Big Ideas

In chapter 10 of Strategies That Work, the big idea is how to help student process, sort, and comprehend the information in informational texts. It is important as teachers, that we provided the tools and models for students so they determine the important aspects in a text, rather than trying to remember and decipher every word. When teaching these skills it is essential that they are authentic and meaningful to student’s lives, which can be demonstrated in magazines, books, articles, etc.  In the lesson, “Becoming Familiar with the Characteristics of Nonfiction Trade Books,” the teacher had her students to explore a topic of their choice and use facts they learned to design their own trade book page. This encouraged student to observe and notice elements of nonfiction texts.

In chapter 12, the big idea was how to select and implement texts across all subject areas. It is important that these texts are related to the real world and bring up issues that are important. The books need to be comprehensible and relatable to the area of study.  My favorite lesson from this section was, “Create Journals and Personal Narratives to Understand Historical Perspective,” the students read narratives and journals of individuals in certain time periods and then create their very own journal from their point of view. This would really help students reflect on the time period and the feelings/actions/impact of that individual!