News

Making Connections Reading Strategy Lesson Plan: How to make deeper Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text-to-World connections

Making Connections Reading Strategy: Lesson, video, handouts work with any text - Reading Comprehension

Making Connections Lesson Plan – Reading Strategy UPDATE Mar 21, 2023

Making Connections is more than simply finding any text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connection.

Use this lesson to help your students develop deeper connections instead of thin connections like “this book has a dog and I have a dog…”

4 PRO TIPS

Get the Bundle

MAKING CONNECTIONS
Reading Strategy

How to Make (Deeper) Connections – 4 PRO TIPS

Connect with things you’ve read (text to text), things you’ve experienced (text to self), or things people know (text to world)
Avoid simple connections. Find things that are same-same but different.
Use one of these thought patterns:
○ This is like that, but… so…
○ A is like B, and B is _ so A is probably _
Stop after every heading or paragraph and make a connection

The slideshow lesson is comprehensive, easy to use and includes everything you need for :

DISTANCE LEARNING or 1:1 LEARNING in Google Classroom
FACE to FACE LEARNING in your real classroom

In this package, you get:

the slideshow lesson to walk your students through 4 tips to using the Making Connections strategy, an example of how to use this strategy and how this strategy connects with active reading and 21st century learning skills.
a generic Making Connections handout package that can be used with any text. This helps students ask questions before, during, and after reading.
a metacognition handout/reflection questions to help students reflect on the strategy
a rubric to assess ideas generated during reading, as well as ideas generated during the metacognition reflection.

BONUS VIDEO LESSON:

I’ve recorded the slideshow as a FREE YOUTUBE VIDEO so it’s easier to teach with DISTANCE LEARNING: https://youtu.be/mC71vCiv9Ok

IMPORTANT NOTE: This product DOES NOT include a text for students to read!

The package only includes the Making Connections strategy slideshow lesson and handouts.

It is intended for teachers to use with a novel or text that they are studying in class.

Reading comprehension strategies like Making Connections help students engage with the text and gain a deeper understanding than just passively reading.

If you want this product with reading texts, please check out our Reading for Meaning Comprehension Strategies bundle.

Watch the FREE Reading Comprehension Video.

FREE Video of the Making Connections Reading Comprehension Lesson Plan

Here’s the YouTube link

Hi everyone, it’s Mike from Educircles and as part of our Reading for Meaning series, we’re going to take a look at the Making Connections reading comprehension strategy.

Before we start the mini-lesson, let’s just turn our minds on.

We’re going to be doing some active reading which means we think about the text as we read.
Your brain should be getting a workout.
Remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re great at reading or if you struggle – at some point we all read something we don’t get right away.
Using comprehension strategies help us figure out the text and become stronger readers.

There are lots of different comprehension strategies – the one we’re going to look at right now is called Making Connections.

The goal of Making Connections is to develop a deeper understanding of the text we are reading.

Usually, when we talk about Making Connections, we talk about 3 different types of connections: text to text, text to self, and text to world.

But let’s take a step back here and forget about reading for a moment.

Making Connections isn’t just a reading strategy. It’s something we do all the time naturally. It’s about figuring things out by comparing things to stuff we already understand. We do this all the time.

Using the Making Connections Reading Strategy in real-life! Let’s look at some photos.

As you look at this series of images, describe everything you see and say something about each item – try to explain or guess how each item is used.

Okay, so check out this photo – describe everything you see

You might say something like:

I see a circular photo
It looks like a metal faucet with a lever on top
There’s some sort of metal ring or hole
It looks like maybe a white porcelain sink
I see brown squares on the wall in the background

Okay, now let’s break it down and explain what the objects are:

So, that’s a faucet and you probably turn the tap to the left to get hot water and to the right to get cold water.
That metal circular ring is probably a drain so the water doesn’t overflow
The white porcelain container is a sink so that you can store water and wash stuff
The brown squares in the background are tiles which are easier to clean than just regular painted walls in your house. Maybe this is a sink in a school bathroom? It’s probably not a kitchen because you don’t have white sinks like that in your kitchen.

Here’s the next image – what else can we see as we zoom out?

I can see the other wall of the white porcelain basin
I can see a reflection in the tap so maybe it was cleaned recently and that’s why it’s shiny?
I can see the outside of the sink – it doesn’t look as shiny.
I see flat rectangles beside the metal tap – maybe that’s where you put the soap dish to wash your hands?

What about now in this photo

We can see the circle is even bigger
We can see more of the room and it looks like there’s another sink with a white lid or cover – or maybe that’s a top-loading washing machine? No, it’s too small.
The sink looks pretty narrow – we can see the floor so this is probably pretty small – maybe it’s a tiny bathtub?
Maybe the sink is actually another toilet and you use the sink to flush things down? Ugh….wouldn’t that be gross?
There are whitish-grey rectangles at the back of the two white sink thingies
Maybe this is where you wash small things in the sink – because the sink is so tiny?
It looks like it’s on the floor, so maybe it’s for dogs to get a drink (instead of drinking from the toilet)
maybe the white rectangles are sensors – you move your hand over and something happens but I’m not sure why you would have a sensor if you already have a lever on top of the faucet.

What about now? Describe what you see and what the objects are for now that you can see the whole photo.

Let’s especially focus on these four items.

It looks like there’s a toilet paper roll holder – it’s made out of metal and is not holding anything right now
it’s right by the toilets and was easier to reach after you’re done with your business.
at the bottom, there looks like there is a toilet brush inside that metal cylindrical holder and that’s for when you need to clean the toilet – you just hold it by the stick part and then on the other end of the stick, there are those bristles and you can clean the inside of the toilet bowl – get the grime that goes underneath the ledge of the toilet kind of like a toothbrush.

