SESSION1: INTRO TO
“CHUNKING” TEXT
READING
Wasserman Ch 2The Constitution
WHAT YOU’RE DOING THIS WEEK…
You’ll be reading Ch 2 The Constitution by Gary Wasserman this week. It
is a whole chapter and has 22 pages.
I will not be lecturing on the information AT ALL!
You’ll have a week to read, understand, & summarize this reading ALL BY
YOURSELF.
This will be part of your midterm paper in a couple of weeks
 Session 1: Learning how your brain can “chunk” or break into pieces a
large piece of text
 Session 2: Practicing “chunking” in class with the reading
 Session 3: Practicing how to clarify your misunderstandings to be able to
guarantee understanding of this text
BEFORE WE GET STARTED…
Let’s see what you can do…
 Take 3 mins to read this short piece of text labeled
“ PREAMBLE TEXT”
 How would you break this apart into pieces your brain can
understand?
 Jedis you have 1 minute to show the Empire how you did
it…
 Empires you have 1 minute to show the Jedis your work…
 Bringing this out to the floor…
IT’S WORKSHOP TIME…
 Now we are going to take a look at a slightly longer piece
of text…
 You’re going to be working with me to talk through what
your brain is doing…
 Your job is to keep track of how you figured out what this
text is:
 Your key questions to consider:
1. When did you understand the text?
2. What parts of the text were key for this to help you?
NOW WHAT…
Now that you’ve had some initial practice on how to “chunk”
text into smaller, more manageable pieces…
Use your SW partner to work out some possible solutions to
your longer reading for this week…
Take 5 minutes to make a list of strategies and methods that
you can use to “chunk” larger pieces of text
You’ll be sharing your list and we will document your thinking
to share with everyone
*HINT: What do you know about how texts can be
“chunked”?
STRATEGIES TO USE:
 Breaking it down- by Subtitle- (Bolded, bigger font, colors, italics)
 Summarizing- by Paragraph or section
 Making connections
 Re-read
 Vocab  key words or words you don’t know
 Annotations- rephrasing in your own words so you can understand
 Visuals- either drawings- mental pictures
 Skim- focus on #s, or pictures, quotes in the reading- (topic sentence
and concluding sentence)
TAKEAWAYS…
Let’s wrap this up before our next session…
Give me THREE takeaways from this session..
3- Different strategies you will be “chunking” this
week’s reading with
2- Strategies that are not clear to you right now
1- Question or support you will need this week from
Morgana and your colleagues this week
SESSION 2:
“CHUNKING” TEXT
PRACTICE
Wasserman Ch 2
The Constitution
THIS SESSION…THE WORKSHOP
 You are practicing how to “chunk” the Wasserman reading
 You’ll read for 25 minutes ON YOUR OWN and keep track of how you
are “chunking”, how well you are UNDERSTANDING what you are
reading
 You’ll then be working in your reading cohorts to check in about what
you read and how well you understood the reading and YOUR
PROCESS for chunking
 You will be using a Thinking Log to keep track of WHAT you’re reading
and HOW you’re reading
 You’ll be making a plan for this week’s reading and schedule when and
how this reading will happen
LET’S TAKE A QUICK LOOK…
 Take 2 mins to “scan” , “survey”, “preview” the chapter as a whole
1.
What do you notice about how the chapter is set up?
2.
Are there aspects that look familiar? Different?
3.
Can you anticipate (predict) some challenges?
Take 1 min to talk to your SW partner
Bringing this out to the floor…
SOME HELP WITH ANNOTATIONS…
 The point of annotations is to keep track of what you’re reading and
how you’re understanding what you’re reading
Below are some codes to help you with this process…
= Confirms what you already thought
X = Contradicts (goes against what you thought)
??? = Confuses you
= Strikes you as important
= New or Interesting to you
WORKSHOP TIME…SOLO CHOLO!
 Time to put your money where your mouth is…
 You now have 25 minutes to begin to read Ch 2 SOLO CHOLO!
Some reminders what you are doing as you read:
 You are using a Thinking Log to keep track of what you read
 You are also keeping track of how you’re “chunking” the text
 How are you using annotations to help you UNDERSTAND the text
 Question to think about: HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU KNOW?
COHORT WORK…
 Now that you have read SOLO CHOLO…
 Time to check in with other brains to see how well you
understood what you read
 Get in your reading cohorts from last time (I will show
names again)
Roles for this session:
1. Main Idea(s) Worker-What is the main idea of section?
2. Vocab Worker-What are the key vocab to know?
3. Details Worker-What are the key details to know?
4. Confusions Worker-What are the confusion parts?
STEPS FOR YOUR COHORTS…
 Step 1: Decide on what “chunk” of the text you want to focus
on (it must be a section that everyone had a chance to read)
Step 2: Give every “worker” 5 minutes to prep their role for
the reading –you should be able to talk about your “job” to
everyone in cohort
Order for discussion of text:
Main idea worker reports first
2. Vocab worker reports second
1.
Details worker reports third
4. Confusions worker closes cohort work
3.
