1. This Is About An After-Reading Activity

2. This Is About Purpose of the strategy: Often we read texts (articles, reports, novels poems, etc.) that contain many different ideas and pieces of information in them. Often we read texts (articles, reports, novels poems, etc.) that contain many different ideas and pieces of information in them. Usually, there are different layers of ideas in what we read. Usually, there are different layers of ideas in what we read.

3. This strategy will help students get as many ideas out of a text as they can, and then make some decisions about which ideas are most important to the author and interesting to them. This strategy will help students get as many ideas out of a text as they can, and then make some decisions about which ideas are most important to the author and interesting to them.

4. When to use this strategy: After students have read a text and are trying to figure out which ideas are most important or interesting. After students have read a text and are trying to figure out which ideas are most important or interesting.

5. Directions Ask students to complete the following statement about [the text] in at least ten different ways: Ask students to complete the following statement about [the text] in at least ten different ways: “__________ is a [story, poem, essay, paragraph, section] about ___________” “__________ is a [story, poem, essay, paragraph, section] about ___________”

6. Example... Macbeth is a play about:  1. ambition  2. a dysfunctional marriage marriage  3. witchcraft  4. how a guilty conscience can drive you insane  5. betraying friends  6. how power corrupts  7. how you can't escape your fate  8. how one bad act leads to another and another...  9. what it meant to be a man and what it meant to be a woman during the time of this play  10. riddles and their twisted meanings, etc.

7. Scaffolded Practice:  Students are to make individual lists. These lists are shared (in pairs, groups or whole class) with students adding other ideas to their lists as they hear them.

8. Applications: Depending on Teacher’s Purpose  1. Students can choose an idea they would like to write about or explore further  2. Teachers can guide a discussion about which ideas are central and which are supporting (useful with a nonfiction text)  3. Teachers can ask students to work in groups from the master list of ideas and create an outline of the text or a graphic organizer (tree, Venn diagram, etc.) (tree, Venn diagram, etc.)

9. Note to Teacher …  This process reinforces the idea that different readers get different meanings out of texts, while also requiring students to come to some consensus, with the support of the teacher, on the key or crucial ideas needed to comprehend the author's intention in the text.

10. Final Product for Lesson  Choose a text in your discipline to use for a lesson that incorporates “This Is About”  Choose a text in your discipline to use for a lesson that incorporates “This Is About” (Download the “This is About” document)  Conduct the lesson for one or more of your classes  Submit the lesson plan, a copy of the text, a professional reflection ( what went well, what could be improved, etc...) and a student work sample  Submit the lesson plan, a copy of the text, a professional reflection ( what went well, what could be improved, etc...) and a student work sample (Download “Teacher Reflection” document)