That’s probably a toilet

it’s used to get rid of body waste – so somehow you flush that toilet and then a bunch of water goes down the bowl to flush everything down the pipes… but usually there’s this back part that stores all of the water you use to flush – so I’m not sure how that thing flushes.

Okay, so we have a really small sink here.

It’s about the size of the toilet – it’s right beside the toilet –
it’s close by, like the toilet paper roll so maybe you’re supposed to wash your hands as you use the toilet but I don’t know why the sink would be so low for your hands – wouldn’t that be awkward to use if you were standing up? And wouldn’t it be awkward to use it from the side like that if you were sitting on the toilet? Why not put the tap on the opposite side of the toilet so that when you’re sitting on the toilet, the sink is facing you?
There’s no toilet paper in this picture so maybe this is a photo of a bathroom on display in a store?

It’s a bidet? What’s a bidet?

maybe the bidet is close to the toilet because it’s supposed to be used like toilet paper, right?
you put the toilet paper roll holder close to the toilet because you need it when you’re done your business on the toilet
maybe a bidet is like a sink for your feet but why would you put it near the toilet instead of near the shower?
maybe a bidet is like a sink for your butt but how would you wash your… gasp!

So think back to some of the things you thought as we looked at the photo:

You probably said things like:

it looks like … but why would you ….
or maybe it’s kind of like …. but instead of … you
Or, maybe you had an aha moment when you realized how you use a bidet

There’s a wide range of reactions you might have.

The point of Making Connections is to try to create an ah-ha moment and figure out something that you didn’t get before.

At first, most people who live in countries where bidets are not very common might think it was a sink because of the tap in the photo
But then you start to realize it couldn’t be a sink because it’s so low to the ground
So that’s when we start thinking about what else the bidet could be used for
and then a spark happens when we figure out that you use water (instead of toilet paper) to clean your body after you use the bathroom
and that’s a new understanding for some of us because, in the beginning, we thought it was a sink.

So let’s watch a 30 second clip of a media text about bidets. As you watch this video see if you can connect it to something you’ve read, something you know or have experienced, or something general that people just know

Tech Insider does a great job in this video making a comparison to show people why you would want to use more than just paper to clean up poop.

Text-to-Text Making Connections Example

An example of a text to text connection might be something like this:

One time, I read this short story, Boys, Beer, Barf and Bonding by Bruce Hale, and in it, there’s this moment where the dad and the kid come back from camping and they have really upset stomachs. They’re locked out of the house and they “erupt from both ends” because they couldn’t get to the bathroom in time!

Ughhh! I bet cleaning up that mess would need a lot more than toilet paper…

Text-to-Self Making Connections Example

Here’s an example of a text-to-self connection:

one time my cat pooped outside of his litter box and I accidentally stepped in it.
Ugh. It was gross.
So I put my foot in the sink and used a lot of soap to wash it off. I don’t know why I was standing on one leg at the sink when the bath tub was so close by, but I just wasn’t thinking…

Text-to-World Making Connections Example

Here’s an example of a text-to-world connection which can be a connection to something that’s happening in the world or it could be just general knowledge that everyone knows

For example, everybody poops – we know this because living creatures need to get rid of body waste
We also know that toilets come in different shapes and styles because we’ve used a bunch of toilets in our lives.

Let’s bring this back to Reading Strategies

Making Connections is really about figuring stuff out and we do this all the time.

But sometimes, when we talk about reading strategies or school stuff, some of us get bored or we think I don’t get it or I don’t want to.

But, understand that we make connections all the time. We do this automatically. And it’s a transferable skill. So let’s see how making connections can help us develop a deeper understanding of the text we are reading.

Remember: the goal here is to try to create these ah-ha moments so you can figure out new stuff about the text you are reading.

When we connect what we’re reading to something we’ve already read, we call that a text to text connection.
When you connect the text to something you personally know or have experienced, we call that a text to self connection
When you can connect the text to something happening in the world, or something general that people know, we call this a text to world connection

Making Connections is a reading strategy we use

before we read
as we read, and
after we read.

So, basically, all the time.

Here are 4 Pro Tips to help you get more out of the Making Connections Reading Strategy

Making Connections Reading Strategy – PRO TIP #1: Connect the text you’re reading to something that you know personally

Basically you’re just trying to relate to what you are reading so that the text means more to you.

This could be a text to text, or text to self, or text to world connection.

So, yeah, connect what you’re reading to pretty much anything.

Making Connections Reading Strategy – PRO TIP #2: Try to avoid simple or straightforward connections

A lot of times, students stop with these really thin connections that don’t give us any new insight into what we’re reading. That’s because thin connections are just too simple.

For example: this story has a dog and I have a dog

A more ridiculous example might be something like this:

This story uses the letter “a” and I’ve read a story that used that same letter!

Well, knowing that a story uses the same letter doesn’t really help us understand the text we’re reading any better because the connection is just too simple.

We can make connections more complex by trying to find connections that are “same same, but different”

An example of a more complex connection would be something like this:

This story has a dog, and the dog changes the old lady’s life.
I don’t have a dog but when I got glasses, I could finally read the board and I guess that kind of changed my life, too.

In this example, a dog is different from getting glasses, but they’re both kind of the same since both of them change people’s lives

In fact to take it one step further, we could say that getting glasses made the student’s life better because they can now see the board from the back of the room.

