Activity
1. Students will begin class with a short pop quiz. Write
the following reading strategies on the board and ask
students to define these terms as best they can (do
not write the sections in parenthesis, as these are
provided for your reference):
- Meta-cognitive
reading (thinking about what goes on in your mind
while reading)
- Chunking
(breaking the text down into manageable pieces that
can be understood)
- Diagramming
(putting information from the text into a chart or
diagram)
- Summarizing
(extracting the main idea and major details from the
text)
- Paraphrasing
(putting the text into your own words)
- Predicting
(making an educated guess about what will happen next)
- Context
clues (looking at known words in the sentence to
define unfamiliar vocabulary)
- Pacing
(reading at the appropriate speed, not too fast, not
too slow)
- Questioning
(asking questions about the text as you read)
- Clarifying
(looking for answers to your questions about the
text within the reading)
You
may omit those terms which you feel students are not
sufficiently experienced with. Allow
about 10 minutes for
students to complete
the quiz, and then collect their papers. Once this is done,
discuss the correct answers with the class as review.
2.
Explain to the class that they will continue practicing
their reading strategies by reading and analyzing a challenging
text that they will select. It may be any text they wish
(a book, newspaper article, magazine article) as long
as you deem
it appropriate (students must show you the text for approval
before beginning their analysis). Text must be no lower
than a ninth grade reading level in difficulty.
3. If
you do not
have enough texts to provide each student with a reading
option,
you may need to conduct this lesson in the library,
or you may copy several different articles from various
sources which students may then choose from. Try to
include
texts
which touch
on the various disciplines, including environmental
health.
4.
Once students have selected a text (1000 words minimum
in length), they will read, analyze, and annotate it
utilizing the reading strategies which they have practiced.
They need to explain how these strategies are used
as well as
the reasoning
behind why they apply to this particular text.
5. Students
should give examples or quotes from the text demonstrating
the need
for a particular strategy. This activity should take
approximately 20-25 minutes.
Closure
Collect student notes at the end of the hour.
Make sure that students have made a notation as to the title,
author, and source of the text they have chosen.
Homework
None today. |
Embedded
Assessment
Assessment
of student quizzes and their analysis of varied articles should
reveal students’ understanding of and ability to apply
reading strategies appropriately.
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