Determining Importance

Determining Importance is a reading comprehension strategy that is often difficult for struggling readers.  This strategy requires readers to distinguish between information that is important for comprehension as opposed to information that is just interesting. 

In narrative texts, readers must be able to identify main ideas or infer themes of a story.
Determining importance is especially important in nonfiction text.  In order for students to be proficient in this skill, teachers need to provide explicit instruction with extensive practice.  Readers must be able to decide what is important enough to commit to memory as opposed to the information that is not as important to the meaning.  In nonfiction, text structures give hints to what is important and the organization of information.  An example is the bold print which may be used for important vocabulary.  

Following are resources to aid in teaching determining importance:
Two-column notes 
Determining Importance 
Alphaboxes (students determine the importance of words that reflect important points in the story)