LSN
“Enrichment beyond the classroom”
Literacy
Strategy
Notebook
Literacy based strategies that activate background knowledge challenge students to think back on previously learned content and apply that content to the current material. By doing so, students are making connections from old material to new subject matter. These strategies will reinforce their memory of old content and offer new ways to understand recently introduced information. When students make connections, they relate their own lives to their academics making content more powerful and important. These connections will stick with students and help them activate background knowledge later on.
Key Words: real life examples, relate to you, is similar to
When it comes to activating prior knowledge and making connections with classroom material, no strategy comes close to ABC Brainstorming. With twenty-six opportunities for students to come up with connections, this strategy is the prime example of this comprehension technique. Students are challenged to come up with ways to remember concepts using the alphabet and the content they learned in class. For example, if ABC Brainstorming was used during a unit on Ancient Civilizations, students would have to decide what material is more important to remember such as “pharaoh” for the letter P, “Nile River” for N, “Hammurabi’s Code” for H, and so on. To make this strategy even more engaging, students could write full sentences for each letter, write vocabulary definitions, or even provide examples of concepts for each letter.
When students formulate questions, they are activating higher levels of thinking. Literacy based strategies that allow students to formulate questions engage their critical thinking skills by having them create scholarly questions and articulate thoughts effectively. Questions that students formulate can be content based, opinion driven, or require synthesis of knowledge on the content being presented. Many of these literacy based strategies that do allow students to formulate questions are discussion based.
Key Words: question, think, how, what
As the name of the literacy based strategy suggests, formulating questions is the cornerstone of the Interview a Word strategy and it perfectly represents the goals of this comprehension technique. Students work in pairs or small groups to review vocabulary in the form of a role playing interview. They carefully think about questions to ask and answers to give that hint at their identity, a vocabulary term, important concept, or key figure. These questions and answers demand creativity, upper level thinking, and careful planning. For example, if a student’s term was pyramid, they would answer a question like, “Where are you from?” by saying, “I’m from originally from Saqqara in Egypt which is a little northwest from Memphis, but I eventually moved all around Egypt. I’m also very well known in Giza.” Formulating effective questions and answers is the main focus of this strategy and in turn fulfills the need of the comprehension strategy.
Visualizing major concepts or key terms is extremely beneficial for students. It generates a memorable image for students to refer to when reviewing significant concepts, it reinforces their knowledge of content, and it allows students room for creativity and adding their own personality to information being taught. Literacy based strategies that grant students the opportunity to visualize content in their own way can be very effective and popular in a geography or history classroom setting.
Key Words: imagine, pretend, picture
Visualizing is another comprehension technique that is difficult to develop and practice using literacy based strategies mainly because it is overlooked in most cases. The importance of visualizing student learning is underrated and not commonly found in classroom instruction, but the Vocabulary Tree strategy remedies this issue. The exercise allows students to envision important concepts and how they relate to their own lives, prior material, and the real world. This is done using a graphic organizer illustrated as a tree. A good example of this strategy that could be used in a social studies classroom is the term Civil War. Students can branch off the vocabulary term by writing things such as its causes, effects, impacts on society, key figures, role of slavery, and so on. This strategy could be used with numerous historical events and figures.
Most literacy based strategies that require students to make inferences can be done in a variety of groupings such as individually, in small groups, or as a class. These strategies allow students to combine their knowledge and make educated guesses or come to their own conclusions using the content they have been provided. These strategies demand a high level of critical thinking so using different types of grouping will come in handle with these literacy based strategies. Many strategies used in a history classroom setting will require students to make inferences.
Key Words: predict, infer, what do you think, what if
One of the most difficult comprehension techniques for students to master is making inferences. It is difficult to craft literacy based strategies that effectively meet this goal, but the Iceberg exercise is a prime example. Students are challenged to differentiate what is explicit and implicit in their learning or reading. For instance, if students are studying Hammurabi’s Code in a unit on Mesopotamia, they can use the Iceberg strategy to pull out what is stated and then use that information to make inferences. They can list specific laws from the code and then use these laws as evidence to make inferences on what the people of Mesopotamia valued. They are critically engaged in their own learning by piecing together evidence and creating educated inferences.
Mega Chart / Comprehension Strategy Sampler
Here you can read about the different comprehension aspects that each literacy based strategies engage. Click on each subtitle for a complete list of strategies organized by comprehension technique.
When students are presented with an abundance of information they often cannot remember every detail. By determining importance, students actively think about the content and decide what information is significant and what is trivial. Literacy based strategies that require students to determine importance force students to think critically and personally place value on major concepts, people, places, and events. These strategies are often combined with strategies that require students to activate background knowledge and make connections.
Key Terms: significance, key points, main arguments
There are a plethora of literacy based strategies that aim to improve students’ comprehension technique of determining importance, but the best example would easily be Carousel Brainstorming. This strategy, in addition to providing students with a platform to peer teach and spark discussion, forces students to decide the most vital parts of a reading to share within small groups. For example, if this strategy were to be used in a social studies classroom, students would be divided into small groups, assigned different colored markets, and given a primary source, a political cartoon for example. They would then spend a few minutes within their groups with one person as the designated note taker writing down observations the group makes on the source. They would then rotate primary sources and repeat the process with a different note taker and primary source, a speech for example. This strategy succeeds in determining importance because students work cooperatively against the clock to pull out the most vital pieces of a source.
Synthesizing and summarizing information greatly demand students to think critically about content. Firstly, students must clearly demonstrate full understanding of the information before they can summarize and synthesize ideas. Secondly, students should be able to articulate their thoughts and create new ideas by pulling from their background knowledge. Lastly, when students synthesize information, they must understand how two separate ideas can influence one another and be able to compare, contrast, or combine them. Literacy based strategies that require students to summarize information are often more effective in small group settings.
Key Words: big idea, main argument, purpose, meaning
Similar to the comprehension technique determining importance, there is an abundance of literacy based strategies that work on synthesizing and summarizing information, so narrowing it down to one primary example is a difficult task; however, if there were only to be one example, Headline It would be that example. Another great thing about this strategy is that is already perfectly tailored for social studies classrooms. Students are assigned short reading passages that could vary from primary sources, newspaper articles, textbook readings, scholarly journal entry excerpts, and so on, and are tasked with summarizing all the information with a single headline. They must defend their headline using critical thinking and reasoning as well as evidence from the reading passage itself. This strategy could easily be used while covering any major historical event through newspaper articles such as the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and so on.
When students build or repair metacognitive awareness, they are actively reflecting on their learning. Students will be aware of their actions, their thinking, and their own development, a skill not simply taught through lecture. These strategies will challenge students to critically reflect, analyze their thinking, critique their own work, and work towards improving their product. In addition, these strategies require the highest level of thinking.
Key Words: reflect, pros and cons, change, develop
Last, but not least, we have strategies that build or repair metacognitive awareness. Similarly to literacy based strategies that cause students to visualize their learning, strategies that work on students’ metacognitive awareness are rare. A great example of a strategy that focuses on this comprehension technique specifically is the Levels of Reflection graphic organizer. The organizer demands students to think reflectively whether it be about their learning, a reading, or a specific concept relating to their lives. In a social studies classroom, topics such as the Civil Rights movement or the Great Depression work really well with this strategy. Having students work on their historical empathy will increase their understanding of the content overall and the Levels of Reflection strategy is the perfect way to do so. They will think about the greater implications of each event and what it means to be living during those historic events.