Strategies that Work Ch. 10 - Determining Importance in Text

Chapter 10 describes strategies that are specific to nonfiction reading – determining what is important while reading.  Determining importance leads students to locating main ideas and major details, a skill that many of our students struggle with when taking standardized tests.  This skill is not only important because of standardized tests, however.  Deciding and remembering what is important when reading informational texts is how we learn from such texts.  We must know how to sort and sift through details in order to arrive at main ideas.  Harvey and Goudvis (2007) emphasized that teaching students to use text features to help them identify important details is crucial.  Teachers also must be certain to stock their classroom libraries with a variety of nonfiction texts so that students can become familiar with such text features. 

In a previous book, Nonfiction Matters, Harvey (1998) described two simple yet helpful strategies for locating important information in text, overviewing and highlighting.  Teachers can teach students to overview the text, or skim and scan, for the following purposes:

•         Activating prior knowledge
•          Noticing length and structure
•          Noticing headings and subheadings
•          Determining what to read, what order to read it in and what to pay careful attention to
•          Determining what can be ignored
•          Deciding when to quit because the text does not contain the information being sought
•         Deciding if a close reading is necessary

Highlighting should focus on the most important details and should be paired with margin notes or post-it notes that explain why the text was worthy of being highlighted.  Here are some tips for highlighting:

•          Look carefully at the first and last line of each paragraph, as they often contain important information
•          Only highlight necessary words and phrases, not entire sentences
•          Don’t confuse interesting information with important information
•          Use signal words to help you locate important information
•          Use text features as a guide
•          Pay attention to information that surprises you – this may be new learning
•         Avoid highlighting more than half a paragraph (a third of the paragraph is usually ideal)

Selected Strategies from Ch. 10

Building Background Knowledge of Nonfiction Features

In order to help students understand the purpose of various text features, have them create a book to explain each type of text feature.  Begin by reading a variety of nonfiction in class.  Point out various text features during reading, discus them, then create a page in the book to inform others about that feature.  The page would most likely include a picture or drawing as an example, the name of the text feature and an explanation of the purpose this feature serves.  This can be an ongoing project as students read more nonfiction and add to their books.  Eventually they will have a thorough understanding of a variety of text features and they will have a book that can be used as a reference by anyone who needs it.

Determining What’s Important When Writing Information

Since everyone is an expert at something, and students often enjoy sharing their expertise with others, students can create informational books on their favorite topics.  This will require students to evaluate what they know and determine which details are the most necessary to help readers understand the subject before they begin to write.  Although this is a writing activity, the act of weighing the importance of details will easily transfer to students’ reading.  Once students determine the most vital information to include in their books, they can create their books and share them with their peers.

Coding Important Information on Unfamiliar as Well as Familiar Topics

Determining what is important in a text often relates directly to the amount of background knowledge we have on the subject.  If we already know the information, we are less likely to consider it important when we read it again.  The authors suggest that students should use the code “L” for “Learned” when they are reading on a topic that they already know a great deal about, because in that situation the new learning is what is significant.  When reading about an unfamiliar topic, they suggest a different strategy.  In this situation, ask students to code parts of the text that they think are important with an asterisk (*).  

Finding Important Information Rather Than Just One Main Idea

Sometimes a text may have more than one important point.  When that is the case, provide students with three post-it notes with large asterisks drawn on them.  Ask students to locate the three most important points in the text and label them with the post-it.  Next ask them to share and defend their selections.  This helps students learn to express and explain their thinking and to locate important concepts in text.

Important to Whom?

One problem that often arises with adolescent readers is that the reader may think certain points are more important, but those are not necessarily the main point that the author intended.  Students should understand that even though their thinking during reading is very important, they must also consider what it is that the author most wanted them to learn from the text (especially on standardized reading tests).  After reading, ask students to jot down what they think was important to remember.  After that have them draw a line underneath that response and write down what they think the author most wanted them to learn.  Discuss any differences that are evident.  Sometimes their responses will be the same and sometimes they won’t.  I think the value of this exercise is to point out that readers may have their own ideas about what is important in a text, but it is necessary to recognize the difference between what you think is important and what the author intended.

Reading Opposing Perspectives to Form an Opinion

Three column notes like the following are helpful when reading two opinion-based texts on the same topic.  Students can see that an effective argument contains the strongest support.  They will also see how their own opinions change as they read the opinions of others.  Most likely this activity would spark further class discussion on the topic, and students will be able to continue developing their personal opinions throughout the discussion.

Evidence For	Evidence Against	Personal Opinion

Use FQR Think Sheets to Understand Information

The authors recommend using this chart, or “think sheet”, to record learning while reading historical fiction and narratives on the same subject.  Once they have read the various texts, all of the information students learn from the readings can be found in one location.  Other benefits of the FQR chart is that it makes students more careful about their reading and helps them focus on important ideas.  Rather than merely summarizing the events of each passage, the chart encourages students to investigate and find answers to lingering questions.

As with many of the strategies, this one can be modeled by the teacher using shared readings and think alouds, but over time students should be able to complete the chart independently.

Facts	Questions	Response