In response to the question about determing importance, I would recommend Stephanie Harvey's book *Nonfiction Matters*. In this book, Harvey recommends using a three column chart with students to record facts, questions, and responses. As the students read, they choose important facts to record under the facts column, write any questions they still have in the questions column, and then add a quick response in the third column. This may be a strategy you could model, have them do with a partner to practice, and then do on their own while searching for information for their feature articles. There are other ideas included in the book as well, but this one was my favorite.
Another idea is to incorporate the new literacies into your determing importance lesson. The book *Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times* is an excellent resource filled with sites that can be used across the curriculum. One site mentioned is www.kidsnewsroom.com. This site has a variety of articles that are written and posted by kids. Perhaps the students could read articles on this website or any other "kid friendly" site to practice determing importance. I have found that young children are highly motivated by technology! I hope this is helpful! Katrina (Syracuse University) _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