So then maybe, the dog somehow makes the old lady’s life better because maybe the dog helps the lady do something that she couldn’t do before…

Making Connections Reading Strategy – PRO TIP #3:

Use one of these sentence patterns to turn your connection into a deeper idea

this is like that, but… so… or
A is like B and B is blank so A is probably blank as well…

Let’s go through a few connection examples to see how to use these sentence stems:

If we think back to our bidet example:

A bidet is like a sink but it’s at ground level so it’s easier to clean your lower body parts with water

Text to World Connections – Example #1

Here’s another connection example:

a bidet is like toilet paper but instead of using paper, you use water to wipe so you get cleaner

Text to World Connections – Example #2

Here’s an example for the second thought pattern: A is like B. B is blank so A is probably blank…

A bidet is like a sink. A sink can be used to wash body parts, so a bidet might also be used to wash body parts.

Text to World Connections – Example #3

Here’s another example:

A bidet is like a shower. A shower can get you cleaner than just wiping with paper, so maybe a bidet can get you cleaner because it uses water.

Pro tip #4 Stop after every heading or paragraph that you read and make a connection

If you don’t get what you are reading, then you might want to stop after every sentence
on the other hand, if you’re not struggling then maybe don’t stop as often – but remember that strong readers are constantly connecting ideas and thinking about things as they read

Alright. Time to Practice Making Connections!

Here’s a screenshot of the beginning of an informational text.

Let’s use the Making Connections reading strategy as we go through this article

The first thing we have to do is stop after every heading or paragraph to make a connection.
Most of us gloss over titles and headings but the titles and headings give us important clues about how an informational text is organized.
They give us clues about what we’re going to read next

When we read, just connect the text to anything – text to text, text to self or text to world

so, for example, this reminds me of the part before the TV episode where they recap what happened last time.

Try to use a sentence pattern to develop your connection into a deeper idea.

For example, I’m going to use the sentence pattern, A is like B. B is blank, so A is probably blank.
The background information section is like when they tell you what happened last time in a TV two-part episode. The recap focuses on the key information you need for the second episode to make sense so maybe this part of the text I’m reading will focus on key information I need to know for the article to make sense.

Double check that your connection is not a simple connection. Make sure your connection is same same, but different.

For example, the two things I’m comparing are different because I’m comparing the title of the section, “background information” to the recap on TV episodes that are two-parters. (They don’t say, “background information” at the beginning of the episode.)
But, they’re kind of the same because they both give me key information that I’m going to need for this to make sense.

Okay. More practice time. This time, it’s your turn:

What do we do next?

(SILENT ANSWER):
stop after every heading or paragraph and make a connection

So, I’m going to read this first paragraph and you think in your head about possible connections.

In 1955, the buses in Montgomery Alabama were segregated based on the colour of your skin. Only people who were White could sit in the first four rows of seats. People who were Black would pay their fair at the front. Then, they would have to get off the bus and board again through the back doors to find a seat.

SOURCE: Rosa Parks: Quiet Courage in Communication (Article 005)

What are the 3 types of connections we could make?

(SILENT ANSWER)
text to text, text to self, or text to world

So, in your head, you’re saying things like, “this reminds me of…” and then finish that sentence.

At this point, when we’re reading, you don’t have to come up with a complex idea. We’re just trying to make connections.

If you can’t make a connection, you need to re-read that paragraph to come up with something to say.

Is there anything in this paragraph that reminds you of something that happened

in a book you read?
or something that you personally experienced?
or something that’s happening in the world or something that’s common knowledge?

Pause the video and come up with a few personal connections.

Okay, we’re back.

Once you have a bunch of connections, choose one for the next step.

What do we do next?

(SILENT ANSWER)
Use a sentence pattern to develop a deeper idea

What are the two different sentence patterns we talked about in this video?

A is like B. B is blank so A is blank, or
you can use the sentence pattern: this is like that, but, so

What do we do next when we’re using the Making Connections reading strategy?

(SILENT ANSWER)
Make sure we avoid simple connections
We do this by making sure our connections are same same but different.

So, if you write things down in a graphic organizer,

the two things that you’re comparing should be different
but the reasons and thinking part afterwards should be the same – they should be connected because we make connections try to understand things better in the text

Let’s summarize this Making Connections Lesson Plan

Here are 4 things you can do to make great connections:

Connect what you’re reading to anything in your background knowledge:
- things you’ve read (TEXT-to-TEXT)
- things you’ve experienced (TEXT-to-SELF)
- or things that are happening in the world or things that people just know. (TEXT-to-WORLD)
Avoid making simple connections.
- We do this by trying to find things that are same-same but different
Use one of the following sentence-frames to help you develop more complex ideas:
1. this is like that, but… so… or
2. A is like B and B is blank, so A is probably blank.
Finally, stop after every heading or paragraph and make a connection

PART 3

Reading for Meaning is just part of the many strategies and skills that we use when we read.

The world is unpredictable. Reading is an important thing to be able to do to survive and thrive in today’s changing world.

We need strength of character to have grit and resilience to keep going when things get tough.

One way to work on character is to consciously choose to be in a growth mindset. This means understanding that if we use specific strategies, if we work hard, if we learn from our mistakes, then we can persevere and pick ourselves up when things get tough..

The Making Connections Reading Strategy is more than just a reading strategy. It’s a transferable skill that can help us at school and in life

It’s something we use across 21st-century competencies.

We make connections when we realize that the strategies we use in reading or at school can also be applied to other parts of our life – it all has to do with having a growth mindset and developing character, perseverance and tenacity.
We make connections when we relate to other groups of people in our community and notice the similarities we have but also appreciate and acknowledge the differences.
We make connections when we collaborate in groups and we compare ideas to create new understandings that help us achieve a common goal.
We make connections when we communicate and relate to the other person’s perspective – if we can recognize differences in how we communicate and interpret things, we can modify our communication style to help get our message across more clearly
We make connections when we relate different ideas from one area of our life to another. This is how we innovate – by creating new ideas based on things we’ve read, our personal experiences, and our understanding of the world.
Finally, we make connections when we recognize how our view of the world is connected to our life experiences, our culture, the way we grow up … and that affects our unconscious bias and emotional bias that sometimes gets in the way of critical thinking.

