The big idea of Chapter 10 was how we as teachers, can help readers sort through the information in an informational text. When reading nonfiction, students have to determine what information is important by using various strategies such as over viewing (similar to skimming/scanning). 

        Teaching students to determine importance is an essential skill that students have to be able to do. We can develop this strategy authentically in the classroom by using meaningful literature such as a current newspaper, magazine or even a popular non-fiction book. In "Building Background Knowledge of Nonfiction Features," the teacher took a picture from home of her cat and labeled in "caption" and  included a caption of her picture. Each of her students brought in their own pictures from home and did the same thing. Then as they were coming across unfamiliar elements in nonfiction, students add that element into their own book. I love this idea because students get to use meaningful materials (their own pictures) and build their own nonfiction book from exploring nonfiction literature. 

       Chapter 11's big idea was that we summarize information while we read and pull out the most important information and put it in our own words to help remember it. But in order to do this, we need to connect it to our current background knowledge and stop and actively think about the information in order to help readers stay on track with the text and check their own understanding. When kids are able to understand the information and organize their thinking, they are prepared to synthesize it. 

      This can be used authentically in a classroom by having teachers tell a story about something in their life.  Then the teacher should model the process by thinking and talking about summarizing aloud. The teacher should highlight the importance of only telling the important parts and use simple wording. I think this is a great strategy to use in the classroom, especially in Kindergarten where students can go on forever about something that happened. To make this activity more authentic, students could practice telling their own personal stories but focusing on telling the important parts and using simple sentences to increase understanding.