Category Archives: Reading

Incomplete Outline

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The incomplete outline is an excellent way of helping the students recognize the most important or main ideas and the organizational pattern of information given in lecture. It can also be used for the textbook readings/information. Determining the major points can help to sort information and locate the ideas being communicated.

  1. Create a set of incomplete lecture or reading notes in outline format, so some key lines/phrases are missing. What you leave missing from the outline can create a more or less challenging activity, depending on what you need.  For instance, asking students to fill in the word for a definition vs. providing a term and asking them to define it. Or, another example, asking students to label a diagram you provide vs. asking them to draw and label the diagram on their own.
  2. Divide students into pairs or small groups and ask them to fill in the outline together.

Variant: Divide your incomplete outline into sections and assign a different section to each pair or group. Ask the groups to complete their outlines. Once finished, provide each student with their own full blank outline to fill in as groups get up and teach their section’s content to the class. Each group will have a chance to go through and explain their section of the outline. This generates more discussion among the students. Keep in mind, there may be more than one way to fill in missing parts of the outline. 

Reading: Divide & Conquer

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This strategy is designed to conquer a reading assignment. It works great for reading that may be more difficult or important, but could work with any peer reviewed article or textbook chapter that the class is assigned.

  1. Ask students to bring the reading they are working on.
  2. Divide the reading up into sections. (Pro Tip: Do this ahead of time when you’re planning your session.)
  3. If you have a smaller group, assign a section to every student. If you have a larger group, ask students to get into smaller groups and assign a section to each group.
  4. Students will read and summarize their assigned section. Their summary should be 3-5 key points or sentences.
  5. Ask each student or group to present their summary.
  6. Encourage students to ask questions and be prepared as the SI Leader to emphasize areas students may have overlooked. (Pro Tip: As you’re doing the reading beforehand, use a post-it note and create a list of points you want to make sure students don’t miss.)
  7. After everyone has presented, discuss the article as a whole.

IDEA: Get one student volunteer to stand up at the whiteboard and make a concept map or mind map based on the summaries each group presents.

Current Events

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Bring in copies of a credible article, infographic, or similar document relevant to what students are currently learning. Have students read the article and highlight any points they found interesting or that they did not understand/follow/agree with and then discuss the points raised. You could do something similar with YouTube videos or TED Talks.

This can allow students to see beyond the material presented in class and apply that material to real life situations or other knowledge they already have. It can also help to answer the question “what am I going to need this for?”

Previewing: Haven’t started anything new in class yet? Pick out an article about the content coming up. You don’t have to be responsible for introducing students to new course content, but you can prime their brains for the topic by thinking about current events.

Adapted from the International Center for Supplemental Instruction