Disaster Strikes

1. Disaster Strikes 2.2.2 Text Features

2. Materials Needed • “Disaster Strikes” article • Pen/pencil • paper

3. Carousel Brainstorm – Activating background knowledge • You are divided into four groups and each have a different colored writing utensil. • There are four papers coming to your group with four different headings. • The people of the Titanic • The Titanic tragedy • The problems/flaws with the ship • Knowledge about icebergs

4. Carousel Brainstorm – cont. • You have two minutes for each paper to brainstorm all terms associated with the topic. Write all terms you think of on the paper. • Brainstorming means you write all terms that come to mind. Don’t filter ideas out (as long as they are school appropriate).

5. Carousel Brainstorm – cont. • After two minutes you will pass your paper to the group to your right and receive a paper from the group to your left. • Eventually your brainstorm will be on all four sheets. • After brainstorming is complete, you will present your original sheet with all its terms to the class.

6. Vocabulary Development– Skim/Scan for Parentheses • Skim/scan the article “Disaster Strikes” for vocabulary words that are defined within a set of parenthesis (there are 10). • What is the purpose of the parenthesis when used like this? • This author uses parenthesis to dine words the reader may not know. • Always look for context clues to a word’s definition in your reading.

7. Previewing: Text Features • Look at this article’s magazine-style layout: • Call-outs • Text boxes • Captions under pictures & photos • What would you read first? Mark what areas you would read first, second, and so on. There are 16 areas. Why did you choose to read them in that order? Top to bottom? Left to right?

8. Setting a Purpose • You will read this article to explore how one author organized information on a page and to use that pattern to comprehend the information. • Remember the GLE we are focusing on is 2.2.2 Text Features. We will use a “Chunking” activity to read this article.

9. Chunking Text Features • Is it true that any place you start in the text is just as effective? • Does every reader have to start in the same place? • Are there some places that are more effective than others? • Chunking: find similar kinds of information.

10. Chunking “Fatal Flaws” • Let’s read the text box “When people say,” and “Fatal Flaws” out loud. • What information connects the two chunks together? • Highlight a rectangle around both sections to show they go together. • As you read with a partner, decide which other parts should be chunked together. Mark these chunks with a highlighter.

11. Finding the Main Idea • Let’s look at the “Fatal Flaws” chunk again. Highlight key words that indicate the main idea. • Take the highlighted words and write a one sentence summary of this chunk. Include two details from the text in the summary. • Continue writing one sentence summaries for each chunk in this article.

12. Summarizing with Main Ideas • Who will read his/her summary? • What is the main idea? • Raise your hand if your summary is similar. • Whose summaries are different? Share. • What are all the main ideas of this article?

13. Learning Log • Respond to this question on your paper. • How has studying the organizational pattern of this article helped you understand the content of the text? When will you use this in the future?