1. Talking to the Text (TttT) Essential Question: Explain how to use the reading strategies “Talking-to-the-text” and “Chunking” and evaluate which parts of these overall strategies assist you more in comprehensive reading.

2. Talking to the Text (TtT) Preview Talking to the Text (TttT) means “talking” with your pencil on a text. It is like having an imaginary conversation with the piece of writing that you are reading. The purpose of this strategy is to:  Identify main ideas for different selections of text  Develop your metacognitive skills (Thinking about your thinking)  Better determine what you understand and what you don’t understand when it comes to reading  Become a critical reader

3. Step One: Scanning. Briefly scan the piece of text looking for any words or phrases that may be familiar to you. See if, by doing this, you can form an idea of what the text might possibly be about. Do not spend too much time on this, the purpose is just to give you an idea of what you MIGHT be reading about

4. Step Two: Marking the text As you read the text for the first time, use your pencil to make the following marks:  Underline words or phrases that you think are important- Clues to this can be repetition, words in bold or italicized although they do not have to be. Remember to trust your instincts.  Circle any words that you do not understand or are not familiar with

5. Strategies to use during as you read/mark the text (step 1-3 Chunking is exactly what it sounds like. You break down a tough word, sentence, or paragraph into easier-to-read chunks. Chunk in a way that is clear to you, either by circling pieces of text or using dashes (/) to separate chunks. An easy way to chunk is by circling/numbering paragraphs You wouldn’t eat a whole cake in one meal, so why try to digest an entire text at once?

6. Chunking Example

7. Step Three: Annotations Once you have finished your “first read” and have circled and underlined, go back and read for purpose (understanding the text):  As you read, look to the words/phrases you underlined as being important. Draw a line from the word/phrase you underlined to the margin. Neatly in the margin write down your thoughts about why you underlined that word or phrase.  For words or phrases that you circled, repeat the line process and write down what you THINK the word or phrase might mean- IT’S OK TO BE WRONG

8. Step Four: Evidence and Interpretation After you have finished reading and annotating the text, read it again trying as best as you can to understand your reading:  This is where you can really “Talk-to-the-text.” Imagine that you could question or argue with the author. Using the “Evidence and Interpretation” Worksheet, identify key points or concepts from the text. Using the Evidence column, copy down the sentence or phrase from the text Then in the Interpretation colum write down any thoughts, comments, questions, or concerns you came up with as a result of reading the text.

9. Strategies to use for step 4 Analyze- break down the information to examine the individual ideas Infer- make educated guesses based on the evidence in the text and what you already know Predict- guess what will happen based on what you know. Main ideas/Details- analyze how the author organizes information using main ideas and details.

10. Step Five: Metacognitive Survey Read the text one final time and then answer the questions in the survey on the back of the “Evidence/Interpretation” worksheet:  Read each question carefully and answer it using complete sentences.  As you answer the questions, be as detailed as possible- Don’t rush  Be honest about what you “got” and what you did not.  You are not being graded on how well you understood the reading.