END

Well, that’s the end of this video.

Teachers – if you’re looking for the slideshow or handouts that go with this Making Connections Lesson Plan, please click here.

See you next time!

Get the Bundle

Online Shopping and Fraud – Critical Thinking – Article 011

How much did Amazon make during the pandemic? How do sellers cheat the system?

Reading response article about CRITICAL THINKING and MULTIPLE POINTS of VIEW.

The informational text is differentiated into four reading levels (Grades 6, 8, 10, and 12.)

Differentiated Reading Text: Online Shopping and Fraud - SEL Critical Thinking

Want to see exactly what you get before you buy this product?

Watch the PREVIEW VIDEO

Look at the PREVIEW PDF.
(It is a watermarked version of the entire PDF resource.)

This article goes well with the MAKING CONNECTIONS reading strategy.

READ MORE

Get Resource

Do your students know…

How much do we spend online? (Try guessing.)

How much did Amazon make during the pandemic?

How does Amazon calculate product ratings?
(It’s not a simple average.)

How do sellers cheat the system by getting fake reviews?

Why would people be willing to leave fake reviews?

This article includes a Critical Thinking mini-lesson.

How to be FULL-MINDED and explore multiple sides of an issue

Brainstorming prompts to think about different points of view.

The discussion handout includes six questions.

Online Shopping and Fraud

Americans will spend an estimated $207 billion in online shopping this holiday season. This is a ten percent increase from the previous year.

Adobe Analytics is a tool that businesses use to see how they are doing. The software examines over one trillion visits to U.S. retail sites. Adobe analyzes more sales data than any other company or research organization. In fact, they track over 100 million SKUs. (SKUs are the Stock Keeping Unit barcodes on the products we buy.)

Most of us recognize the Adobe brand. Adobe is famous for its graphics program, Photoshop. They have a well-known PDF reader. But this tech giant is also a big player in business intelligence. You may know some of the companies that use Adobe Analytics. Apple, CVS Pharmacy, and Walgreens use this software. Ben and Jerry’s, Nissan, Sprint, and WestJet are also customers.

Adobe gives businesses insights into how consumers shop in real-time. This way, companies make decisions based on live data instead of guessing.

But, Adobe also combines the sales data from everyone who uses their analytic tools. They use this to report on market trends. This report is part of their Digital Economy Index. On October 20th, 2021, Adobe published its online shopping forecast. The 2021 holiday season runs from November 1st to December 31st.

“Globally, online spending is expected to hit $910 billion this season, 11 percent growth year-over-year (YoY). Adobe expects over $4 Trillion ($4.1T) to be spent globally in all of 2021 — a new milestone for e-commerce.”

Big shopping days like Black Friday and Boxing Day are still important. But, data shows we do our online holiday shopping throughout the last two months of the year.

The world we live in has changed. Our parents may work in a nine-to-five job. They may work at the same company for their entire life. People today need to discover or invent new ways to earn a living. That might be a small restaurant changing to sell online during the pandemic. It could also be families trying to make ends meet by selling things from the garage. It’s not uncommon for people to work a side-gig. (A side gig is a job you do outside of your normal job because your regular job doesn’t pay enough.)

You can buy at any time using sites like Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Etsy. Once a person sells something on these websites, they have to ship the item to the buyer.

Some companies now also offer fulfillment services. This makes it easier for people to sell online. For example, Amazon will handle shipping, returns, and customer service. They want to help you “deliver smiles.”

All sorts of people sell on Amazon. The “Sell on Amazon” webpage explains why. “Reach millions. Fresh new startups and Fortune 500s. B2B and B2C. Brand owners and resellers. They all sell on Amazon for a reason: 300 million customers shop our stores worldwide.”

Covid has changed the way we shop. Amazon is clearly a winner. Between January to March of 2021, Amazon tripled its profit compared to January to March in 2020. In other words, Amazon made more money. This is because the pandemic forced everyone to stay at home. Being at home meant more shopping online. Amazon’s financial results show how much. “Net income increased to $8.1 billion in the first quarter … compared with net income of $2.5 billion … in first quarter 2020.”

If you like this content, you should definitely check out the reading comprehension strategies PDF bundle.

Everyone can sell on Amazon. But, product reviews can drastically increase or decrease sales. (Unless you’re a huge brand.) The “Amazon Verified Purchase” review label is a gamechanger. It can make or break your store.

Amazon’s help page explains the label. “An ‘Amazon Verified Purchase’ review means we’ve verified that the person writing the review purchased the product at Amazon and didn’t receive the product at a deep discount.”

The Verified Purchase review label directly impacts a product’s rating. Better ratings lead to more sales. Amazon product ratings are not a simple average. Another help page explains how they use machine learning. Computers come up with a star rating. Algorithms consider “how recent the rating or review is and verified purchase status.”

Nicole Nguyen wrote a series of articles about Amazon in 2019. She writes for BuzzFeed News. She interviewed Jessica, a woman who buys things on Amazon with her own money. (Jessica is not her real name.) Jessica’s purchases are real. Her reviews are not. Jessica writes five-star reviews. Then, she gets her money back from the companies that sell these products.

“Jessica told BuzzFeed News she doesn’t think she’s gaming the system; she’s trying to help brands grow their businesses in Amazon’s massive marketplace.”

