BUNDLE
1) Until mid-March, you’ll probably want to teach the bundle through PowerPoints. After that, you’ll probably want to use paper versions. The bundles provided by your district on PowerPoint can easily be printed.
2) Materials needed: passage of text with at least 5 multiple-choice questions; for grades 6-8, I recommend 7-8 questions.
3) Ask students to number their papers 1-___, however many questions there are, skipping at least two lines between each number. Then have students put their pencils down.
4) Preview the questions with students.
Phrases such as “according to the passage” or “in the text” or “according to the author” can almost always be ignored because those phrases could be part of any question.
Nouns are important.
Sometimes adjectives are also significant.
Verbs can be important.
Some questions, however, are familiar enough to students that a couple of words are sufficient: “author’s purpose,” “main idea,” “synonym-forage,” etc.
5) As you work through the questions, continually ask students to recall all questions. For example, once you’ve looked at #3, ask students to recall #2 and #1.
6) When you and your class have finished previewing, ask students to write as much as each question as they can recall. The number of the question is not important; for example, the original #1 may be a students’ #5.
7) When most students have ceased writing, go over the questions. If you can, write your questions beside your screen. I know that some of you have chalkboards or dry erase boards on other walls, but if you can find chart paper, it’s great to have your questions by your texts.
Be sure to work with your students to identify questions that may not be “predictable.” As you go over the questions, every student should be filling in gaps on his or her paper. If I write out an entire question on the board or chart paper, I try to underline the key words that every students should have down—again the number of the question won’t matter. Hold your students accountable. Every child should be writing. No heads should be down or snores heard.
8) Once you and your students have questions written, begin reading the text. You will want to modify your reading to meet students’ needs. If you have struggling readers, you may want to read most of the text (or have students read some words with you). You may also need to have students recall details. If you’re recalling details, and some students claim to remember nothing, don’t accept that answer. Tell them that you’re going to call on a couple of other students, but you’re coming back to them again. Students may repeat answers, but they need to respond.
9) As you go through the text, keep referring students back to the questions. Your students should reach the point they’re telling you that a question can be answered by what’s on the screen. Pause briefly to let students write down predictions; then do a whole-class sharing. ALL students should write something, even if they write what you have on the board or chart paper.
10) You may need to read through an entire text before you will be able to answer “What is the main idea?”
11) Once you have predictions for every “predictable” question, have students number their papers again, not skipping lines this time.
12) Go through the questions, referring to predictions, and letting students choose answers. If you have students who struggle, you may need to read the answer choices; I would not read the choices more than once.
13) At this point in the year, I recommend that you take up students’ answers before you go over the answers. Hold your students’ accountable. I would give some type of credit for writing questions and predictions, but I would give more points for their responses to the multiple-choice questions.
14) One last tip and some of you will not agree – no problem J If you teach three or more classes that are the same, you may want to vary the day you do the bundles. For me, going through the same passage three times in the same day is tough.