Reading for details

About single-sex education

Important details in a text
With a partner, list some examples of types or forms of information that can carry importance in
a text about single-sex education. (For example, statistics.)
When reading, what signs can you look for in a text that indicate when details are more
important than other details?
If you come upon sentences that are difficult to understand, what do you do to make sense of
what the text is saying? How consistently does this work?
Simplifying sentences (Nuttall 2005)
The following principles we look at probably won’t be fully understood in class today, but are a
point of exposure for you to practice on your own. These are strategies for understanding
problem sentences.
1. Identify the cohesive elements (reference words) in the sentence and what they’re
referring to.
Beyond predictable reference words, look to words in the sentence that refer to other words in
the text.
2. Remove coordinating conjunctions to simplify sentence structure.
Example: He looked at the child with surprise that he should know such words at his age and
indignation that he should be permitted to use them.
Simplifying sentences (Nuttall 2005)
3. Isolate the nouns from their noun groups.
Noun groups can precede (adjectives or other modifiers) or proceed (like phrases or clauses)
nouns in a sentence.
Example: . . . good pedagogical reasons for beginning to give conscious attention to intonation
in connection with utterances where there is a fairly predictable relationship between tidy
syntactic forms on the one hand and phonological forms on the other . . .
What nouns can you isolate from their groups?
4. Identify nominalizations in the text.
These are often head nouns derived from verbs with a familiar suffix, or are related to adjectives.
Simplifying sentences (Nuttall 2005)
Can initially be dealt like noun groups, and then identify the underlying/unstated proposition
and where it fits in the meaning of the sentence.
Example: The implementation of the recommendation that child allowances should be restricted
to the first three children was delayed for several years.
What are the underlying propositions?
A. Someone recommended that child allowances should be restricted.
B. Someone implemented (the recommendation in) A.
Simplifying sentences (Nuttall 2005)
5. Identify verbs, their subject/object/complement, and then their boundaries using the
following questions: (Someone share a problem sentence from your article.)
Who or what (verb from sentence)? then
(Verb from sentence) what? then
Observe rules of verb patterns for what information typically follows that verb type to mark the
limits of the action taken.
6. Use these questions with any remaining participle, infinitive, or preposition
clause/phrase.
Simplifying sentences (Nuttall 2005)
Now, choose one paragraph from the article you read for class, and attempt applying the listed
principles to simplify the content of any difficult sentences.
1. Identify the cohesive elements (reference words) in the sentence and what they’re
referring to.
2. Remove coordinating conjunctions to simplify sentence structure.
3. Isolate the nouns from their noun groups.
4. Identify nominalizations in the text.
5. Identify verbs, their subject/object/complement, and their boundaries with questions.
Group discussion
Get into the 5 groups of your assigned group leader.
The group leader facilitates all discussion that takes place and you must follow according to her
requests.
If she wants to finish with discussion about one question or point, let her do so, or conclude your
thoughts.
The role you play as a group member is you can make the discussion much more rich and
meaningful by the perspective you have of the article.
Group members are free to comment on what each other says, but the group leader determines
what comments are appropriate.
Be careful with what you say, as the group leader will be noting down what everyone shares
throughout the discussion of the topic, which she will summarize before the class.
For the teacher question that follows the group leaders’ summaries, everyone discusses it,
then shares as a class.
Teacher question:
If men and women exist together in life anyway, does single-sex education risk estranging the
sexes from each other, or is that not a problem? Explain.
Class feedback
Please answer the following questions on a small piece of paper to turn in to me. You do not
need to write your name. I’ll use this during each class to improve upon what is done in and out
of class. You don’t need to write the question, but do number your responses:
1. What (if anything) did you find helpful from today’s class?
2. What (if anything) did you find unhelpful from today’s class?
3. What would have made class better for you?
4. In your opinion, what was today’s class really about? (if you felt it had a purpose
different than what was stated)
Homework:
1. Group 1 gives their test and lesson
2. First portfolio peer progress report due