Nguyen reported that Amazon sellers run Facebook ads. They want people to leave a 5-star review. If you do, they will give you a full refund. If you click on some ads, a Facebook chatbot explains what to do. It will show you how to leave a review without looking fake.

“Search for a particular keyword, look for the brand name…, add the product to your Amazon Wish list, then order the product. Make sure you don’t use a gift card. Half of the refund will be issued within 24 hours of receipt. The other half will arrive after you send a screenshot of your review. But be sure to wait ONE WEEK before reviewing.”

Teachers, when you purchase this resource, you get this article in PDF, Google Doc, and Microsoft Word format differentiated at multiple reading levels. Otherwise, if you just copy / paste this content into a document, you’ll have to search for this paragraph so it doesn’t distract your students.

The product using this Facebook ad had the “Amazon’s Choice” label. “Amazon’s Choice” implies endorsement by Amazon. But algorithms determine which products get that label. And, fake reviews can influence algorithms.

U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Richard Blumenthal took action. They asked Amazon for more information. They wanted to know how Amazon figured out who gets the “Amazon’s Choice” badge. The senators used examples from Nguyen’s article. The article was about how “‘Amazon’s Choice’ does not necessarily mean a product is good.”

“We write to express our concerns about the “Amazon’s Choice” badge and whether it deceives consumers into purchasing products of inferior quality… Your customers reasonably rely on the “Amazon’s Choice” badge to guide their final purchasing decisions… We are concerned the badge is assigned in an arbitrary manner, or worse, based on fraudulent product reviews.”

Brian Huseman works at Amazon. He is the Vice President of Public Policy. He responded and clarified what Amazon does. Amazon employees do not personally review the products that receive the badge. So employees are not looking at each product. They are not checking to make sure products meet a certain quality.

“While employees do not manually review every one of the more than 2 million products badged as Amazon’s Choice each month, we continuously monitor and review the program to refine and improve how we choose products we think customers will love. In the rare instances when we become aware of concerns with products we feature, we act quickly to address those concerns, including removing the Amazon’s Choice badge.”

Huseman said that algorithms decide which products get the “Amazon’s Choice” badge. Their computers look at many factors. This includes things like “popularity, available inventory, customer reviews, and ratings.” It also considers “pricing, customer service contacts, return rates, and product quality.” Huseman also confirmed everyone sees the “Amazon’s Choice” badge on the same products. Amazon does not change the label based on a buyer’s search and purchasing history.

Indeed, fake reviews are an issue. They directly influence our decisions to buy online. In 2018, Amazon spent over $400 million to fight misconduct. They were trying to stop review abuse and fraud. Amazon says giving incentives for reviews is not allowed. They may close your account. They might even take legal action. Huseman told the two senators that Amazon is suing over 1,000 defendants for reviews abuse.

Online e-commerce is a $4 trillion-a-year industry. There are a lot of different stakeholders. Many people are interested in this game. There is a neverending cycle of people trying to cheat the system and people trying to stop them. As people innovate to avoid detection, companies create more accurate fraud detection systems.

Ultimately, we need to use critical thinking to help us make more informed decisions before buying online.

Critical Thinking Discussion Questions:

One aspect of critical thinking means to be “full-minded” to help us make an informed decision.

Sometimes, we make a quick decision with limited information.

Try to fill your mind with high-quality information to help you make an informed decision.

Look for facts from opposing points of view to challenge your opinions. Be open-minded.

Spend a few minutes brainstorming as many different nouns (people, places, companies, organizations, ideas) that could fit the following sentence stems.

(NOTE: You cannot use “Amazon” or “fake reviews” in your brainstorming answers.)

Critical Thinking – Brainstorm #1

Why might _________________ do more to stop fake reviews?

Why might they do less to stop fake reviews?

How does _________________ benefit if there are fake reviews?

How might they be at a disadvantage if there are fake reviews?

Critical Thinking – Brainstorm #2

Why might Amazon do more to ________________ ?

Why might Amazon do less of that?

How does Amazon benefit if they ____________________?

How might they be at a disadvantage if they ____________________?

Reading Comprehension Questions

Based on the article and the ideas about active Critical Thinking in the article, how would you answer the following questions:

What is the problem in this article? Who wins? Who loses?
Who are the different stakeholders/people identified in this article? What might their points of view be?
Whose perspectives are missing from this article? What might their points of view be?
How can we think more critically when we shop on Amazon?
How can we use the information in this article to help us think more critically when we shop online on other websites?
Whose responsibility is it to solve this problem identified in question #1? Explain your thinking.

Get the Resource

Evaluating Reading Strategy Lesson Plan

Evaluating Reading Strategy: Lesson, video, handouts (that work with any text)

Evaluating Reading Strategy Lesson Plan UPDATE Mar 13, 2023: Teach students how to EVALUATE and UNDERSTAND ideas when reading. (In other words, we’re looking at CRITICAL THINKING strategies to help students.)

Evaluating is more than just forming an opinion. It’s about making an informed opinion or decision.

Use this lesson to give students a process to help them think critically about the information they read.

Restate part of the text as a question,
come up with criteria to judge the guiding question,
play with the text to reveal other perspectives, and
try to keep an open mind by starting with the other side.

4 PRO TIPS

Get the Lesson

EVALUATING Reading Strategy

How to Evaluate when Reading (Critical Thinking) – 4 PRO TIPS

Restate part of a sentence from the text as a question that includes…
○ a modal verb* (Should… Could … Would… …might…)
○ or a value word (better/worst, more/less, right/wrong, hero/villain)
Clarify the criteria for evaluating
○ Define the underlying concept word. Make a checklist.
○ Narrow down the list. Identify deal breakers.
Play with the words to find other ideas. (Ask a similar question, opposite question, or simpler question.)
Start with the other side. (Try to be open-minded. How might the other side be correct?)

