Determining Importance

Last month our focus was non-fiction reading strategies, and we continue this discussion with how students determine what is important in the text.  Determining importance is a strategy that readers use to distinguish between what information in a text is most important versus what information is interesting but not necessary for comprehension. The strategy enables students to distinguish between the most and least important information presented in textbooks and nonfiction reading.  While reading fiction texts, students will be inferring the bigger idea or theme.  In nonfiction texts, students will use determining importance to gain information, acquire knowledge, or use features and text clues to help build deeper comprehension of the text.  We tell students they need to become detectives and search for the most important points of the text. We remind them that along the way there will be distractions, or less important information, given to make the selection more interesting or clearer to the reader. This information, however, is not essential to understanding the point of the nonfiction or fiction text. 

The main questions students use to determine the important information is: 

©    What is my purpose for reading this text?

©    What is the author’s purpose for writing this text?

©    Identify the key ideas.

©    Use text features (discussed in last month’s blog) to help identify important ideas, concepts, and details.

You can help your child at home by using the following sentence starters to deepen their comprehension of the text:

    ©     “The most important ideas are…”

    ©     “So far, I've learned that…

      ©      “This paragraph/selection is mostly about…”

Non-Fiction Features

When students are reading nonfiction texts, they not only have to be able to comprehend the information, but they have to analyze the different features within the text.  This month we will discuss these features and their purpose.

Nonfiction Feature #1: Charts and Graphs allow the reader to analyze data visually by comparing it with other information in an easier to read format.	Nonfiction Feature #2: Headings/Subheadings are a signal from the author about important information.  They are usually bigger, bolder font and say:  PAY ATTENTION!	Nonfiction Feature #3: Labels are word tags next to important pictures connected with arrows.  Labels often identify smaller parts of a bigger picture.
Nonfiction Feature #4: Sidebars are bullet points of information off to the left or right of the main text area.  They are usually short pieces of information which add to the main idea of the article.	Nonfiction Feature #5: The index is also found at the end of the book.  It lists words in alphabetical order, and gives the page numbers where the information can be found.	Nonfiction Feature #6: The glossary is a special dictionary containing important vocabulary words from the book.  It is usually found at the end of the book.
Nonfiction Feature #7: Pronunciation guides help students with vocabulary words they may not be familiar with in the text.  They spell out the word phonetically inside a set of parentheses.	Nonfiction Feature #8: The table of contents, found at the beginning of a book, allows you to start reading where ever you want in a nonfiction text by giving you a preview of the section’s contents.	Nonfiction Feature #9: Nothing helps the reader more than photographs/illustrations and captions.  The caption helps to give meaning to the photograph or illustration.

Synthesizing

Connecting the Dots to form the BIG Picture

     For the month of January, our strategy focus will be “synthesizing”.  Now, it really sounds like something you would do to make music, but when applied to reading, it involves taking all the pieces you know and putting them together with the new information you gather from reading.  It is kind of like making cookies.  You start the cookie dough with the things you have to have like eggs, sugar, and flour and then add the ingredients which will make the cookies unique.  After you have been making cookies for awhile, we might change our minds and decide to make a different variety then we always do, but we will still end up with fantastic cookies. 

     When strong readers read, they not only read the words on the page, but they listen to the “inner voice” that thinks about the meaning of the story.  Strong readers use their background knowledge, make connections, and use other experiences to form new ideas as they read.  Strong readers know the answers are not always found in the book but may be formed in their own imaginations.  A reader who is synthesizing incorporates the details and inferences from a story into their own ideas and opinions. 

      Synthesizing is creating something new by bringing together many different ingredients and continually changing the thinking depending on the new information gathered.