A road map to reading

Students struggle with informational texts and websites. Understanding the structure of these texts is essential to efficient information gathering. The "Road Map" is a pre-reading strategy. Like the road map in your atlas, this mapping activity will help students visualize the layout of the text before they start reading so they will have an idea of where they are going (or where to find the information they are looking for) when they start reading. This lesson will also address active-reading strategies students can use to find information for research in print and electronic sources.

A lesson plan for grade 8 English Language Arts, Information Skills, and Social Studies

By Elizabeth Hubbe and Melissa Thibault

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• Sticky-note discussions: Sticky-notes discussions are fun, add variety to reading, and allow students to respond to the written text immediately. They are easy to implement in all content areas. Sticky-note discussions are effective when used individually, in a small or large group, or a combination of settings.
• Features of print: In this lesson, the teacher introduces the concept of gathering information from chapter headings, bold type and other organizational features of print (such as tables of contents) in non-fiction texts in print and online.

Related topics

• Learn more about information literacy, language arts, note-taking, reading, reading comprehension, social studies, and text interaction.

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Learning outcomes

Using formatting conventions students will discern text structure and scan resources to find the information they need. Students will identify and use text formats (similar in informational text and websites) including bold, headings, call-outs, discussion questions, image descriptions, captions, abstracts, related articles/pages, subject categorization/guidewords, (web pages only- target navigation, hyperlinks, image alt-text, animations)

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 Hours

Materials/resources

• Highlighters
• Access to a copier or photocopied sections of a print text (one set per student)

OR

• Access to a printer or printed webpages (one set per student)

Technology resources

• overhead projector (for use with text)
• computer with Internet access and display device (for use with website)

Pre-activities

Preview Strategies
Students should be familiar with the practice of pre-reading selections to improve comprehension and identify key concepts. If not, you can model this with a section of the textbook.

1. Instruct students to turn to a page in the book.
2. Set up the overhead with a blank page for notetaking.
3. Tell students that when they begin reading, they should read any introductions… model by pointing out the introductory section in the selected text.
4. Next, bring the student’s attention to the section headings and sub-headings in the text
5. Write down all headings and subheadings from the selected text reading on the overhead transparency, organizing them in an outline form (leave spaces for notes)
6. Point out all graphics and bring to the student’s attention any titles and captions
7. Note boldface words in the reading, list any that are particularly challenging to define
8. Read aloud any questions or activities at the end of the reading

Activities

Introduction

For the teacher

The Biltmore was designed, constructed and lived in during a period of incredible technological growth. The world of the late 1800s was rapidly changing, and by the 1920s the home, transportation, manufacture, clothing, food… there was no industry that was not radically changed by advancements in technology. Students will read about a particular technological advance, and pinpoint what was available to consumers and businesses in their chosen topic at the turn of the century. The students will actively read the passages, record technological development milestones, and work with the whole class to understand the life and work of the people living in Western North Carolina in 1900.

Tell your students

Reading is not just passing your eyes over the text from left to right! How you read will change based upon what you read. As we learn about the technology of the Biltmore Estate and life in North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century, we will be researching using non-fiction (also called informational) books and websites. When you read a novel (fiction book) it’s pretty straight-forward, you probably don’t have to worry about getting lost… start at the beginning and read through until the end. Informational books and websites are different from novels… you will need to pay attention to signs, signals, and other clues the writer has included to help you “map out” your reading and find your way through the more complicated text.

Model the Reading

It is important to help students understand that the physical act of highlighting, drawing around chunks of text, and writing comments in the margins is supposed to force them to actually THINK before they read. Using all or part of the reading The Good Old Days of Plumbing in America as an example, demonstrate what you’re thinking in the textmapping process by thinking out loud.

Say, for example:
“First, I’m going to use my yellow highlighter to highlight all the headings for the article. Hmmm, ‘growing pains’? I wonder what that has to do with “the good old days of plumbing”? Maybe they were having some sort of problems with the plumbing that were a pain. Or maybe the problems were because they were growing? OK, now I’ll skim down and highlight the next heading, ‘Towards Professionalism’? are they talking about professional plumbers here? I’ll have to check that out when I read this part. And does that mean that there didn’t used to be professional plumbers back then? So who did you call to fix the toilet when it overflowed?”

Continue to the end of the section you’re reading.

The Reading: Independent Practice

1. Choosing from readings and websites in Technology Bibliography (under revision!) students select an item in an area of interest.
2. Reading or website is photocopied or printed out. Students tape the pages together in order to make a long scroll
3. Using a highlighter, students will highlight headings and subheadings as they read.
4. Using a bold marker, students define the sections of text under each heading by circling the entire section with one big continuous line. Be sure they don’t stop at page breaks! Sections extend to the next heading.
5. Based upon this first reading students may begin to identify key concepts in this area… these may be recorded in the margins using arrows and stars as necessary to mark key areas.

Modeling the Recording of Relevant Facts

1. Remind students they are reading to learn about their particular technological area and to note significant advances in the decades around 1900.
2. Brainstorm what sorts of words or facts they should be “on the lookout” for as they read (dates, relevant vocabulary, invention or patent information, proper names of key individuals).
3. List these words on the board or overhead, grouping them by category or pointing out what they have in common whenever relevant.
4. Select an significant event or individual from the reading to record on a notecard.
5. Draw a large rectangle on the board or overhead and record the facts, dates and details relevant to this event or individual on this “card.”
6. Record the required bibliographic information on the card as well, discussing as you go the importance of crediting the source, the concept of intellectual property, and touching on plaigiarism as a form of cheating. Make it relevant to the students by saying “if you came up with an idea you might not mind if other people used it, but you wouldn’t want someone to use it without giving you credit… that’s stealing!”

Recording Relevant Facts: Independent Practice

1. Tell students to re-read the textmapped materials and circle the words and dates relevant to the assignment
2. Students should select 3 dates and the related milestones in technological evolution and record these on an index card.
3. Be sure to require students to head each card with bibliographic information including the author, title, date, page number, and url if applicable.

Assessment

• Students will submit their textmapping scrolls for review.
• Students will each volunteer a major milestone in technological development from the decades surrounding 1900 (on a notecard with the source cited).
• In a whole-class discussion students will share their findings and the teacher will create a timeline document (informal, on the board or a continual overhead transparency) that shows the evolution of technological advances in the decades surrounding 1900s.

Supplemental information

For more information about textmapping see the Textmapping Project website.

Related websites

Leveled Reading: Websites with information available at a variety of reading levels are particularly useful for providing modifications for English-language learners and differentiating instruction for different learners. Look for websites with “student,” “teen” or “kids” entryways. Websites that provide images, audio, documents, pictures of objects, interactive applications and video provide contextual clues and cognitive “pegs” that allow students to hang on to new concepts.