Readers+Decide+what's+Important

=__Teach students how to determine what is important in a text.__=

What are decisions about importance?

 * 1) Word level: readers need strategies to determine the meaning of individual words.
 * 2) Sentence level: readers need to learn how to recognize sentences with key ideas, topic sentences, usually located at the beginning of a section; in nonfiction - often containing bold print.
 * 3) Text level – a final decision about what is important overall should only be made once the passage has been read in its entirety, perhaps several times.

Why teach determining importance?

 * 1) Without the ability to do this, all words in a piece appear equally important, and meaning can be completely obscured.

How readers decide importance:

 * 1) Our purpose in reading
 * 2) What the reader already knows about the subject
 * 3) What the reader's beliefs and opinions are about the subject
 * 4) How familiar the reader is with the text format
 * 5) Concepts another reader mentions

How to teach this skill
2. Invite students to share their ideas about what is important first at the whole text level, then the sentence level, then the word level. 3. Small group discussions allow students to develop ideas, hear others’ ideas, look for evidence, and defend those that are strongest.
 * 1) Model, Model, MODEL! (Demonstrate)
 * In “think alouds,” explain both what your conclusions about importance are and HOW you arrived at those conclusions.
 * Model in a variety of texts: sections of text books, fiction, news articles, etc.
 * Point out non-examples (what is unimportant) and how you determined it was unimportant.

5. What to keep in mind in your day to day teaching

 * 1) __Be sure you clearly state the purpose for reading a given text.__ Without that, students will be fundamentally unable to determine what is important. The question “What is important in this text?” is much too big. The question must be narrower: “What important things does this text communicate about X?”
 * 2) __Be aware that non-fiction (including text book) reading is the most challenging reading you can ask your students to do.__ Non-fiction typically introduces a new word or new idea in nearly every sentence. This is a LOT of unfamiliar information for a brain to synthesize. With so much new information, a reader can’t easily categorize it or determine importance. The rule of thumb is that a reader’s brain learns only 10% of the new information that it reads in a given text. Keep this in mind when you use textbooks! Fiction can almost always be used to teach historical events and personalities, to teach mathematical concepts, and even scientific processes.