Strategy Toolbox

1. Strategy Toolbox Kristi Philips

2. Table of Contents • Researched Based • KWL • THIEVES • Text Structure Organizing • Anticipation Guides • Cloze Connections • Concept Definition Mapping • Directed Reading/Thinking Activity • Structured Note-taking • Retelling

3. Table of Contents (cont.) • Best Practice • Sticky Note Snapshots • Think-Pair-Share • Do the BK • Brainstorm and Sort • Dialogue Comic Strip • Venn Diagram • Semantic Mapping • Group Summarizing • SEARCH Strategy • Sensory Imagery

4. Table of Contents (cont.) • Original strategies • Element Ads • Singing Raps • Write to a Friend • Role Playing • Toss the Ball

5. What is a Strategy? • A strategy is a series of flexible steps to solve a problem and becomes automatic.

6. KWL Charts (Ogle, 1986) • What is it? • KWL uses three columns in which to write down information that we “KNOW” (background knowledge) – “Want to Know” (establish purpose) – and have “Learned” (main idea). • Why use it? • Helps students connect to background knowledge, and develops habits of summarizing, questioning, predicting, inferring, and figuring out word meaning. • How does it work? • Create the 3 columns on their paper and on the board. • Ask the students what they know (prompt them) and fill in the first column. • Ask the students what they want to know and fill in the second column. • Have the students read the text. • Have the students answer their questions from column 2 in column 3.

7. THIEVES (Manz, 2002) • What is it? • An acronym that helps students go through all the necessary pre-reading steps: Title, Headings, Introduction, Everything they know, Visuals, End of Ch. materials, and “So what?”. • Why use it? • To get students to build knowledge of the text even before they read it. • How does it work? • Tell the students “We now get to become information thieves!”. Lets try to steal as much information from the chapter before we read it. • Give the students a “Thieves” practice form and model each of the 7 components: Title, Headings, Introduction, Everything they know, Visuals, End of Ch. materials, and “So what?”.

8. Text Structure Organizing(Alvermann & Phelps, 2001) • What is it? • Looking at the title and headings of text to tell a reader how the author constructed the text. • Why use it? • Trains students to recognize the common forms of text structure, and how to pick out “signal words”. • How does it work? • Read a sample text. • Students pick out signal words. • Teachers help pick out the appropriate graphic organizer. • Help the students fill in the organizer.

9. Anticipation Guides(Tierney & Readance, 1999) • What is it? • Prediction guides that activate a student’s prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. • Why use it? • Serve as springboards for modifying beliefs and opinions about a topic. • How does it work? • Identify a major concept, problem or opinion. • Create statements that question certain notions, beliefs or opinions and put them on a guide for the students. • Students mark their responses. • Students read the text. • Students fill out the “after reading” section. • Discussion

10. Cloze Connections(Dewitz, Carr, & Patberg, 1987) • What is it? • A strategy to show how to connect our background knowledge with text information to make an inference. • Why use it? • Helps students build the habit of figuring out vocabulary in context, and also how to make an inference. • How does it work? • Delete key words or phrases from the text. • Have students fill in the missing words or phrases by looking at the rest of the text. • Have students underline the words or phrases that helped them decide what was missing. • Discuss their answers with a partner.

11. Concept Definition Mapping(Schwartz, 1988) • What is it? • Strategy for teaching students the meaning of key concepts. • Why use it? • Helps students understand the essential attributes, qualities, or characteristics of a word’s meaning. • How does it work? • Display an example of a concept map. • Discuss the questions that you want answered. • Model how to use it by selecting a familiar example. • Have the students make one for a familiar example. • Working in pairs complete a concept map for the current topic.

12. Directed Reading/Thinking Activity(Stauffer, 1969) • What is it? • Reading activity with 3 phases: Predicting, reading, and proving. • Why use it? • Gives students practice in active reading skills. Helps them look at heading and subheading. • How does it work? • Students preview the assignment by looking at the title, subtitles, and pictures. • Students predict what they think will happen. • Read a portion of the assignment. • Discuss their prediction and allow them to make new predictions. • Continue until finished.

13. Structured Note-taking(Smith & Tompkins, 1988) • What is it? • Note-taking system that assists in recall and retention of information. • Why use it? • It offers students a visual framework that can help them determine just which information to include as they take notes. • How does it work? • Instruct the students as to which type of organization the author used. • Model the note-taking process for your students. • Assign a passage from the text for the students to take notes over. • Give them an organizer the first few times and then have them create their own. • Share their information with a partner.

14. Retelling(Gambrell, Koskinen, & Kapinus, 1991) • What is it? • Strategy where the student is responsible for retelling what they remember from the story. • Why use it? • It prepares students for real-life tasks such as selecting , organizing, and conveying important information. • How does it work? • The students are provided with a copy of a story map to guide comprehension. • The story is read. • Students are asked to retell the story – if they are unable to remember a part, the teacher may ask a question to cue recall. • The retelling may be taped to further grade the assignment.

15. Sticky note Snapshots • What is it? • Visualizing activity using sticky notes. • Why use it? • It allows students to move the images while at the same time creating them to meet the needs of the text. I also develops inferring, predicting and summarizing skills. • How does it work? • Tell your students to draw pictures on the sticky notes as they read a section of the text. • May include a brief description on back of note. • When everyone is finished have them put them on a poster board and explain their pictures.

