TASK ATTACK: A Process Approach to Regents Success

TASK II: Reading and Writing for Information and Understanding

Students will:

• read an article (non-fiction, informational, 3-4 pages, which takes not more than 10 minutes to read) with a complementary visual as a support (graph, chart, map)
• answer related multiple-choice questions
• write a report, article, speech, letter, persuasive essay, etc., based on information from the written and graphic sources, for a specific audience

 Suggestions for preparing materials for class, appropriate to ESL and NLA levels:

• begin with content-based material and a graphic piece. Teacher/students can provide materials such as texts with maps or surveys from magazines, newspapers, advertisements; texts need to be free of gender, ethnic, or cultural bias and devoid of personal content
• use pre-reading activities: ask students what they know and want to know about the topic, and to predict what the article will be about by first looking at a graphic
• teach students to read and analyze graphic material:
  

  --make connections to math (graphs)

  --make connections to social studies (charts, timelines, maps, graphs)

  --use weather maps, bus/train schedules, TV schedules, food labels, charts from USA Today, Scholastic magazines, Consumer Reports

• have students construct graphs after conducting interviews/surveys; they can make maps of school or their neighborhood
• promote summarizing, outlining skills, determining main ideas, paraphrasing via the use of graphic organizers
• teach students to interpret their notes and use them to write in another form for a specific audience, e.g., peers, adults, younger children, the public
• the multiple choice questions can assist students in writing the task by helping them:
  --cull information
  --spell
  --highlight important points
• teach vocabulary skills (since exam will contain words unfamiliar to students, students need to learn to gain meaning from context, and recognize cognates and Greek and Latin roots)
• teach test-taking strategies
• discuss scoring rubric early in semester; construct class rubric appropriate to level; set clear expectations for students regarding task and assessment
• display task (in poster form) in the classroom as reminder of expectations  
   
  
  Developed by Kathy Giannou, ESL Teacher, formerly at Louis D. Brandeis HS