Resources by Skill
Annotating
It Says - I Say
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This is an annotation and note taking stragegy that asks students​ to pull source information, summarize, and analyze it before incorporating it into their own work. This is useful to teach students how to spot relevant information and how to summarize it.
Annotated Reading of an Expository Academic Text:
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The purpose of this activity was for students to be able to comprehend and extract relevant information from a text about specific mental heath challenges. For each section, students had to circle key terms, underline facts that scientists have learned from research, write a 10 word summary, and ask a question, make a connection or draw a picture. Use the example to adapt to any expository academic text.
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This activity is influenced by the work of Matthew D. Brown - particularly "Reading is one thing, but getting something of value from what we read is another" (73) and "I'll Have Mine Annotated, Please: Helping Students Make Connections with Text." English Journal 96-4. (March 2007): 73-78. It is a basic set of activites that students can do while reading to make sure that they are gathering relevant information from their reading practice.
close Reading
C.A.T.I.
Connection, Ask a Question, Translate, Infer
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Adapted from an Expeditionary Learning technique, this is a close reading strategy that is HIGHLY​ useful for getting students to process and analyze reading. This has been used to individual readings, whole class assignments, or group work.
Jigsaw and Venn Diagram Activity:
The purpose of this activity was for students to understand a portion of a challenging scientific text and recognize that mental health challenges are caused by a combination of many different factors. There were three different causes that students researched further: biolgical causes, genetic causes and psychological/environmental causes. Each student was assigned one of the three causes and read a short text on their own. They also had to find three vocabulary words to define and five important facts from the text. Then, they met in a group of three, where each student had read about a different cause and together, sorted vocabulary words into a venn diagram.
These bookmarks list specific actions that students can perform during their reading process in order to better comprehend the text that they are reading. Our inclusion staff has used the bookmark and strategies with students and notes that active reading strategies engage students during independent and class reading time. Once the specific skills are taught, students can reference the strategies on the bookmark and periodically engage with the text in an independent capacity.
Vocabulary Acquisition
Frayer Model
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This is a graphic organizer that focuses on vocabulary acquisition. We love it because it encourages students to familiarize themselves with new or complex vocabulary in ways that are favorable to many types of learning​ and processing.
Walledge of Knowledge
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This was an activity done in a math/science class where students created posters to explain academic vocabulary related to 8th grade math. The process involved research, draft, critique, and evaluation based on a rubric. See teacher notes in the document for more information.
Note Taking
Research Note Catcher
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This was used to support students in finding good sources and synthesizing the information into their own words.