16. Think–Pair-Share • What is it? • Quick verbal interaction between 2 students that allows them to process the content being learned. • Why use it? • Pushes students to organize thoughts well enough to communicate them with a peer. • How does it work? • Create a prompt to get the students to use their background knowledge. • Students think silently and prepare what they will say. • Share with their partner. • Share what their partner said with the rest of the class.

17. Do the BK • What is it? • Kinesthetic way to build background knowledge for a text. • Why use it? • Research shows that learners connect to experiences that they have seen or done themselves. • How does it work? • Choose an idea, process, or section from the text. • Create ways to act out an idea (miming, gesturing). • Do the motions as you explain the idea you are conveying. • Have the students also act out the idea as you lead them.

18. Brainstorm and Sort • What is it? • Pre-reading activity to get various ideas from the students about the topic. • Why use it? • Exposes students to a wide range of collective background knowledge that will help connect to the new topic. Used for building classifying and categorizing skills. • How does it work? • Teacher prompts the students to start discussing the topic. • Accept all student responses. • Write all ideas on the board. • Ask students to start sorting the ideas into categories. • Create a semantic map and allow the students to use it as a note-taking sheet.

19. Dialogue Comic Strip • What is it? • Comic strips are created to help students summarize and infer concepts or topics. • Why use it? • Sometimes topics are confusing or difficult to understand until they are used in a funny way. • How does it work? • Model the process of creating funny conversations between animals, or even between 2 numbers in math. • Have the students come up with some of their own comic strips that relate to the topic being covered. • Share their comic strip with a partner and then with the class.

20. Venn Diagram • What is it? • Visual representation used to compare and contrast books, or principles. • Why use it? • Students can visually see the areas that are common to both items. • How does it work? • Draw 2 interconnecting circles. • Read the assignment. • Complete the diagram. • Share their diagrams and explain their thinking.

21. Semantic Mapping • What is it? • Visual tool that helps readers activate and draw on prior knowledge, recognize important concepts, and see relationships. • Why use it? • Some students understand a concept better when they can visually see how everything fits together. • How does it work? • Write the subject in the middle of the board. • Think of words that relate to the subject. • Students write these words down and categorize them. • Students share their maps with the class.

22. Group Summarizing • What is it? • Students categorize information into groups to better understand the reading assignment. • Why use it? • Helps students review and remember information. Requires students to distinguish between key concepts and subordinate ideas and condense information. • How does it work? • Students survey a text passage to identify major topics. • Divide paper into 4 parts with headings (provides purpose). • Read the text. • Record information under each heading in complete sentences. • Develop class summaries.

23. Search Strategy • What is it? • Activity used to research a topic. The topic should have a focus or a question to be answered. • Why use it? • Stimulates students to find answers to questions they have generated from their reading. It will mean more to them if they try to answer their own questions. • How does it work? • Select a topic. • Establish what students know, think they know, and want to know. • Ask questions to raise curiosity and to challenge students. • Read resource material. • Come together like scholars to share. • Have a large group discussion.

24. Sensory Imagery • What is it? • Imagining what something looks like, smells like, feels like, even tastes like to help students connect new information to prior knowledge. • Why use it? • Comprehension, recall, and retention can be enhanced through sensory imaging while reading. • How does it work? • Select a passage of text. • Read the passage aloud as the students follow along. • Stop and ask students to imagine the scene. • Select another passage and have students share their images. • Reinforce the use of this strategy during independent reading.

25. Element Ads (original) • What is it? • Student created advertisement to sell their “element”. • Why use it? • Students will be more interested in learning about the different elements if they have a reason to learn the characteristics. • How does it work? • Students (with a partner) each draw an element out of the hat. • Read and research their element. • Create a new “product” to sell to the class. • Perform their advertisement in front of the class.

26. Singing Raps (original) • What is it? • Using student created rap songs to remember various laws and principles in science. • Why use it? • Students remember topics better the more they work with them. By writing the lyrics to a song they spend a lot of time working with the idea. They also like to create their own beat and rhythm. • How does it work? • Give the students a law or principle to describe. • Have them create the lyrics to a song. • Add background beats and rhythms.

27. Write to a Friend • What is it? • Writing activity that students to explain what they read by writing a letter to a friend. • Why use it? • Students are more comfortable talking to a friend and by using this type of writing activity, they will put their learning into their own words. • How does it work? • Students read a section of their book. • Write a letter to a friend in the class explaining what they learned from the section and asking their friends any questions that they might have. • Share their letters. • Write a second letter answering any questions they had for each other.

28. Role playing • What is it? • Students act out various aspects to a particular subject. • Why use it? • When students put themselves in another person’s position, it makes them more aware of how someone else is feeling. It also demonstrates how to make difficult decisions and allows them to practice. • How does it work? • A particular topic is brought up in class. • Instead of telling students both sides to the issue, assign different students the various scenarios that could be related to that topic. • Allow the students to act them out in front of the class. • Classroom discussion of the issue.

29. Toss the Ball • What is it? • Activity to discuss everything that was talked about during the class hour. • Why use it? • The students who would not usually speak up are given a chance to contribute to the class. Ideas and topics are discussed that may not have been thought about. • How does it work? • Teacher tosses the ball to anyone in the class. • That student needs to tell something they remember about class that day. It could be something they liked or didn’t like, or it might be a question they still have. • That student then passes the ball to someone else in the class. • They respond. Continue until everyone gets a chance to speak.