Taking A Closer Look As We Read - Marking Up Our Texts

Note taking is often a difficult skill to teach students, particularly in the 3rd grade when they have never really been asked to do it before.  I have always found that my students struggle with finding the important parts of the text.  Often they will highlight an entire passage if they are given a highlighter to take notes.  Determined to give them a framework, I came up with this anchor chart to help them focus on certain key areas.

 

 

If you want to re-create the chart, I found the eyeglasses clip art here.

 

 

I printed out this article about vanishing frogs from ReadWorks.  We read the article together once through without marking it up.  The second time we read it, we took a "Closer Look".

 

 

 

 

We walked through each of the steps on the anchor chart with the students marking up their text as we went.  Here is another example of a students' work:

 

 

After we marked up our text, I asked them a few questions about the text including:

 

1. What species is disappearing?  The Harlequin Frog

 

2. What is the cause of the Harlequin Frog disappearing?  A skin fungus

 

3. What quote from the article helps you to know this? The quote from Cynthia Carey, "This fungus is killing amphibians all over the world".

 

4. What dangers do amphibians face?  Disease, habitat destruction, pollution, and weather changes

 

 

This strategy really seemed to help my students as they answered the questions that go along with the passage on the Read Works site.  They also are more confident having steps to help them close read.

 

 

How do you help your students with the tricky concept of taking notes as they read?