*A modal verb is a helper verb that changes the meaning of a verb to wonder if something is possible.

1. Restate part of a sentence from the text as a question that includes...

a modal verb (Should... Could … Would… …might…)

or a value word (better/worst, more/less, right/wrong, hero/villain)

2. Clarify the criteria for evaluating
○ Define the underlying concept word. Make a checklist.
○ Narrow down the list. Identify deal breakers.

3. Play with the words to find other ideas. Ask a similar question, opposite question, or simpler question.

4. Start with the other side. Try to be open-minded. How might the other side be correct?

Use this Evaluating Reading Strategy lesson to explain 3 aspects of critical thinking:

Use CRITERIA to make rational decisions
Try to be OPEN MINDED to make unbiased decisions
Try to be FULL MINDED to make decisions based on the analysis of high quality information

Distance Learning and 1:1 Google Classroom™ ready!

The slideshow lesson is comprehensive, easy to use and includes everything you need for :

DISTANCE LEARNING or 1:1 LEARNING in Google Classroom
FACE to FACE LEARNING in your real classroom

In this package, you get:

strategy and an example of how to use this strategy..
a generic EVALUATING handout package that can be used with any text. This helps students ask questions before, during, and after reading.
a metacognition handout/reflection questions to help students reflect on the strategy
a rubric to assess ideas generated during reading, as well as ideas generated during the metacognition reflection.

BONUS EVALUATING READING STRATEGY LESSON VIDEO:

I’ve recorded the slideshow as a FREE YOUTUBE VIDEO so it’s easier to teach with DISTANCE LEARNING. https://youtu.be/gEsgILYL_lI

IMPORTANT NOTE: This product DOES NOT include a text for students to read!

The package only includes the Evaluating reading strategy lesson plan, slideshow and handouts.

It is intended for teachers to use with a novel or text that they are studying in class.

If you would like to use the informational text in this slideshow about “Service dog not allowed in class to help boy with autism“, you can find the article HERE.

Reading comprehension strategies like EVALUATING help students engage with the text and gain a deeper understanding than just passively reading.
This product is also included in our Reading for Meaning Comprehension Strategies bundle.

Watch the FREE Reading Comprehension Video.

Video Table of Contents

0:00 EVALUATING (real-life example)
0:23 Introduction to Active Reading and Comprehension Strategy (slides 1-9)
1:49 Real life example of Evaluating (slides 10-35)

EVALUATING Reading Strategy Example Part 1 – Modelled Reading with teacher think-aloud (slides 36-68)

8:23 4 PRO TIPS to EVALUATING
8:28 #1: Restate as a question (slides 36-42)
10:05 #2: Clarify the criteria (slides 43-52)
12:40 #3: Play with the words (slide 53-63)
17:59 #4: Start with the other side (slides 64-68)

20:42 EVALUATING Reading Strategy Example Part 2 Practice – Modelled / Shared Reading with teacher think-aloud (slides 69-115)

21:15 #1: Restate as a question (slides 69-73)
22:40 #2: Clarify the criteria (slides 74-88 )
24:08 CAREFUL: The real underlying concept may not be stated in the text
27:55 #3: Play with the words (slide 89-97) *
29:56 WATCH OUT: Be aware of how you phrase things
31:35 HEADS UP: Be aware of bias!
32:30 #4: Start with the other side (slides 98-115)
34:19 Be FULL minded
34:36 WARNING: Most informational texts are secondary sources of information

36:00 EVALUATING Reading Strategy Example Part 3 More Practice (Your Turn) – Whole Class Shared Reading (with pauses for student response) (slides 116-146)

36:22 #1: Restate as a question (slides 116-120)
37:42 #2: Clarify the criteria (slides 121-132)
40:46 #3: Play with the words (slide 133-136)
41:47 #4: Start with the other side (slides 137-146)
42:36 Try to be more FULL Minded
43:35 SUMMARY (slides 147)

44:26 BIG PICTURE: Reading for Meaning / 21st Century Learning (slide 148-152)

Evaluating Reading Strategy Lesson

Today, we’re going to be talking about the Evaluating reading comprehension strategy.

What is Active Reading?

Now before we begin, let’s talk about active reading. Active reading means we think about the text as we are reading. It takes work to try to figure out what the text means. It takes more work to figure out what we think about that.

If we use strategies, we can get better at reading. Comprehension strategies help us figure out the meaning in a text.

Today, we will use a strategy called evaluating also known as forming opinions.

Evaluating is a strategy we use to judge ideas and information.

Do we really need a lesson on how to form an opinion?

Yes, yes we do. Here’s why:

Sometimes, we get stuck trying to come up with an opinion. For example, the teacher asks what you think and you say, I don’t know.
Sometimes, we get stuck trying to explain what we think. So, we give our opinion and then the teacher says, “well why do you think that?” and we say, “I don’t know” and we shrug.
Or, sometimes it’s the opposite and it’s easy to come up with an opinion because we feel really strongly about the topic. In that case, strategies can help us clarify our ideas or think more critically about them.

Remember, our first reaction is not always right. Shocking, I know.

We have opinions all the time. For example, are cats better than dogs?

If you love cats, you might say, yes, absolutely.
If you love dogs, you might say, no dogs are better.
Or, if you don’t like either of those options, you might say, neither! Birds are better because they can fly.

Let’s see if we can think more critically about these ideas.

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is about making an informed opinion or decision that is unbiased, rational and fact-based.

