Chapter+10+Determining+Importance

**Determining Importance in Text: The Nonfiction Connection**
====It is important for our students to learn how to distill important information from nonfiction texts (e.g. Harvey, 1998). As they distill information form the text, they are building their schema for comprehending the text. Harvey and Goudvis (2007) discuss how readers must learn nonfiction features that signal importance: //fonts and effects//, //words and phrases, illustration and photographs, graphics, text organizers, and text structures// (p. 158-159). All of these features will aid students in determining what is important in a nonfiction text and support their reading comprehension of a text. ====



**__Professional References to Extend Your Learning__**
 * Doing What Works Video: Dr. Joanne Carlisle's Expert Interview on "Uncovering Text Structure".
 * Follow the above link to learn more about Dr. Carlisle's tips for teaching narrative and informational text structures with students.
 * Doing What Works Video: Interactive Strategies for Teaching Nonfiction Text Structure.
 * Follow the above link to see how interactive strategies were employed in a third/fourth grade classroom context with students.
 * Palincsar, A. S., & Duke, N.K. (2004). The role of text and text‐reader interactions in young children’s reading development and achievement. //Elementary School Journal,//105**,** 181–195.
 * This research article discusses the importance of content-area reading and learning across various types of informational texts to enhance young children's literacy knowledge. Palincsar and Duke (2004) provide useful insights to determining importance in nonfiction texts.

__**Technology Resources to Support Text Matters**__ **(**web links are courtesy of the //Doing What Works//-Learn What Works: Text's Organizational Structure- Related Links**)** This article discusses how to teach text structure and contains teaching tips and downloadable tools for use in the classroom. The strategies reviewed are monitoring understanding, metacognition, graphic and semantic organizers, answering questions, generating questions, recognizing story structure, and summarizing. ReadWriteThink is a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation. This website provides research- and standards-based lesson plans and resources written and reviewed by educators. Lesson plans and activities can be sorted by grade level and resource type. This link will take you to a pre-sorted page of lesson plans for text structure. This website contains K-5 student center activities based on current research, collected ideas, and created materials. Use the search tool to locate resources related to comprehension and text structure. Student center activities include phonemic awareness; fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension; and a teacher resource guide. Within comprehension, topics include: expository and narrative text structure, story structure, and text analysis.
 * Reading Rockets - “Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Structure”
 * ReadWriteThink: Text Structure/Story Structure
 * Florida Center for Reading Research - Teaching and Learning: Student Center Activities