Hey Teachers! Back to school night and parent conferences are coming up, and wouldn’t it be GREAT if you could share some information with parents on how to help their children grow in their reading this year? I mean, if only there were some simple, ready-made resource online that could give parents a good overview of what you’re really doing in your classroom with reading, and offer them detailed and practical tips on how to support that learning at home… that would be just LOVELY. Right???
HERE YOU GOOOO!!
https://cuppacocoa.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-reading-time-with-your-child/
I made this for you!!! And I made it for all the parents of growing readers out there, so I really hope it gets some use. Parents, likewise please feel free to share with your classroom teachers. You know, something along the lines of, “I came across this really helpful website and learned about how to help my child develop their reading strategies! I thought other parents might appreciate this resource too, so I wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to pass it along!” :D.
Please feel free to link this on your classroom websites, in newsletters home, or just send ’em over to www.cuppacocoa.com for general awesome reads ;).
Although today’s post focuses on the specific reading strategy of determining importance, regular readers will know I’ve got a whole series going on that shares what the Reader’s Workshop, guided reading, and the reading strategies are all about. Please take a look-see and explore what’s available! Scroll to the bottom for more links.
Reading Strategy: Determine Importance
Onto today’s topic. Determining importance means the reader should be able to filter through text and find the important information to determine key ideas or themes. A lot of times, this is applied to informational text, like a textbook. Readers use all of their reading strategies together to try to figure out what the author is trying to communicate, key in on what they have learned, and hone in on the main points. In stories and other fiction texts, it’s more about figuring out the main points in the story and letting go of mere details. Here’s one way to teach it.
How to teach it
One way to help kids work on this reading strategy is to make a t-chart. One one side, they can list “Important Information.” On the other side, they can list “Extra details.” To introduce the strategy of determining importance, simply read through a story with them and work together to list important information and extra details. Here is an example from Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express:
On Christmas eve, many years ago, I lay quietly in my bed. I did not rustle the sheets. I breathed slowly and silently. I was listening for a sound- a sound a friend had told me I’d never hear – the ringing bells of Santa’s sleigh.
“There is no Santa,” my friend had insisted, but I knew he was wrong.
Late that night I did hear sounds, though not of ringing bells. From outside came the sounds of hissing steam and squeaking metal. I looked through my window and saw a train standing perfectly still in front of my house.
Together, you and your child can talk through and create a T-chart like this:
To take it to the next level, you can specify which extra details support which pieces of important information, as follows:
This is a good starting lesson to talk about how some information is more important than others.
Important Details vs. Interesting Details
Another good talking point is breaking down the difference between important details and interesting details. Kids often latch onto things they find interesting, but which may not be very important: “Santa’s sleigh has ringing bells!” I don’t know, maybe the detail is especially exciting because it appeals to their senses, or because envisioning bells on Santa’s sleigh gets them all excited for the holidays! This would be a good opportunity to make the distinction between interesting and important details.
I can’t even count the number of times students have excitedly pointed out fun-but-unimportant details like the color of a dress or texture of a food. This is exactly the kind of information that they need to learn to filter out. Sometimes they get so caught up in the details that they miss the big point (ain’t that just so true of life?). I get summaries from students where they go into detail about exactly how Johnny got ready in the morning and how he climbs into bed at night, but then my students don’t mention that he missed the bus to school and the ensuing adventure he has as he tries to make it to class on time.
My child understands the general concept– what’s the next step?
A good next step is to try out nonfiction text, like a science or history textbook. You can do the T-chart activity again. The goal is for your reader to get to the point where they can read a paragraph and then pull out the main idea, filtering out extra details.
There are two types of electric charge- positive and negative. Protons have a positive charge, and electrons have a negative charge. The amount of negative charge on an electron is exactly equal to the amount of positive charge on a proton. Because atoms have equal numbers of protons and electrons, the amount of positive charge on all the protons in the nucleus of an atom is balanced by the negative charge on all the electrons moving around the nucleus. Therefore, atoms are electrically neutral, which means they have no overall electric charge.
Main idea: There are two types of charge: positive and negative. Atoms are electrically neutral.
Once you’ve modeled the process for them a few times, then try working through some paragraphs together, talking through the ideas and working together to determine the important information. When your reader is ready, then move on to having them figure out the important information/main idea themselves in each paragraph. Some paragraphs may be short and not really have a main idea. Use your judgment, and talk about it, “Hm. That was just one sentence that said exactly what it needed to be said. Let’s keep reading and see if there’s a bigger main idea in these two or three paragraphs here.”
Note: If your child is unable to decode the text well, go ahead and read it for them. Right now, we’re not working on decoding skills. We’re trying to work on reading and thinking skills. We want the child to be able to simply take in information, filter it, and come up with main points. If the text level is too difficult for your child (such as their school science textbook that they brought home), then go ahead and just read it out loud for them and focus on the strategy of determining importance. If you try to force them to read through a text that is too difficult while also expecting them to filter out details and determine the important information, you will soon find yourself with a frustrated, discouraged, and reluctant reader.
As your reader progresses in his ability to determine the main idea in paragraphs, then move onto entire sections of text. Finally, move onto the entire chapter. What was the main idea of this chapter? What are we learning about? What were the important pieces of information we picked up?
Conclusion
Determining importance becomes an increasingly essential skill as readers grow. This is what makes self-study effective and efficient, which is a vital skill for any high school or college learner. Young readers tend to take in lots of information indiscriminately, equally valuing tiny, unimportant-but-interesting details with main points. Sometimes, they don’t even catch the main point. Help your reader enjoy the interesting details while filtering out information to identify and retrieve the most important information in their reading!
Sources:
“Electric Charge.” AccessScience (n.d.): 488. McGraw Hill. Web. 1 Sept. 2015. <http://www.berkeley.k12.sc.us/webpages/ddirkes/files/chap%2017.pdf>.
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Related Posts:
Why Your Child Hates Reading (and How to Change That)
Reading Strategy: Monitor Comprehension
Reading Strategy: Activate Background Knowledge
Reading Strategy: Make Connections
Reading Strategy: Ask Questions
Reading Strategy: Infer Meaning
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