ideas
 write only enough to convey the gist
 take succinct but complete notes
How Can I Teach My Students to Summarize?

Please be warned: teaching summarizing is no small undertaking. It's one of the hardest
strategies for students to grasp, and one of the hardest strategies for you to teach. You have to
repeatedly model it and give your students ample time and opportunities to practice it. But it is
such a valuable strategy and competency. Can you imagine your students succeeding in school
without being able to break down content into manageable small succinct pieces? We ask
students to summarize all the time, but we're terrible about teaching them good ways to do this!
Here are a few ideas; try one...try them all. But keep plugging away at summarizing. This
strategy is truly about equipping your students to be lifelong learners.
 After students have used selective underlining on a selection, have them turn the sheet
over or close the handout packet and attempt to create a summary paragraph of what
they can remember of the key ideas in the piece. They should only look back at their
underlining when they reach a point of being stumped. They can go back and forth
between writing the summary and checking their underlining several times until they
have captured the important ideas in the article in the single paragraph.
 Have students write successively shorter summaries, constantly refining and reducing
their written piece until only the most essential and relevant information remains. They
can start off with half a page; then try to get it down to two paragraphs; then one
paragraph; then two or three sentences; and ultimately a single sentence.
 Teach students to go with the newspaper mantra: have them use the key words or
phrases to identify only Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.
 Take articles from the newspaper, and cut off their headlines. Have students practice
writing headlines for (or matching the severed headlines to) the "headless" stories.
 Sum It Up: Pat Widdowson of Surry County Schools in North Carolina shared this very
cool strategy with me. How's it work? You have students imagine they are placing a
classified ad or sending a telegram, where every word used costs them money. Tell
them each word costs 10 cents, and then tell them they can spend "so much." For
instance, if you say they have $2.00 to spend, then that means they have to write a
summary that has no more than 20 words. You can adjust the amount they have to
spend, and therefore the length of the summary, according to the text they are
summarizing. Consider setting this up as a learning station, with articles in a folder that
they can practice on whenever they finish their work early or have time when other
students are still working.
Thesis-Proof
To help gather and sort information, and then to make sense of it, students can complete a
Thesis-Proof chart. A Thesis-Proof chart is used to help identify and record the supporting ideas
that are found in the process of research. It can be a tool for gathering evidence to support a
single thesis, or (as is shown here) it can be used to look at competing sides of a single thesis.
To do a Thesis-Proof activity, begin with a separate sheet of paper. Across the top, write the
guiding question, converted into a thesis statement. Underneath this, make two columns, and
label one SUPPORT and the other OPPOSITION. Then, as you conduct research you'll jot
down the key ideas from the various sources, making certain they fall either under supporting or
opposing your thesis.
[Thesis Statement]
Support For Thesis Info Opposed to Thesis

[Space for a Summary Paragraph]

Think-Pair-Share
[Lyman, 1981]
What Is Think-Pair-Share?
Think-Pair-Share is a cooperative discussion strategy
developed by Frank Lyman and his colleagues in Maryland. It
gets its name from the three stages of student action, with
emphasis on what students are to be DOING at each of those
stages.
How Does It Work?

1) Think. The teacher provokes students' thinking with a
question or prompt or observation. The students should take
a few moments (probably not minutes) just to THINK about
the question.
2) Pair. Using designated partners (such as with Clock

Buddies), nearby neighbors, or a deskmate, students PAIR up
to talk about the answer each came up with. They compare
their mental or written notes and identify the answers they
think are best, most convincing, or most unique.
3) Share. After students talk in pairs for a few moments

(again, usually not minutes), the teacher calls for pairs to
SHARE their thinking with the rest of the class. She can do
this by going around in round-robin fashion, calling on each
pair; or she can take answers as they are called out (or as
hands are raised). Often, the teacher or a designated helper
will record these responses on the board or on the overhead.
Why Should I Use Think-Pair-Share?

We know that students learn, in part, by being able to talk
about the content. But we do not want that to be a free-for-
all. Think-Pair-Share is helpful because it structures the
discussion. Students follow a prescribed process that limits
off-task thinking and off-task behavior, and accountability is
built in because each must report to a partner, and then
partners must report to the class.
Because of the first stage, when students simply THINK, there

is Wait Time: they actually have time to think about their
answers. Because it is silent thinking time, you eliminate the
problem of the eager and forward students who always shout
out the answer, rendering unnecessary any thinking by other
students. Also, the teacher has posed the question, and she
has EVERYONE thinking about the answer, which is much
different from asking a question and then calling on an
individual student, which leads some students to gamble they
won't be the one out of 30 who gets called on and therefore
they don't think much about the question. Students get to try
out their answers in the private sanctuary of the pair, before
having to "go public" before the rest of their classmates. Kids
who would never speak up in class are at least giving an
answer to SOMEONE this way. Also, they often find out that
their answer, which they assumed to be stupid, was actually
not stupid at all...perhaps their partner thought of the same
thing. Students also discover that they rethink their answer in
order to express it to someone else, and they also often
elaborate on their answer or think of new ideas as the
partners share. These, it seems, are powerful reasons to
employ Think-Pair-Share in order to structure students'
thinking and their discussion.

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READING STRATEGIES INSTRUCTIONS

How Does It Work?

3 Things You Found Out

Now, that's just the suggested version. Depending upon what

Got A Version I Can Print Out?

Vocabulary Word Maps

How Does It Work?

Help Me Visualize A Vocabulary Word Map.

What Is a Venn Diagram?

What's the Use?

How Do I Teach Them?

What Are Some Social Studies Topics for Comparing?

Download and Print:

Venn Diagram Venn Diagram

What Is a Three-Minute Pause?

How Does It Work?

2) Add Your Own Thoughts. Next, the students should

3) Pose Clarifying Questions. Are there things that are still

Why Should I Take the Time for a 3-Minute Pause?

What Is An ABC Brainstorm?

How Does It Work?

What Sorts of Topics Are Good for an ABC Brainstorm?

What Variations Are There?

What Is a Carousel Brainstorm?

How Does It Work?

Isn't This Like "Graffiti?"

How Might I Push It a Step Further?

What Are Clock Buddies?

How Does It Work?

This is Joey's clock buddies

What's the Best

Download and Print:

 Clock Buddies Chart

What Are Column Notes?

How Does It Work?

Download and Print:

 Blank Chart for Chapter Notes

Can You Give Me Any Examples?

Power 1: Main Idea, Chapter Title, Etc.

Questions, Section Headings,

Early Native American Regions

Region/Group Primary Housing Environmental Interaction

 lived near water and

 teepees made of animal  followed herds of buffalo

 clothing made from cotton

Comparison-Contrast Charts do just

There are certainly many ways to have

Download and Print:

Concept of Definition Map

Concept of Definition Maps

How Do They Work?

 category - What Is It?

Help Me Visualize A CD Map. Got a good graphic for me?

What Are Graphic Organizers?

 according to main ideas, subtopics, and details

How Do They Work?

Don't You Think It Would Be Helpful If I Could Actually See an

History Frames/Story Maps

What Are History Frames?

 where and when did the event take place?

How Do These Frames & Maps Work?

Seems like a good idea!

History English Science