For me, one of the most important teaching practices we can include in our daily lessons, is that of promoting metacognition in our students. If we can help young readers to think, and think about what they thought, they will develop much quicker as readers and writers.
Today, I was thinking about how I, as an expert reader, come to a fuller understanding of what I read, especially with non-fiction. And as usual, I turned to Jennifer Serravallo's seminal book, The Reading Strategies Book, where I found that one important skill I use is "Consider Structure," which is strategy 8.19. In this strategy, the teacher's goal is get students to think about "How is the information being presented? What's the overall structure?" And then, after examining this, to think about how that structure impacts their understanding. Of course, the way that students make sense of the text, meaning, which approach do they use in their notebooks to show that understanding, is going to be determined by the structure. When students consider the author's structuring of the text, they have a better chance of synthesizing that material accurately in their reader's notebook. The follow up to this lesson, naturally, is one that asks students to consider how they, as young authors, present their information so that readers can make sense of it. In essence, what are the clues that an author uses to guide the reader to understanding. In her equally important book on writing, The Writing Strategies Book, Serravallo provides strategy 5.16, "Moving from Chunk to Chunk." One important way that writers guide their readers is through transitions. In strategy 5.16, we ask students to examine their writing, box up the sections and "[n]otice how you transition from one part to the next. Think, 'Did I use a transition word or phrase that makes sense given the relationship between the parts." In this process, it is again important to show mentor texts so that students see the language of compare/contrast, sequence, or providing examples being employed accurately. Then, ask student to consider the purpose of their piece and their choice of transition words.
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