1. Active Reading Series: Using critical annotating to solve a mystery…

2. Remember this? A good reader PAUSES! P: Establish a reading purpose
What are your reasons for reading the text?
A: Create an annotation guide
What system will you use to identify important information that links to your reading purpose and what you know?
U: Underline important points and write in the margins
How will I mark the text and write in the margins to fulfil my reading purpose?
S: Stop to make connections
How does this text relate to what I know, other texts and the world?
 E: Explore questions and unknown words or points
How can I answer any questions that I posed and find out more about the topics or ideas in the reading?
S: Summarise
Overall, what were the key ideas or points in the reading which relate to my reading purpose?

3. Your mission
Your mission today is to work in groups to read through and solve a mystery
You will be applying the PAUSES strategies to help you figure out the solution
The first part will involve you establishing your reading purpose, reading and annotating
The second part will involve you discussing the reading with your group to solve the mystery
There will be roles for every group member so all people contribute to the effort of the team and so all PAUSES strategies will be used

4. Group Roles: DIRECTOR:
Your job is to direct the flow of conversation, make sure everyone is on task and make sure all group members participate in the discussion about the reading
QUESTIONER:
Your job is to ask questions about the reading that stimulate deeper thinking and solutions
CONNECTOR:
Your job is to make connections between what you are reading to your life, other texts and the world to help solve the mystery
SUMMARISER:
Your job is to put the group’s thoughts about the reading into your own words in a way that fulfils your reading purpose

5. Group roles -preparing
Get into groups of 4
Make sure someone in your group has a computer
Log on to Compass and click on your schedule
Click on ‘Advisory’ for today’s date
Here you will find some information about your group roles and what each person needs to do.
Work out who will take on each role
You will also find a link to a ‘spinning wheel’ for each group role. This is to be used after reading, not now, to prompt you with questions if you get stuck

6. Reading Purpose: Before reading, let’s define our reading purpose:
We are reading to locate clues that can help us find out who stole the diamond necklace
If we turned this into a question, it would be:
What clues helped us figure out the identity of the diamond necklace thief?

7. Now, Create your Own Annotation Guide
You can decide to colour-code the different points you annotate in a reading, or you can create your own symbols. Here is one way of doing it:
Underline any important ideas or events related to the reading purpose (eg: key ideas, themes, symbols, ‘clues’) :__________
Circle key words or phrases:
Asterisk any important bits of evidence (eg: quotations, statistics, key specific facts): *
Question-mark the parts which you want to know more about or are confused about, then ask a question in the margins: ?
Place an exclamation point next to anything that surprises you: !

8. Read and Annotate Away!
You may want to read aloud in a group and annotate as you go, looking for clues and important information that helps you solve the mystery
Alternatively, you might want to read and annotate quietly, then reconvene as a group

9. Mystery Solving Time –time to connect, explore questions and summarise!
Now it’s time to discuss the reading with your group, taking on your group roles
It is the director’s job to open up the discussion
It might be a good idea to work through connections first
Then you can explore any questions
Leave summarising until the end. However, the summariser should be taking notes of all the clues discussed
Remember you can click on the links for the group role spinning wheels to give you discussion prompts if you are stuck

10. Exit Slip: Summarise As a group, look at the notes the summariser took
‘Chunk’ the clues or notes into parts and come up with a short statement that answers your reading purpose question
Your summariser will act as scribe and will guide you through this
You can find instructions under the ‘group roles’ descriptions under ‘summariser’
You will share this with the class during the next session

11. Summarising: A sentence starter:
We believe __________ stole the diamond necklace, because… First, [briefly summarise reason #1]… Then, [briefly summarise reason #2]… Finally, [briefly summarise reason #3]… ….