Text Mapping: Marking it Up!

Text mapping is probably my favorite discovery, and when used in conjunction with close reading, it can completely revolutionize the way both you and your students approach reading.

When following various reading programs, we can become overwhelmed with the need to teach specific skills, with which students become masters when they are in an isolated format. For instance,  when teaching cause and effect, the reading series would have a weekly story, workbook pages, leveled readers, etc. that all lend themselves to...cause and effect! These are great when the skill is completely new, however, when looking across various grade levels this format stays pretty similar. Meaning that this text structure is taught in an almost identical way for multiple years in a row. So when are students placed in situations where they are utilizing various skills and strategies in a "real world" context? We know that text in the real world is not set up with these ideal circumstances. Students need time to become better readers overall, and when do they have that time to just work through text and think about what they are reading to deepen understanding? This is why I love text mapping and close reading so much!

Of course, an understanding and foundation with all skills and strategies is important and there is definitely a place for this focused instruction in our literacy block. However, text mapping and close reading give us the chance to deepen the thinking that our students are doing while they are reading a text. I have found over and over again, that by focusing my time on these types of activities, my students naturally became better at the use of every skill and strategy. The lessons that I have taught in the past were so much more meaningful because my students were looking at all text in a deeper way. This takes time and patience, but I have seen it work many times and the data has repeatedly supported the feeling that my time was well spent.

There are several ways to use text mapping, and all of them focus on the activation of student thinking. I like to start using  text mapping by calling it, "Mark it up!" I will share a post about scrolling and some other methods of mapping out text, but I wanted to give a starting point. After approaching it in a few different ways, I have found this process to work the best and cause the least amount of confusion.

Essentially when students are "marking up" the text, they are writing down their thinking while they are reading. Maybe they are asking questions, making connections, making a statement, etc. The very first time we attempt this I will do a think aloud so that students can see what should be taking place in the mind of a strong reader as they move through a text. Essentially this strategy gives you a window into the mind of your students. You are quickly able to assess the thinking that is taking place as they read independently. I find that text mapping is a great way to pull information for a guided reading group.

I mentioned in my previous post about close reading that I like to use these jumpstarts when I begin teaching close reading. This is also a great place to begin text mapping because there are some high quality passages that will cause students to have questions and is also a manageable length. If the text is too long or difficult, it is overwhelming. If it's too simple then students really struggle to find ways to think critically.

The students who tend to struggle with text mapping initially are usually the high students and those reading below grade level. The high students have a hard time slowing down and it can be very uncomfortable for them to push outside of their comfort zone and begin to really analyze a text. This is because generally they read and understand so they don't spend a lot of time thinking about what has been read. Not because they can't, but because they don't have to in order to comprehend what they've read. On the other hand your struggling students often have blank pages initially because they are not used to actively engaging with a text. Thinking critically is extremely difficult for them and usually they don't have a strong grasp on activating their own thinking. This is a process, but it really leads into everything students will do in the classroom; reading, writing, discussion, problem solving, etc.

Once close reading becomes a habit, text mapping is a great place to spend some time! It's one of the many things that is a bit laborious in the beginning, but the output from the students long-term is incredible! Stay tuned for additional examples of how text mapping can work into a variety of subject areas and scenarios. Bottom line is that is leads the teacher and students to a deeper level of understanding.