STRATEGY INSTRUCTION #4

NAME: McKayla Jacobs

CONTENT AREA: Study Skills
GROUP SIZE: Whole Class of 14 students
STRATEGY: Annotating the Text
RATIONALE: I chose to teach the skill of annotating a text because a lot of my students struggle with
comprehension skills. Every other week, the students are given a NewsELA story to read with
comprehension questions linked to it. In order to help the students succeed, I chose to teach them ways to
annotate the text.
STEPS OF STRATEGY:
First: I began by reading the NewsELA story with my students. I chose to have the students “popcorn”
read because this is normally what my cooperating teacher does, so the students are used to that format. I
asked for a volunteer to begin reading and then choose the next reader. Each student read two paragraphs
then the reading was passed on. Due to the length of the story this week, not all of my students were able
to read.
Second: I asked the students to go back through the story and circle any unfamiliar words. I asked for
volunteers to give me an example of any unfamiliar words they circled.
Third: I asked the students to go back through each paragraph and mark a check mark for if they
understand the paragraph or a question mark if they do not understand. I asked for volunteers to tell me
which paragraphs they did not understand and we discussed the paragraphs as a class.
Fourth: I asked the student to go back through each paragraph and mark a plus sign if they agree with the
paragraph or a minus sign if they do not agree with the paragraph. I asked for volunteers to give me
examples of paragraphs they marked as either agree or disagree.
Fifth: I asked the students to re-read the story and make their own different annotations by following a
chart I displayed. The chart is as follows:

________ (Underline) Main Idea/ Central Idea for Each Section

⭐ Important Details in Sections
📝 (Write in the Margins) Section Summary
As the students finished, I asked them to raise their hand so I could check their work. After I checked, I
told the students to move on to answer the comprehension questions then turn it in.
ACCOMMODATIONS/MODIFICATIONS:
All the students in my class have an IEP, so the story and questions have been modified to accommodate
their abilities and needs.
PERSONAL REFLECTION:
This strategy went really well with all of my students. I followed up with the student’s reading teachers at
the end of the week to check their grades on the NewsELA and a lot of them improved their scores with
the comprehension questions this week. If I would teach this lesson again, I would work through the
annotations while reading the story rather than having the student go back. I realized after it was wasting
time by having the students go back through the story. Where if I would have gone over the chart prior to
reading, we could have marked the annotations while reading the NewsELA rather than after.