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Home : 2003 : November : 7

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By Candy

A teacher told me about the concept of content density that she had learned at a workshop. I modified it as follows: For a unit or lesson in a social studies text, read the selection ahead of time and make a list of concepts,
vocab, people, etc. that you want them to get from reading the text. From the words you've written, choose 5 letters that the majority of the words begin with. Have the students fold a piece of blank white paper so that they have six boxes. In one box write the concept for the lesson, ex. Christopher Columbus. Then have students write the 5 letters you choose, one in each of

the remaining boxes. As the students read the selection, I chose to read aloud the selection, they put words they come across that start with those letters in the appropriate boxes. When everyone is done, we review their words as a class and I write them on the board. As they give them to me, I tell how the word is related to the concept. The kids listened very carefully to the reading because they didn't want to miss any words. You could also make it into a contest to see who could find the most words as you read.