Copy - Education Mind Map

Strategies for Complex Text

"Reading" Visuals

Collaborative Structures

Other Ideas

Ask Three Sources

Short-cycle formative

Philosophical Chairs

AVID Protocols

Graffiti Boards

One Pagers

Pre/Post/Self Assessments

Interpret Evidence / Determine Next Steps

Text-Based

Text-Based

Socratic Sem

Formative Assessments

Assessments

Assessments

Six-Word Memoir

Self Monitoring

Sources: Rigor by Design by Karin Hess Critical Thinking & Engagement AVID

"Reading" Visuals

Using visuals that require little to no reading can be an effective way to introduce, provide or assess background knowledge. Layering this with a collaborative structure adds complexity to the task.

• Visuals may include: Photographs, symbols. illustrations, flowcharts, etc.

Ask three sources

Providing students with a prompt and have them seek information from at least 3 other sources before coming together to address the prompt and new information

• Peers, Curriculum, Texts, Databases, etc.

Six-Word Memoir or Story

The Six-Word Memoir is a writing activity that challenges participants to tell a story using only six words. The goal is to distill information into a concise and impactful statement. This exercise encourages reflection, and creativity.

Got an idea?

The one-pager is a strategy designed to guide text-based discussions. Applications beyond Language Arts:

• Mathematics: Showcase different representations of the same mathematical concept on their one-pager, supplementing it with real-life applications or outlining the steps taken to reach a solution.
• History and Science: In these subjects, one-pagers can be structured to demonstrate understanding of cause-and-effect relationships within a historical event or scientific phenomenon.

Philosophical Chairs

Philosophical Chairs is a structured form of academic discourse which relies on a prompt as the foundation for discussion and informed debate. It is a form of dialogue in which students develop a deeper understanding of a text or subject. This strategy gives students opportunities to improve verbal capability and fluency, as well as develop skills in the precise use of academic language.

Socratic Seminars

Socratic Seminars are a structured, collaborative dialogue, focusing on a common text or resource, which students have analyzed and toward which they have prepared questions to spur the discussion. This strategy provides a format for students to practice skills in critical thinking, reading, and inquiry, as they participate in the inquiry-based dialogue.

Collaborative Structures

Collaborative structures are effective methods to work together in a way that brings collaboration to life, and a way in which students will come to own most of the talking and interactions. These can be used as short-cycle formative performance assessements.

Graffiti Board

A graffiti board is a way to gather ideas in response to an open-ended question, data set, text, artifact, photo, or event. Once ideas are posted you can process them by asking what do you notice? Can we categorize these? Themes? Conflicts?

• Post it notes, Whiteboard
• Google Slide/Doc, Canva, Padlet,etc

Response to Text

This particular strategy helps students utilize meta-cognition. They must identify the strategy they are using in order to address the question or prompt

Formative Assessments

Formative Assessments are crucial to supporting students throughout their skill-building experience. These can be the "drills" and "scrimmages" prior to "game-time"

• Strategies Linked to the left
• Bookmark - As you read
• Card Pyramid
• Writing in the Margins*
• Text Dependant Questions*

Pre/Post/Self Assessments

Word Splash | Teachers can use Word Splash to determine common misunderstandings Vocabulary Awareness Chart | Teachers can this strategy as pre, post, or self assessment of students understanding. It can also support teaching and understanding of context clues as a prediction tool.