CLOSING THIS SESSION…
Now take a few minutes to do a couple of things before the next
session…
 Give yourself a rating for how well you understood the
“chunk” you read 1-5 (5 meaning you can explain it to a
stranger on the street)
 Make a plan for the next 48 hours:
 YOU NEED TO READ TO PAGE 32 BY NEXT SESSION
1.
When are you going to read the next “chunk”?
How are you going to “chunk” the next section?
3. What strategies will you use when you are confused?
2.
SESSION 3:
MOVING PAST
“ROADBLOCKS”
Wasserman Ch 2
The Constitution
WHAT YOU’RE DOING TODAY…
 You practiced “chunking” the last two sessions so that you can get
through readings faster…
 You had a chance to talk to colleagues in groups to break down these
“chunks” even more…
NOW…
You will be dealing with the reality of “ROADBLOCKS”
You will be thinking about how you get through parts of texts that are
tough
You will be creating and practicing with a chart to help you through
“ROADBLOCKS”
WHAT YOU’RE DOING BY SUNDAY…
Here is the prompt for Sunday Blog:
To what extent do you AGREE or DISAGREE that
the structure, values, principles, and/or ideas
embedded (inside) the Constitution can prevent our
democracy from collapsing.
Support your ideas using textual evidence from the
current chapter, as well as knowledge of the
incidences surrounding Hurricane Katrina.
PREAMBLE- ROADBLOCKS
 Take 2-3 mins to think about how you would get through
the following “roadblock”:
1. What is your brain doing as you attempt to understand
the confusions?
2. What is your body doing?
3. Do you have any strategies to get “through”?
ROADBLOCK EXAMPLE…
 “The widespread abuse of prisoners is a virtually foolproof
indication that politicians are trying to impose a system-whether political, religious or economic--that is rejected by
large numbers of the people they are ruling. Just as
ecologists define ecosystems by the presence of certain
"indicator species" of plants and birds, torture is an
indicator species of a regime that is engaged in a deeply
anti-democratic project, even if that regime happens to have
come to power through elections.”
― Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine:The Rise of Disaster
Capitalism
GETTING THROUGH CONFUSIONS…
 Confusions are a natural part of the reading process…
 It is from these confusions that we actually learn the best..
 So how do we get through them?????
We’re going to try something to help your brain figure out
ways of getting past the “ROADBLOCKS” in your head…
Let’s take a look at what A CLARIFICATION CHART is…
CLARIFICATION CHART
ROADBLOCK
(WHAT IS
SAYS)
QUESTION
(WHAT’S
CONFUSING?)
STRATEGY
(MY NEXT
STEP)
CLARIFICATION
(What I think it
means)
STEPS FOR CLARIFICATION
“ROADBLOCKS”
 Step 1: Ignore the unclear part and read to see if it
cleared up OR realizing it is not important
 Step 2: Re-read the unclear part more carefully
 Step 3: Re-read the sentences before the unclear part
 Step 4: Connecting the unclear part to something you
know
 Step 5: Get outside help (i.e. teacher, peers, internet,
etc)
CLARIFICATION CHART
ROADBLOCK
(WHAT IS
SAYS)
QUESTION
(WHAT’S
CONFUSING?)
STRATEGY
(MY NEXT
STEP)
CLARIFICATION
(What I think it
means)
“a harmonious
How can you
system of mutual have mutual
frustration.”
frustration?
What does that
-page 29, last
mean?
sentence in
paragraph 2
• Re-read
the
sentences
before to
figure it
out
Not a very fast way
to get things done,
SOP & C&B, makes
sure that power
isn’t abused
WORKSHOP TIME…IN TWOS…
 Today you are working in your Star Wars pairs…
 What you’re focusing on today…
Section titled: FOUR MAJOR CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES
PAGES 26-32
 In SW partners, find the most confusing parts of the section that both
of you had issues with
 Create a “Clarification Chart” that works best for the both of you
 Begin to GET THROUGH those confusions together…
 We will be discussing these confusions together on the floor…
CONFUSIONS PAGES 26-32
ROADBLOCK
(WHAT IS
SAYS)
QUESTION
(WHAT’S
CONFUSING?)
STRATEGY
(MY NEXT
STEP)
CLARIFICATION
(What I think it
means)
DEBRIEF OF “ROADBLOCK” WORK…
 The reality is that you will be ALL BY YOURSELF with
something like this more than you can imagine.
 Do you know what to do and how to get through
“ROADBLOCKS”?
Take 3 mins to reflect on how this can be applied to your
individual work this year and next when it comes to reading
confusing texts?
Bringing this out to the floor one last time…
GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY BLOG…
Here is the prompt for Sunday Blog:
To what extent do you AGREE or DISAGREE that the structure, values,
principles, and/or ideas embedded (inside) the Constitution can prevent
our democracy from collapsing.
Support your ideas using textual evidence from the current chapter, as well
as knowledge of the incidences surrounding Hurricane Katrina.
Take now a few minutes to begin to connect what you read this week and
how you will manage this response by Sunday night…
Brainstorm, re-read sections of the reading that work for this, etc…