Strategy Toolbox
Kristi Philips
Table of Contents
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Researched Based
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KWL
THIEVES
Text Structure Organizing
Anticipation Guides
Cloze Connections
Concept Definition Mapping
Directed Reading/Thinking Activity
Structured Note-taking
Retelling
Table of Contents (cont.)
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Best Practice
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Sticky Note Snapshots
Think-Pair-Share
Do the BK
Brainstorm and Sort
Dialogue Comic Strip
Venn Diagram
Semantic Mapping
Group Summarizing
SEARCH Strategy
Sensory Imagery
Table of Contents (cont.)
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Original strategies
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Element Ads
Singing Raps
Write to a Friend
Role Playing
Toss the Ball
What is a Strategy?
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A strategy is a series of flexible steps to solve
a problem and becomes automatic.
KWL Charts (Ogle, 1986)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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KWL uses three columns in which to write down information that we
“KNOW” (background knowledge) – “Want to Know” (establish
purpose) – and have “Learned” (main idea).
Helps students connect to background knowledge, and develops habits
of summarizing, questioning, predicting, inferring, and figuring out word
meaning.
How does it work?
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Create the 3 columns on their paper and on the board.
Ask the students what they know (prompt them) and fill in the first
column.
Ask the students what they want to know and fill in the second column.
Have the students read the text.
Have the students answer their questions from column 2 in column 3.
THIEVES
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What is it?
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An acronym that helps students go through all the necessary prereading steps: Title, Headings, Introduction, Everything they know,
Visuals, End of Ch. materials, and “So what?”.
Why use it?
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(Manz, 2002)
To get students to build knowledge of the text even before they
read it.
How does it work?
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Tell the students “We now get to become information thieves!”.
Lets try to steal as much information from the chapter before we
read it.
Give the students a “Thieves” practice form and model each of the
7 components: Title, Headings, Introduction, Everything they
know, Visuals, End of Ch. materials, and “So what?”.
Text Structure Organizing
(Alvermann & Phelps, 2001)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Looking at the title and headings of text to tell a reader how
the author constructed the text.
Trains students to recognize the common forms of text
structure, and how to pick out “signal words”.
How does it work?
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Read a sample text.
Students pick out signal words.
Teachers help pick out the appropriate graphic organizer.
Help the students fill in the organizer.
Anticipation Guides
(Tierney & Readance, 1999)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Prediction guides that activate a student’s prior knowledge
and set a purpose for reading.
Serve as springboards for modifying beliefs and opinions
about a topic.
How does it work?
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Identify a major concept, problem or opinion.
Create statements that question certain notions, beliefs or
opinions and put them on a guide for the students.
Students mark their responses.
Students read the text.
Students fill out the “after reading” section.
Discussion
Cloze Connections
(Dewitz, Carr, & Patberg, 1987)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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A strategy to show how to connect our background knowledge
with text information to make an inference.
Helps students build the habit of figuring out vocabulary in
context, and also how to make an inference.
How does it work?
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Delete key words or phrases from the text.
Have students fill in the missing words or phrases by looking at
the rest of the text.
Have students underline the words or phrases that helped
them decide what was missing.
Discuss their answers with a partner.
Concept Definition Mapping
(Schwartz, 1988)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Strategy for teaching students the meaning of key concepts.
Helps students understand the essential attributes, qualities, or
characteristics of a word’s meaning.
How does it work?
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Display an example of a concept map.
Discuss the questions that you want answered.
Model how to use it by selecting a familiar example.
Have the students make one for a familiar example.
Working in pairs complete a concept map for the current topic.
Directed Reading/Thinking Activity
(Stauffer, 1969)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Reading activity with 3 phases: Predicting, reading, and
proving.
Gives students practice in active reading skills. Helps them look
at heading and subheading.
How does it work?
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Students preview the assignment by looking at the title,
subtitles, and pictures.
Students predict what they think will happen.
Read a portion of the assignment.
Discuss their prediction and allow them to make new
predictions.
Continue until finished.
Structured Note-taking
(Smith & Tompkins, 1988)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Note-taking system that assists in recall and retention of
information.
It offers students a visual framework that can help them determine
just which information to include as they take notes.
How does it work?
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Instruct the students as to which type of organization the author
used.
Model the note-taking process for your students.
Assign a passage from the text for the students to take notes over.
Give them an organizer the first few times and then have them
create their own.
Share their information with a partner.
Retelling
(Gambrell, Koskinen, & Kapinus, 1991)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Strategy where the student is responsible for retelling what
they remember from the story.
It prepares students for real-life tasks such as selecting ,
organizing, and conveying important information.
How does it work?
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The students are provided with a copy of a story map to
guide comprehension.
The story is read.
Students are asked to retell the story – if they are unable to
remember a part, the teacher may ask a question to cue
recall.
The retelling may be taped to further grade the assignment.
Sticky note Snapshots
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Visualizing activity using sticky notes.
It allows students to move the images while at the same
time creating them to meet the needs of the text. I also
develops inferring, predicting and summarizing skills.
How does it work?
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Tell your students to draw pictures on the sticky notes as
they read a section of the text.
May include a brief description on back of note.
When everyone is finished have them put them on a poster
board and explain their pictures.
