Slide 3 Have you ever asked someone how their dayresources.chuh.org/Public/Documents/literacy/S5_Importance_Notes.pdf · Slide 2 adapted from Elkhart Community ... when we are reading

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adapted from Elkhart Community Schools 1

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“Readers of nonfiction have to decide and remember what is important in the texts they read if they are going to learn anything from them.”

~ Harvey & Goudvis

“Readers of nonfiction have to decide and remember what is important in the texts they read if they are going to learn anything from them.”

~ Harvey & Goudvis

Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis (authors of Strategies That Work) share that when we teach the strategy of determining what is important, it is often introduced in nonfiction. Nonfiction text and this strategy go together.

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Have you ever asked someone how their day went and received a blow-by-blow description of every detail?

Have you ever asked someone how their day went and received a blow-by-blow description of every detail?

We all know someone like this! We learn very quickly to avoid that type of question. These individuals take almost as long to describe their day as the actual events took. This is also true for many of our students when they attempt to summarize a passage from a book. They have difficulty sifting through all the information and deciding what the most important points are. Today, we’re going to learn about a reading strategy and instructional techniques that can help us decide what’s important

when we are reading for information.

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Decisions about importance are based on…Decisions about importance are based on…

The reader’s purposeThe reader’s schema for the text content - ideas most closely connected to the reader’s prior knowledge will be considered most importantThe reader’s sense of the aesthetic -what he or she values or considers worthy or beautiful

The reader’s purposeThe reader’s schema for the text content - ideas most closely connected to the reader’s prior knowledge will be considered most importantThe reader’s sense of the aesthetic -what he or she values or considers worthy or beautiful

Allow time for participants to read the slide.

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Decisions about importancein text are made based on:

The reader’s purpose The reader’s schema for the text content The reader’s beliefs, opinions, and experiences related to the text The reader’s schema for text format Concepts another reader mentions prior to, during, or after reading

Note that the difference between this slide and the previous slide is the addition of “The reader’s schema for text format” and “Concepts another reader mentions prior to, during, or after reading.”

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“It is critical to support learners through the learning process and gradually release responsibility to them.”

Keene & Zimmerman - Mosaic of Thought

“It is critical to support learners through the learning process and gradually release responsibility to them.”

Keene & Zimmerman - Mosaic of Thought

Teacher ModelingTeacher ModelingGuided PracticeGuided Practice

Independent PracticeIndependent PracticeIndependent ApplicationIndependent Application

The gradual release of responsibility is incorporated in teaching all the strategies. In the beginning, students are given a great deal of support and responsibility for learning and working is gradually released to the students. The guided practice or “hand holding” is crucial for learning. We must acknowledge and focus on providing opportunities for guided practice.

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Teachers should model thinking aloud about their own process of determining importance during reading.

Teachers should model thinking aloud about their own process of determining importance during reading.

Teacher ModelingTeacher Modeling

Modeling should occur frequently using short selections. Teachers should focus on conclusions about importance and on how and why they arrived at those conclusions. It is important to think aloud about how the focus on what you as the teacher believe to be important enhances comprehension. It would also be a good idea to respond in writing to specific questions and include some of your own knowledge.

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Mini-Lessons

For example…Skimming/Scanning Picture Walk Activating prior knowledge/schema Not reading the text in order Deciding when to quit reading if not getting good information Using text features

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Guided PracticeGuided Practice

In small or large group mini-lessons, students are invited to share their thoughts about what is important.

In small or large group mini-lessons, students are invited to share their thoughts about what is important.

Be sure students provide some evidence or reasoning to support their judgments. As students become more proficient, you will want to diversify the genre of text and let them interact more, not only through discussion, but also by responding in writing to specific questions.

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Independent PracticeIndependent Practice

Students may work individually, meet in small groups, or work in pairs to compare ideas about what is most important in text and how they came to that conclusion.

Students may work individually, meet in small groups, or work in pairs to compare ideas about what is most important in text and how they came to that conclusion.

Guided Reading or small instructional groups should focus on determining importance during the strategy study. This would be a good time to discuss different conclusions about important ideas if all are reading the same text, or ways in which the members of the group drew conclusions about importance if each is reading a different book. Invitational (needs-based) groups can be created for students who need more modeling and explicit instruction.

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Independent PracticeStudents use post-it notes or two/three column notes to take notes Students read nonfiction books Students keep a Nonfiction Convention Notebook

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Independent ApplicationIndependent Application

Conference with students during independent reading. This will give you the opportunity to discuss what decisions they are making about important ideas in a variety of texts.

Conference with students during independent reading. This will give you the opportunity to discuss what decisions they are making about important ideas in a variety of texts.

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Questions Students AskWhat do I already know about the topic? What type of book or other source will help me best? Where will I find the information? How is the information organized in the source? How will I go about locating what I need? What did I learn? How can I synthesize my learning for myself and others?

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Determining Importancein Fiction

Identify key themes in stories Make predictions about the stories’organization and content Use what you learn about the characteristics of fiction to distinguish important from unimportant information Relies as much on the reader as the text

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Determining Importancein Nonfiction

GIST Cornell Note-Taking Save The Last Word For Me Text HighlightingCoding

These are the strategies in our red comprehension binder.

