ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT Coach research groups to preview a text in their text set by studying how it starts and explain- ing out loud how the book will probably go. “It’s your turn. Rev up your mind! Vrroom, Vrroom. With a partner, choose a text from your research bin. It might be a start-here article that you didn’t get to read yesterday, or it might be another book from your bin. Then, work together to preview that text. Study the cover, the table of contents if there is one, and a few pages. Then, name out what the text will probably teach and how the text will probably go.” LINK Send students off to read, reminding them to preview their texts first so they can be ready to connect what the text will teach to what they already know. “Today you learned that whenever you are reading nonfiction texts, it pays off to preview the text before you read. You can study the cover, and the table of contents (if there is one) and ask, ‘What will the text teach? How will this text go?’ When you answer that, you’ll be ready to think about how those subtopics connect with what you already know and already wonder. “For example, I’m all set to think about plants in rainforests when I read that section of this book. There’s SO much rain in rainforests—so, I can get ready by thinking about what I already know and wonder about rainforests... maybe, how will plants manage all that water? I’m thinking that when we humans drink from a firehose, we can’t put our open mouth right on the hose, but instead we have to drink with a half-closed mouth. Do plants have a way to drink with half-closed mouths, or roots? Or can they take in all that water no problem? Maybe the book will teach about that. “Today, if you haven’t finished reading your start-here texts, you’ll continue reading them, and then after that, you can dive into any part of your text set. No matter what you are reading, be sure to preview the text, or the part of the text you haven’t yet read, and ask, ‘What will the text teach? How will it go? How might it connect with what I already know?’ Off you go, Botanists!”
If students need greater scaf- folding, you could instead distribute a few expository nonfiction articles that have clear titles, as well as straight- forward subtitles and visuals. Then, you could guide students to preview those texts instead. Or, you could coach students to all preview the first section in Plants in Different Habitats .
Coaching to Support Previewing Texts • “Remember to look at the cover, the table of contents, and even the first few pages to get a sense of how the book will go.” • “Ask yourselves, ‘What will this text probably teach? How will this text probably go?’” • “Tell your partner what you’re noticing about how this text will go.”
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Session 2 • Preview the Text to Determine What it Will Teach and How
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