Think–Pair-Share
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Quick verbal interaction between 2 students that allows
them to process the content being learned.
Pushes students to organize thoughts well enough to
communicate them with a peer.
How does it work?
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Create a prompt to get the students to use their background
knowledge.
Students think silently and prepare what they will say.
Share with their partner.
Share what their partner said with the rest of the class.
Do the BK
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Kinesthetic way to build background knowledge for a text.
Research shows that learners connect to experiences that they
have seen or done themselves.
How does it work?
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Choose an idea, process, or section from the text.
Create ways to act out an idea (miming, gesturing).
Do the motions as you explain the idea you are conveying.
Have the students also act out the idea as you lead them.
Brainstorm and Sort
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Pre-reading activity to get various ideas from the students
about the topic.
Exposes students to a wide range of collective background
knowledge that will help connect to the new topic. Used for
building classifying and categorizing skills.
How does it work?
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Teacher prompts the students to start discussing the topic.
Accept all student responses.
Write all ideas on the board.
Ask students to start sorting the ideas into categories.
Create a semantic map and allow the students to use it as a
note-taking sheet.
Dialogue Comic Strip
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Comic strips are created to help students summarize and infer
concepts or topics.
Sometimes topics are confusing or difficult to understand until
they are used in a funny way.
How does it work?
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Model the process of creating funny conversations between
animals, or even between 2 numbers in math.
Have the students come up with some of their own comic strips
that relate to the topic being covered.
Share their comic strip with a partner and then with the class.
Venn Diagram
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Visual representation used to compare and contrast books,
or principles.
Students can visually see the areas that are common to
both items.
How does it work?
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Draw 2 interconnecting circles.
Read the assignment.
Complete the diagram.
Share their diagrams and explain their thinking.
Semantic Mapping
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Visual tool that helps readers activate and draw on prior
knowledge, recognize important concepts, and see
relationships.
Some students understand a concept better when they can
visually see how everything fits together.
How does it work?
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Write the subject in the middle of the board.
Think of words that relate to the subject.
Students write these words down and categorize them.
Students share their maps with the class.
Group Summarizing
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Students categorize information into groups to better
understand the reading assignment.
Helps students review and remember information. Requires
students to distinguish between key concepts and subordinate
ideas and condense information.
How does it work?
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Students survey a text passage to identify major topics.
Divide paper into 4 parts with headings (provides purpose).
Read the text.
Record information under each heading in complete
sentences.
Develop class summaries.
Search Strategy
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Activity used to research a topic. The topic should have a focus or a
question to be answered.
Stimulates students to find answers to questions they have generated
from their reading. It will mean more to them if they try to answer their
own questions.
How does it work?
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Select a topic.
Establish what students know, think they know, and want to know.
Ask questions to raise curiosity and to challenge students.
Read resource material.
Come together like scholars to share.
Have a large group discussion.
Sensory Imagery
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Imagining what something looks like, smells like, feels like,
even tastes like to help students connect new information to
prior knowledge.
Comprehension, recall, and retention can be enhanced
through sensory imaging while reading.
How does it work?
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Select a passage of text.
Read the passage aloud as the students follow along.
Stop and ask students to imagine the scene.
Select another passage and have students share their
images.
Reinforce the use of this strategy during independent
reading.
Element Ads (original)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Student created advertisement to sell their “element”.
Students will be more interested in learning about the different
elements if they have a reason to learn the characteristics.
How does it work?
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Students (with a partner) each draw an element out of the hat.
Read and research their element.
Create a new “product” to sell to the class.
Perform their advertisement in front of the class.
Singing Raps (original)
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Using student created rap songs to remember various laws
and principles in science.
Students remember topics better the more they work with
them. By writing the lyrics to a song they spend a lot of time
working with the idea. They also like to create their own
beat and rhythm.
How does it work?
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Give the students a law or principle to describe.
Have them create the lyrics to a song.
Add background beats and rhythms.
Write to a Friend
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Writing activity that students to explain what they read by
writing a letter to a friend.
Students are more comfortable talking to a friend and by using
this type of writing activity, they will put their learning into their
own words.
How does it work?
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Students read a section of their book.
Write a letter to a friend in the class explaining what they
learned from the section and asking their friends any questions
that they might have.
Share their letters.
Write a second letter answering any questions they had for
each other.
Role playing
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Students act out various aspects to a particular subject.
When students put themselves in another person’s position,
it makes them more aware of how someone else is feeling.
It also demonstrates how to make difficult decisions and
allows them to practice.
How does it work?
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A particular topic is brought up in class.
Instead of telling students both sides to the issue, assign
different students the various scenarios that could be
related to that topic.
Allow the students to act them out in front of the class.
Classroom discussion of the issue.
Toss the Ball
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What is it?
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Why use it?
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Activity to discuss everything that was talked about during the
class hour.
The students who would not usually speak up are given a chance
to contribute to the class. Ideas and topics are discussed that may
not have been thought about.
How does it work?
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Teacher tosses the ball to anyone in the class.
That student needs to tell something they remember about class
that day. It could be something they liked or didn’t like, or it might
be a question they still have.
That student then passes the ball to someone else in the class.
They respond. Continue until everyone gets a chance to speak.