Let’s look at some strategies to help us think more critically. We can use criteria, try to be open minded, and try to be full minded.

CRITERIA

Criteria help us make a rational decision or a logical decision instead of an emotional decision.

Criteria is a principal or standard that we use to make decisions.
It helps us to make consistent decisions.

OPEN MINDED

Being open minded can help us be unbiased about an issue, instead of just relying on our personal instincts.

Open-minded is the opposite of being close minded.
It means we wonder how the opposite point of view might actually be right.

FULL MINDED

We can also try to be full minded.

Sometimes, we make quick decisions with limited information.
Being full minded means we try to get high quality information to help us make an informed decision

So, let’s look back at our cats versus dog issue.

Sample Critical Thinking Question: Are cats better than dogs?

Well, it depends on what criteria we’re using to judge which is better.

Are we talking about which is the better pet?
What animal provides better security?
Are we thinking about which animal is a better work animal?
Are we talking about which one is better tasting?

Let’s pretend in this case, a family is thinking of getting a pet. We need to figure out what we mean by good pet.

Well if you’re a kid in the family, you might say…

I want a pet that’s cute,
one that loves me,
plays with me,
a pet that’s my friend forever,
and doesn’t destroy my stuff.

After we brainstorm, we need to narrow down our list of criteria.

Well, I guess I can accept that you my stuff will get broken because that’s just part of having a pet.
And, I guess I can combine “be my friend forever” with “love me” forever since they’re kind of the same thing.

Now, we if we’re trying to get rid of one more, do we get rid of “cute”, “loves me forever”, or “plays with me”?

And, this will depend on who you are.

Some people will think, it doesn’t matter what the animal looks like as long as it loves me and plays with me.
Someone else might say, look, I just want a cute puppy or a cute kitten that loves me forever. I don’t need the pet to play with me – I just want to snuggle with the cat or dog.
And, other people might say, you know what, I don’t want a lazy animal that’s just lying around. I want to play with my pet and take it for walks. In that case, maybe you get rid of loves me forever.

In this scenario, let’s get rid of cute. If we rescued an animal and it loves me forever and play with me, then, even if it’s the ugliest creature on Earth, I’ll learn to love it because it’s my pet now.

All right, let’s think about the criteria that a grown-up in the family might say. What makes a good pet?

Well, a pet that doesn’t cost a fortune.
And, I don’t want a huge mess.
I’m really busy, so I want a pet that fits into my life.
I don’t want the pet to destroy the house and have to spend even more time cleaning the house.
Oh, I want the pet to be loyal. I want my pet to love me. And my family. But, really me.

Let’s try to narrow down this list. What can we get rid of?

you know what – if I get a pet, I just have to accept that the pet is going to make a mess and break things. That’s part of having a pet.

Now, let’s combine these two lists together.

Our checklist so far about what what makes a good pet includes:

a pet that loves me forever,
plays with me,
doesn’t cost a fortune,
fits into my lifestyle, and
loves me.

Once again, we have to try to narrow down the list to make it easier to use.

We have “love me” down twice so let’s combine that.

Are there any deal breakers or must-haves in this list?

A dealbreaker means if we don’t have this item, we don’t have a deal and it absolutely can’t happen.
A grown-up might say, look, I want to have a pet but if we can’t afford the pet, then we can’t afford the pet. End of story.
So being affordable would be an example of a dealbreaker.

Now, we have a checklist to help us make a much more informed decision:

A pet that will love us forever,
a pet that will play with us,
a pet that is affordable, and
a pet that fits our life.

Let’s use this checklist. Are cats better than dogs?

Well, will a cat love you forever?
Will, a cat play with you?
Is a cat affordable?
Does a cat fit your life?

Everyone will probably have different answers depending on their situation.

What about a dog?

Will a dog love you forever?
Will a dog play with you?
Will a dog be affordable?
Will a dog fit your life?

Again, everyone will have different answers to that.

So, based on your answers personally, do you think cats are better than dogs? What do you think?

Evaluating and critical thinking doesn’t mean we end up with the same opinion or decision. It just means that we end up with an informed opinion or decision.

Sample Critical Thinking Question: Boy with autism not allowed to have service dog at school

Try this one: “Boy with autism not allowed to have service dog in class”

Do you

strongly agree with that,
kind of agree,
disagree, or
strongly disagree with that statement.

Take a moment to think of some reasons.

4 PRO TIPS for the Evaluating Reading Strategy to help us think more critically as we read.

What do we mean by that?

A modal verb are words like should, could, would, or might.
A modal verb is a helper verb that changes the meaning of the main verb.
How likely could this happen? Is this possible? Is this required? Is this an obligation?

So, let’s try to restate part of this sentence as a question using a modal verb.

For example, should service dogs be allowed in class?
Could a service dog be allowed in class for a different reason?
How might a service dog help a boy with autism?

We are just coming up with questions here to help us form an opinion.

The other way to come up with a question would be to use a value word.

For example, better / worse, more / less, fair / unfair, right / wrong.
You could even use words like hero / villain, leader / follower. You get the idea…
Here are some examples of questions that use value words.
For example, was not allowing a service dog in class right or wrong?
Is it fair for one student to have a service dog but not all students?
Who learns better with a service dog?

So now, we have a bunch of potential guiding questions to think about.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #2: We need to clarify the criteria for evaluating

We need to define the underlying concept word that we’re going to use to evaluate our guiding question. We need to figure out what’s the point of that word.

Then, we make a checklist.

We narrow down the checklist and we identify any deal breakers.

So, in our scenario, let’s think about the question, should service dogs be allowed in class?

