My strategy puts new information into an existing framework for the student, which helps them build meaning and identify what is important. This approach applies to absorbing language at all levels: learning new vocabulary, deciphering a primary source, and identifying what the teacher emphasizes in class.

 

Students learn to start with what they already know. I teach them to run through their mental files on the topic and develop an idea of where a text might go. Often, students dive in to reading without any context and then get frustrated - or more often bored - when they don’t see where the text is headed. If students begin with an idea, reading transforms from a passive absorption of information to an engaging, active evaluation of the material. 

 

Readers then become text detectives for meaning and salience. Textbooks lend themselves to simpler detective strategies, using headers and chapter review questions. More difficult texts require closer attention to diction and nuance. Does the writer emphasize points with cues and transition words? Does he/she communicate essential information through sentence structure, putting the main point in the independent clause? Breaking down paragraphs, sentences, and even words into their parts can make intimidating and confusing language easier to understand.