Determining What's Important vs Interesting Information

We came up with a list of clues to use when determining if something is important or interesting (this would be a great chart to have in the room or to pull out while reading):

Important:

• Title/subtitles
• definitions
• facts (applies to all...)
• Answers the big questions...or questions asked
• highlighted words
• bolded words/sentences
• underlined sentences/words
• Boxed words (usually in a diagram)
• A key is in front of it....symbolizes the big idea.
• Information reviewed in these sections: "Apply Your Knowledge" or "Assessing Your Understanding" or "Got It"
• Some figures, graphs, charts, tables, pictures representing the text, captions with these text features.

Interesting parts  (These parts help us learn, but won't be on the test!):

• Connections
• Examples
• "One such..."
• "Certain types..."
• "In a few..."
• "Some..."
• "My Planet Diary"
• Stories
• Sentence starters
• Fun facts
• Extra information: facts, stories, analogies
• Some graphics, page layout and background
• 
  

We noticed that definitions (important) are often followed by examples (interesting "some").

Making the link between PK and what is thought of as Important in text:

If you have little PK:

• Reread often
• Read slowly, stop and think often
• Ask a lot of questions:  placed that you don't understand might be marked.
• Make connections to what you do know.
• Read the entire passage for the gist and then reread to determine what is important.
• More "surface facts" will be underlined/highlighted.  Deeper concepts might not be understood yet.

If you have some PK:

• Ask questions while you read.
• Pay attention to what you know, what feels familiar and what is new information.  What feels familiar and new information should be underlined/highlighted.
• Find information that furthers, deepens what you already know.

I you have a lot of PK:

• Pay attention to what you know, what feels familiar and what is new information.  What feels familiar and new information should be underlined/highlighted.
• Create a KWL for the reading.  Try to find answers to the question you would like to learn more about.
• Explore the topic further after reading.  (Use the internet to look up more about new information that is found.)
• Look for ways to remember what you already know or have learned.
• Go for depth of understanding.  Challenge yourself to understand the topic more fully.
• Think about how the passage is written or author's bias for a greater challenge.