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GISTGenerating Interactions between Schemata

and Texts

Goal: Students write organized and concise summaries of reading.

After reading the first sentence of a text, write a 15 word summary. Read the second sentence and summarize both sentences in 15 words or less.Continue the process until entire piece of text is summarized in 15 words or less.

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Cornell Note-TakingGoal: Students understand and remember

information by taking notes, formulating questions, and writing a summary of main points.

Using the template, record notes based on the content presented.Write questions that the notes can answer.Write a brief summary of the main ideas.Use the completed template to refine, recite, reflect, and review content.

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Save the Last Word for MeGoal: Students engage in reflective thinking before,

during, and after reading while providing a collaborative format for discussion.

Students write five statements from the text they would like to discuss.Students write a personal comment for each statement.Organize students into groups of 4. A student reads one statement and group members share thoughts about that statement only.When all thoughts are shared, the student then explains why he recorded that statement. Another student takes his turn sharing his quote and listening to others’ reactions to his statement.

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Text HighlightingGoal: Students think deeply about a text by

combining active reading strategies such as predicting, questioning, connecting, inferring, and analyzing for patterns.

Students highlight text noting their likes, dislikes, puzzles (wonderings), and patterns.As a class, students share responses which are collected on a single, four column chart. The collective sample serves as a focus for a student-led discussion.

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CodingCodingGoal: Students compare the text with what

they already know by implementing a “coding” system during and after reading to promote self-questioning and interaction with the text.

I – ImportantL – Learned something new* – Interesting/importantAha! – Big idea surfaces?? – I don’t understand

Goal: Students compare the text with what they already know by implementing a “coding” system during and after reading to promote self-questioning and interaction with the text.

I – ImportantL – Learned something new* – Interesting/importantAha! – Big idea surfaces?? – I don’t understand

As students read, they can use the codes listed to draw their attention to critical pieces of information. The specific codes that are used can be identified by the teacher based on student understanding, the goals of the lesson, and the text selection.

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The next three slides give us a few more suggestions as we work with our students.

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“We must teach our students what nonfiction is. Teaching our students that expository text has predictable characteristics and features they can count on before they read allows them to construct meaning more easily as they read.”

~ Debbie Miller

“We must teach our students what nonfiction is. Teaching our students that expository text has predictable characteristics and features they can count on before they read allows them to construct meaning more easily as they read.”

~ Debbie Miller

Nonfiction text features help to focus readers as they sort important information from less important details.

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LabelsCaptionsComparisonsGraphicsMaps

LabelsCaptionsComparisonsGraphicsMaps

Fonts and EffectsTable of ContentsIndexGlossaryAppendix

Fonts and EffectsTable of ContentsIndexGlossaryAppendix

Allow participants to read through the list. More information related to text features can be found in Strategies That Work – Chapter 9 and Appendix F. In addition to these text features, students need to learn to attend to text clues that signal importance. These would include phrases such as, “For example; For instance; In fact; In conclusion; Most important; But…; Therefore; On the other hand; and Such as.” A powerful instructional idea would be to create an Anchor Chart related to these text features (See Strategies That Work, page 121, for more information.)

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In the Past…

You were asked to “highlight the most important parts of the material.”

How many of you highlighted almost the entire page?

Were you ever told “how” to figure out what are important details?

You were asked to “highlight the most important parts of the material.”

How many of you highlighted almost the entire page?

Were you ever told “how” to figure out what are important details?


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When students highlight or mark text in nonfiction materials, they should keep the following guidelines in mind ~

Look carefully at the first and last line in each paragraph.

Highlight only necessary words and phrases.

Don’t get thrown off by interesting details.

Try not to highlight more than half of a paragraph.

~ Continued

Look carefully at the first and last line in each paragraph.

Highlight only necessary words and phrases.

Don’t get thrown off by interesting details.

Try not to highlight more than half of a paragraph.

~ Continued


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Make notes in the margins.

Cue words will be followed by important information.

Nonfiction has many features that signal important information.

Pay attention to surprising information. You may be learning something new.

Make notes in the margins.

Cue words will be followed by important information.

Nonfiction has many features that signal important information.

Pay attention to surprising information. You may be learning something new.


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Keene found that when adults come together to discuss a text, "All defend their beliefs. None absolutely agreed with one another." Here's the thing though, "The conversation - listening to one another - helps us come to our own conclusions... Children need to defend, rethink, question and draw their own conclusions... We must not only teach them how to think. We must teach them to reason."

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In other words, comprehension deepens when…readers talk with one another. others share their background knowledge about a subject students and teachers reason through their arguments.we have opportunities to revisit the details we don't notice the first time through.

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Keene continues. “Determining what is important - arguing and defending -helps build reasoning skills. Most students are competent readers. They pronounce words correctly, miss few words and sound out words they didn't know.”Structuring activities in such a way that students must talk to one another, even for brief periods of time, will help.

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A fifth grade student shared with his teacher that, "Determining importance is like a strainer, and the words are like noodles in a pot. It sifts out the water and leaves the noodles.” Let’s continue to work with all our students, giving them the tools they need to be successful readers.