Communications 11

Comprehend and Respond
(Strategies and Skills )

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

It is expected that students will:

• use a variety of strategies before, during, and after reading, viewing, or listening to increase comprehension and recall
• construct and confirm meaning using word-structure analysis, context clues, and prominent organizational patterns
• apply appropriate strategies for locating and using information from a variety of print and non-print resources, including electronic resources
• demonstrate efficient note-taking strategies

   

Suggested Instructional Strategies

• Give students the title and topic of a selection. Ask them to brainstorm what they already know about the topic or can predict from the title. In groups, have students formulate three questions about the selection. Ask each group to write its questions on the board. Have each student choose a question to answer in a written or oral presentation after reading, viewing, or listening to the selection. As a final activity, have students write response journal entries about their new understanding of the topic.
• Demonstrate to students common techniques for conveying information in informational documents, such as:
  • titles, headings, and subheadings
  • clear structure and visual design
  • side bars
  • summaries
  • indices and tables of content
  • highlighted vocabulary
  • icons
  • graphs, charts, and diagrams
  • photos and illustrations

  Then have students look for examples of these techniques in a selection of documents, list their findings, and discuss the effectiveness of each technique.

• Teach students the two-column note format, in which the main points are placed in the left column and supporting information in the right column. Then divide the class into groups and give each group a research topic and a variety of types of information about the topic (e.g., newspaper articles, Internet materials, photographs, graphs, charts). Have each group create a two-column set of notes on poster paper. Post the notes on a classroom wall and have the groups do a Gallery Walk. Ask students to rephrase the information in each poster into a set of questions and to identify any questions not answered by the notes. As a class, have students discuss what they learned about each of the topics from the notes.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

• Have students keep ongoing lists of skills and strategies they are developing, along with examples of how and when they have used each one. From time to time, ask them to review their lists and comment on strategies they:
• frequently use for specific kinds of tasks
• rely on for a wide variety of tasks
• do not find useful
• have difficulty using
• As students work with selections, look for evidence that they can use effective note-taking skills. Use criteria such as:
• summarizes main ideas
• turns headings into questions
• finds supporting details
• defines unfamiliar vocabulary Develop a class rating scale that can be used for self-, peer, and teacher assessment of a set of notes.
• Assess students' comprehension skills and strategies in a variety of independent and group contexts. Look for evidence that they can:
• describe problems when they have difficulty
• suggest appropriate strategies or approaches
• consider their purpose and the nature of the problems in choosing approaches
• persist, trying different approaches when one is not effective
• objectively analyse what worked and how they can apply what they've learned to new situations

Recommended Learning Resources

Print Material

• The Communications Handbook
• Reading and Writing for Success

Multimedia

• Breakthroughs

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Maintained by: English Language Arts Coordinator

Revised: March 5, 1999

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