Annotating & Summarizing
You should do this before you read the text to notice any text features
What is Skimming & Scanning?
The reason WHY an author crafts a particular piece. It includes the message (controlling idea/thesis), which is WHAT the author is communicating. It can be remembered with P.I.E.E.D. (persuade, inform, explain, entertain, describe).
What is author's purpose?
You ask an answer this Big 3 Question when something shocks or amazes you in an informational text?
What surprises me?
Why did the author use those numbers or statistics?
What is the anchor question for Numbers & Stats?
This is the way an informational text is organized. It can be viewed for the whole text, a paragraph, or a section of a text. Identifying this can help you figure out author's purpose and message.
What is informational text structure?
What is Blurbing/Hashtagging each body paragraph?
What is controlling idea/thesis?
You ask and answer this Big 3 Question when the author makes assumptions about what you know.
What does the author think I already know?
Do I know this word from someplace else? Does this seem like technical/content area talk? Can I find clues to help me understand?
What are the anchor questions for Word Gaps?
This type of text structure will include details and characteristics about a topic.
What is description text structure?
This is one of the last steps and you need the topic and main ideas.
What is the Summarizing Framework?
These are subtopics that support the author's thesis/controlling idea. You should try to aim for three of these. They can be found as subheadings or in the first sentence of each body paragraph.
What are main ideas?
What changed, challenged, or confirmed what I already knew?
What is the difference, and why does it matter?
The anchor question for Contrast & Contradictions?
These two types of text structure often get confused. The first one will describe something bad and then a way to fix it. The second will describe an event and what happened as a result of that event.
What is Problem & Solution and Cause & Effect text structure?
It helps you identify the author's message (aka thesis/controlling idea).
What is the Summarizing Framework?
This means that your main ideas should be comprehensive about your topic.
What is broad?
With literary/fiction, you want to believe everything you read, and with informational/nonfiction, you want to question what the author is telling you.
What is taking a questioning stance?
Why did the author say it like that?
What is the anchor question for Absolute or Extreme Language?
These two types of text features give credit to someone else's work or thank a person for their help in creating the text.
What is references and acknowledgements?
This means that your main ideas should be different or separate from each other and not overlap.
What is distinct?
This the healthy amount of doubt that Mrs. Paine wants us to have in order to be critical thinkers.
What is a healthy amount of skepticism?
Do I know this word from someplace else? Does this seem like technical/content area talk? Can I find clues to help me understand the word?
What are the anchor questions for Word Gaps?
These print or graphic features help you make sense of an informational text, and they help you Skim & Scan.
What are text features?