The book Test Talk is great to address the issues of standardized tests...it lays out a plan of how to make this work. Basically the book encourages you to look at released copies of your test and analyze the questions, share them with your students and as a collective group "crack the code" of the test writers and what they're looking for. This follows your study of determining importance, which is where you would talk about (probably or at least in my classroom) theme, main idea, why the author wrote it, etc. Hope this helps. Here is a link to the book. You can view up to the first chapter online. http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9056&r=&REFERER=#toc
janelle ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons in ReadingComprehension"" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:09 PM Subject: Re: [Understand] Main idea.... >I think that this is a very interesting question! Perhaps we could add the >question of "author's purpose" to the discussion?! This is an area of >similar struggle for me as teaching it in a way that helps children succeed >on standardized tests implies that an author writes only for one purpose. >To me it seems that in the land of standardized tests, fiction is written >"to entertain", expository writing is "to teach or inform" and the purpose >of narrative writing is "to tell". Not only untrue, but totally confusing >to kids because, as teachers, we often use the same trade book to teach >different lessons (some, even dealing with author's purpose!!) > It is so hard to teach the linear thinking of the test while trying to > nurture the deep thinking of ideas and understanding, isn't it? > Jennifer J. > > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> I am going to back us up just a little before beginning discussion on the >> last chapter. I had the pleasure of getting to hear Ellin speak in person >> in >> Pennsylvania last week and one point she made was that there is no such >> thing as >> "main idea". She teaches children that main idea is a construct test >> makers >> made up and that students, when faced with a main idea question must try >> to >> figure out what the test maker thinks is important. She explains to >> children >> that there are important ideas...but these might vary based on the >> readers' >> reason for reading. >> >> The question that immediately popped into my mind was related to >> expository >> text structures. Isn't there a text structure that is organized main >> idea >> detail? Isn't that newspaper writing where we get the most important idea >> first? >> I know lots of simple nonfiction for primary children seems to be >> organized >> main idea detail---just think of Scholastic News, Weekly Reader and Time >> for >> Kids. >> >> So---when I came home I picked up my copy of To Understand and backed up >> to >> chapter seven. Figure 7.2, page 182 does not have "main idea detail" >> listed as >> a text structure, but the description of the descriptive text structure >> seems to me to BE "main idea-detail". I thought of descriptive text >> structure >> to >> be narrative in style but each idea to be of relatively equal >> importance. >> So...what I want to know is this: >> Do you think we need to teach main idea as a text structure? Especially >> since lots of school and test reading seems to be organized in a >> narrative >> style >> with the most important ideas first. Or is this misleading to kids who >> will >> think that there is only one important idea to be learned from a >> particular >> text? >> What do all of you make of this? >> Jennifer >> >> >> >> **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for >> FanHouse Fantasy Football today. >> (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020) >> _______________________________________________ >> Understand mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
