I’m always looking for ways to keep
all my students engaged and actually
paying attention to their reading.
Here is what we did this week
with an informational text article.
Each student had to read an article.
As they read, they had to record
some ideas on their note cards.
FYI – I cut index cards in half and each student
received three of them.
You could even use a sheet of paper.
On one side of the card,
they recorded an important
word, phrase or sentence.
On the other side,
they recorded why it
was important.
Then came the fun part!
I put the kids into groups of three or four.
Student #1 shared the word, phrase or sentence on their
card.
Student #2 told why they thought the idea was important.
Student #3 had to give a different idea.
Finally, Student #1 told why they chose the idea
as an important part of the article.
Then it was time for Student #2 to read his first idea.
Student #3 gave their thoughts as to why
the idea was chosen.
Student #1 gave their feedback
and then Student #2 gave their reason.
This continued until all the students
had a chance to share their cards.
As the students discussed,
I rotated around the room and listened.
For some of the students,
I questioned why they chose certain words.
Many kids had the same words and so we
discussed why that happened.
I had two boys that truly understood
the main idea of the article.
They both found a sentence that
summarized the whole article.
It was awesome to hear everyone talking about reading!
Have you ever used this type of activity?
What other activities have you used with informational text?
