Lisa Offutt's List: fourth grade book group

• VIP (Very Important Point): Give each child 3 sticky notes and a selection to read. Ask them to mark what they find to be the most important points in their reading with the sticky notes. They can read a selection from a magazine or a chapter from a book. Tell them that when they come back, they will need to defend one of their sticky notes as the most important point using references from the text. Over time, with guidance and debate, students become quite adept at finding the main ideas of the text. They begin to use chapter titles and nonfiction headings as clues for locating the main idea sentences. They also learn that main idea sentences are often the first sentence of nonfiction selections.
• Reciprocal teaching: The best way I know to teach how to determine important ideas is with reciprocal teaching. First, students or teachers divide the reading into sections. Students read each section 3 times - the first time to figure out vocabulary they don't know, the second time to figure out questions they have, and the third time to write a summary. They continue in this way until the entire selection is read. If you haven't started reciprocal teaching in your class, this would be a great month to start.
• I-Search papers or (KWL): Writing what you know about a topic, what you want to know, and what you find out is a GREAT way to research nonfiction topics of interest. In the process, students study features of nonfiction text that make reading nonfiction easier. Condensing the information into "What I learned" focuses children on selecting the most important facts in an authentic way. (The I-Search paper by Ken Macrorie is much more involved than the KWL we use in elementary school. I encourage you to explore I-Search papers in more detail for upper grade students.)

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