Expository Reading

Expository Text:

READING STRATEGIES:

• Best reading site I've seen in a long time!
• Into the Book - reading site with strategy videos and lessons.  (Elementary)
• Critical Reading site that discusses Critical Reading and Critical Thinking. Very clear.
• We have developed a template to guide students as they practice questioning, visualizing, and connecting (QVC) while reading. We remind our students to “tune in to the QVC channel because comprehension is the students remember to stop and “think” about their reading.
  
  

READING PROCESS:

1. Reading Process - A very comprehensive site (with videos) describing the process and strategies.
2. Reading Process - A site with many aspects that affect a reader's success. 
3. A slide show about the Reading Process
4. Another site....   
5. Wikipedia on Reading Process (I know...but it's good!)

WHAT TO DO WHEN READING DIFFICULT TEXT:

1. If text is difficult, students must read with pencil in hand with the intent of taking notes to hold onto and synthesize new information.
2. Activate Prior Knowledge - by assessing your PK, you can plan your reading strategies.
3. Preview the text to create a reading plan.
4. PK + NK = BK:  Look for NK (New Knowledge) that changes your PK ("I was wrong!"), confirms your PK, and/or enhances your PK.  (Think about NK+, NK-, and NK(check))  This will help students recognize what they know, what they now know, and what is new.  They need to focus on connecting what htey know to what is new information.  This is synthesis!
5. Use Text Structures:  When reading, recognizing how the text is structured can help bring about meaning.  Students can then begin to use graphic organizers to create meaning from the text.
6. Summarize:  Chunk the text into smaller parts.  Summarize each small part.  If you cannot summarize, try a new strategy to help build comprehension.  Summarize vs Synthesis - what's the difference?
   

READING -

Expository Text

Do you have students who struggle with the reading and writing needed to develop concepts and content knowledge in your discipline? If so, this section of Literacy Matters offers you "the best of the best on the Web"—web sites containing background information, research-based instructional strategies, lesson plans, sample activities, guidelines, book lists, and resources to strengthen your students' literacy skills, and thus, strengthen their content learning.

Information:

• Literacy Matters - research about text structures, lesson plans, examples, student activities, and more...
• This is a great article with research and how to model text structures. Note: it only identifies 4 text structures.
• Interesting article - constructivist approach
• Many cool note taking structures and ideas. Not overly connected to the text structures but interesting ideas for final notes/projects? (Last one - web page - is fun.)
• Reading, Writing, Thinking - amazing GO's for immediate use (QAR)
• Many Graphic Organizers / Thought Templates

Lessons:

• Check out an Article and Examples from Lewis and Clark... Lesson plans from Mt. EverestQuest that use journal entries (real?) and focus on expository text structures.
• Expository Text Structures and their Signal Words (6th grade also includes Question/Answer), Stanford site with information, text structures and examples,

Assessment:

• Retelling Rubric (from Middleweb) that could be used to assess notes taken while paying attention to Text Structures.

CONTENT:

1. Poetry: Lessons based on type of poetry or author, Sport Poetry and Sound poems,
2. Fairytale stories: read Bound, Link with ideas
3. Teach Theme: Give them a quote and write a story around it
   

Historical Fiction:

1. Ideas for historical fiction, rubric, other...:
2. Biographies about 1,000,000 people?
3. possible Rubric to use
4. Definition of Historical fiction + Rubrics from Read, Write, Think
5. Unit with Lit Circles and writing
6. Not sure about this - might be good??