Survey the Text
A "Reading Strategy" by Jennifer Serravallo
What is this strategy?
1). Preview the text by glancing at the "big things" that jump out at you visually... the heading, title, images, charts, etc.
2). Go back and read the text with the main idea in mind.
3). Check the facts you learned to see if they fit with the main ideas statement you have already made.
4). When you finish reading revise the main idea based on new information gained.
Teaching Tip:
You can help students synthesize a larger section of text- like a whole book- by teaching them to survey the table of contents, images, cover, etc. before reading.
Verbal Prompts to give students:
1). Look across the page, what do you see?
2). If you put all the visuals together, wheat is it mostly about?
3). What do most of the features have in common?
4). Do you have any changes to make to your main idea statement after reading the facts?
5). Hmm... that seems like it doesn't' quite fit- can you revise your thinking?
6). Great job! You put all the visuals together and figured out what it was mostly about.