Tailored+Table+of+Contents


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 * Strategy Name:**Tailored Table of Contents


 * Strategy Description**: In this strategy, students created tables of contents for content area literacy that either did not have one, or did not have one that fit the students’ needs or expectations.


 * Description/Name of the class in which you used the strategy**: First Grade, most likely guided reading groups


 * Rationale**: This is a very engaging activity that applies so many different strategies. Students must first be able to understand and apply the concepts of a table of contents. They must also read, summarize, and decipher the main idea of each section to create the table.


 * Procedure:** We were working on table of contents for our reading unit, so this lesson fit in perfectly! In my guided reading group, we reviewed how a table works, and I introduced three books that were non-fiction and lacked a table of contents. I chose one to do as a group, and I read the book aloud. On post it notes, we decided what the most important sections were, and what we would title each one. We then filled in the graph (below) and taped it in the book. I then had my students pair up to create another one for the remaining books. I will follow up by having them create on independently.

I really enjoyed this lesson for my students! They took such ownership in being able to decide that a book was missing something and they could fix it. They also applied their summarizing skills without even knowing it, and were “tricked” into learning! While this was a higher group, I think that most kids would be able to complete this lesson with appropriate amounts of modeling and facilitation. The learning styles that really attached to this lesson were students that can look at the bigger picture, and then break it down. A few of my students that were not able to see these sequential components struggled with being able to separate the book into sections.
 * Diverse Learners:**


 * Potential Issues:**
 * Students really need to know the concepts of a table and it's purpose before creating one.
 * Students may miss the main ideas of the text altogether, or not grasp what was truly important.
 * Books that already contain tables may box in the child, keeping them from creating their own ideas.


 * Implementation Suggestions:**
 * When I teach this lesson again, I will allow my students to choose the books on their own, enhancing the ownership even more. I would also like to apply this to simply teaching about table of contents in general. If I take away the table in a book, could they recreate it? Could they make it better or different?
 * I think this strategy could be used in all grade levels, as it gives the reader/writer a different purpose than they would for simply summarizing or finding the main idea. They want their findings to enable a future reader to attack the text in a more convenient way. This turns them to an entirely new audience and purpose! All content areas could be used for this, as it has fairly general requirements of the text needed.


 * Resources:**
 * Hoyt, L., Mooney, M., Parkes, B. (2003). //Exploring Informational Texts: From theory to practice.// Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. ||