Paragraph Shrinking
Definition:
"The paragraph shrinking strategy allows each student to take turns reading, pausing, and summarizing the main points of each paragraph. Students provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension," (Reading Rockets, 2014).
The Steps to Implement Paragraph Shrinking:
"The paragraph shrinking strategy allows each student to take turns reading, pausing, and summarizing the main points of each paragraph. Students provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension," (Reading Rockets, 2014).
The Steps to Implement Paragraph Shrinking:
- Choose a reading assignment for the students.
- Pair students together. It is best to pair high readers with low readers.
- Have students take turns being the "player" and "coach."
- The "player" reads for a certain amount of time, stopping after each paragraph to summarize the main points.
- The "coach" will have the player skim the passage again if his/her summary is inaccurate.
- Finally, the "player" attempts to summarize the passage in ten words or less.
- Have the students switch roles and play again, (All About Adolescent Literacy, 2014).
Benefits of this Strategy:
- Develops comprehension skills.
- Practice picking out main points.
- Students work together to improve on reading, (Reading Rockets, 2014).
Video 1: This video starts out explaining what comprehension is. It also gives some characteristics of someone who struggles with comprehension. It then gives a short explanation about paragraph shrinking. After all of the information, it goes through an example of what paragraph shrinking should look like. It is two adults doing the paragraph shrinking, but it is a very good example of what it should look like. They go through all of the steps, and explain the directions well. The student is assessed over the reading by answering the who, what, and main idea of the reading. They are also assessed on their summary of ten words or less.
Video 2: This video is a short example of paragraph shrinking, but instead of two students reading a passage, it is a student and a teacher. In this example, the teacher is using this method as a reading intervention. The teacher is the coach and the student is the player. The student reads a short passage, and tries to summarize it in ten words or less. The first try he shrinks the paragraph to eleven words, and the teacher makes him try again. On the second try, the student shrinks the paragraph to seven words.
Writing Component:
The writing component for this activity is a fairly simple one. Have the student write down their shrunken paragraph of ten words or less. This will help the teacher assess whether or not the students grasped the main topic of the reading.
Writing Standard Addressed:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.5
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Sources:
Paragraph Shrinking. (2014). In All About Adolescent Literacy. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from
http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23331/.
Paragraph Shrinking. (2014). In Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paragraph_shrinking.
The writing component for this activity is a fairly simple one. Have the student write down their shrunken paragraph of ten words or less. This will help the teacher assess whether or not the students grasped the main topic of the reading.
Writing Standard Addressed:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.5
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Sources:
Paragraph Shrinking. (2014). In All About Adolescent Literacy. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from
http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23331/.
Paragraph Shrinking. (2014). In Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paragraph_shrinking.