Consolidating and Reconnecting: Activities
Somebody Wanted But So:
Concept Maps:
Zooming In Zooming Out:
- Somebody Wanted But So strategy helps students summarize the events surrounding the decision. Using a four-column char, students idntify the people involved in the situation (Somebody), their goals or motivations (Wanted), the conflict or obstacle (BUT), and the outcome (So). This strategy helps students to isolate the main ideas of a text, allowing them to create a concise summary.
Concept Maps:
- Concept maps are a way for visual learners to organize their understanding of a text by demonstrating the relationships between ideas. In developing visual representations of the information taken from a text, students learn to make abstract ideas more concrete. They are able to see how the ideas and concepts within a text connect, as well as the role their prior knowledge plays in their learning about a concept. There are multiple ways of graphically representing ideas, and selecting the best approach depends on the content, the task, and the learner. Here is a site full of graphic organizers! http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm
Zooming In Zooming Out:
- Zooming In, Zooming Out helps students develop context for concepts of study. The strategy asks students to closely examine the concept (zooming in) by identifying the most and least important information about the concept, as well as non-examples that do not relate to the concept. It also asks students to situate the concept within a larger context (zooming out) by recognizing concepts that are similar to or related to the idea. Once students have a clear understanding of all of these element, they finish the Zooming In, Zooming Out by summarizing their ideas.
zooming_in_zooming_out.docx | |
File Size: | 118 kb |
File Type: | docx |
REAP:
- REAP is an acronym that stands for Read, Encode, Annotate, and Ponder. In the first step, the students read the selection on their own, with a partner, or as a whole group. In the next step, students encode, or record the main ideas of the text selection. These ideas should be recorded in the students' own words. Next, the students annotate the text, noting significant vocabulary, quotes, and essential ideas or facts. Finally, the students ponder or reflect on the information in the text. This step can be done through writing or talking, but students should be making personal connections, asking questions, and/or connecting the ideas to other texts they have read.
- This reading strategy improves comprehension because students record the main ideas of the text into their own words. With REAP, students are engaged in solidifying information, summarizing, and connecting the text to self, text, and/or world. The teacher can use a handout like the one below, or simply have students record the steps of REAP in their notebooks.