That’s our guiding question.

What criteria are we using to judge whether or not something should be allowed in class?

Are we talking about the criteria for school?
Are we talking about the criteria for service dogs?

In this case, let’s think about what a school is. What’s the point of school?

There are lots of answers depending on who you ask 😊:

some people might say the point of school is to learn skills, to learn how to do things, and to develop attitudes that help us learn.
Other people might see the point of school is to get ready for life in general.
Some people might say the point of school to keep the kids occupied so the grown-ups can go to work.
Other people might say, look, the point of school is to provide an opportunity for everyone.
One final example might be that schools about having a safe learning space. We see here again this idea about learning.

Now we need to narrow down this list.

What could we get rid of if we are trying to get down to the core idea of school.
We might say, well, you know what, keeping children occupied is a lovely bonus but that’s not the main point of school right now.
And, maybe yes, we are getting students ready for life, but how are we doing that? Well, maybe we’re doing that as we help students learn skills, knowledge and attitudes.
And maybe that’s a dealbreaker concept: learning is a fundamental requirement of school.

Now, we have a checklist to help us make a much more informed decision about our guiding question.

In our checklist, we have

school was about learning skills, knowledge and attitudes
school provides an opportunity for everyone, and
school should be a safe learning space.

Does having a service dog in class line up with the point of school?

Does it help students learn?
Does it help provide opportunity for everyone?
Does it help provide a safe learning space?

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #3: Play with the words

Modify the sentence or question to see if you can unlock any new points of view.

Here are three ways we can play with the words:

we can ask something similar,
we can change the sentence to ask the opposite, and
we can change the words to simplify the question or simplify the sentence.

Let’s look at our example here and try to ask something similar.

The original sentences is “boy with autism not allowed to have service dog in class”
What if instead of saying a “boy with autism”, it said a “blind student” was not allowed to have is service dog in class.
Does that change anything? Does that sound odd to you?

The phrase we changed was “boy with autism” and we changed that to “blind student”

What is similar between these two phrases? Well, they’re both students with disabilities.
What’s different between these two phrases? Well, one student is blind and it’s probably easy for people to recognize that the student has a visible disability. On the other hand, it may not be obvious to other people right away that a boy with autism has a disability. It’s more like an invisible disability.

When you play with the words this time, try to change the words into the opposite.

So instead of saying a boy with autism is not allowed to have what he needs in class,
what if we said only students with service dogs are allowed to have what they need in class.
Does the opposite scenario sound odd?

The concept that we made opposite here was

originally students without service dogs were allowed to have what they need to learn in class,
and now, we changed this so only students with service dogs are allowed to have what they need to learn in class.

What’s similar between these two phrases?

Again they’re both students and they both go to class to learn and both groups needs things in class that help them learn.
What’s different between these two phrases? Well, whether or not the student has a service dog.
Does it seem fair if you don’t have a service dog, you don’t get to bring what you need to be successful in class? Well no, how are these students supposed to learn?
So then if we go back to the original scenario, how are students without their service dogs supposed to learn if they can’t bring what they need to learn? I don’t know.
We’re just playing with words here to try to unlock a different way to think about things.

Finally, a third way to play with the words is to try to simplify the scenario.

For example, instead of saying “boy with autism” not allowed to have service dog in class,
what if we said “students” not allowed to have <blank> in class.

Let’s go back to that strategy of asking something similar and just play with the words here.

What if the sentence read, students not allowed to have phones in class. Does that change anything?

Some people might agree and say that a phone is a distraction.
Other people might say phones are just a tool and they can help us to access the Internet or do work in class, too.

What if the sentence read, student not allowed to have pencils in class? Does that change anything?

Well, yes, it sounds kind of ridiculous because everyone needs a pencil.
Well, if you can’t have a pencil in class, maybe there’s a different way to do things. Maybe, you could use a pen or computer to record information.

What if the sentence was students not allowed to have calculators in class?

Maybe that makes sense because you’re trying to encourage students to do mental math without depending on a calculator.
On the other hand, at some point calculators are just a tool. It can help you get the simple numeration stuff out of the way so you can focus on more complex mathematical ideas.

What if the sentence said, student not allowed to have erasers in class?

Does that mean that you can’t make mistakes in class because you can’t erase them?
Maybe it would be harder to learn without having access to erasers because then you’re spending so much time scratching things out.
Or, you might say that not having erasers in class is not a big deal because you can just scratch out the answers.

What if the sentence was students not allowed to have glasses in class?

I guess some students wouldn’t care about this because they don’t need glasses. So this rule wouldn’t apply to them at all.
Maybe students who need glasses would be at a disadvantage?
Maybe students could just sit closer to the board so they could see what the teacher was writing? Maybe someone to copy out the notes for people who couldn’t see the board?

The point of playing with words is to change things up so we can see if we can discover other points of view.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #4: Start with the other side

Wonder how the other side might be correct.

Everyone can be close minded at some point. This is about trying to open our minds and trying to accept new perspectives.

The issue were thinking about is this headline, boy with autism not allowed to have service dog in class.

Do you agree or disagree with this idea?

If you disagree and you think that the boy should be allowed to have his service dog in class then come up with a good reason why a dog should not be allowed in class.

Why might having a dog in class be a really bad idea?
What could go wrong?
Who might be at a disadvantage?
Okay, what if you’re afraid of dogs or what if for you’re not allowed to have a dog as a pet because of religious beliefs or because you have serious allergies.
Would those students be at a disadvantage?

On the other hand, if you agree with the sentence, “boy with autism not allowed to have a service dog in class” then come up with a good reason why the service dog should be allowed.

Why might having a service dog in class be a great idea?
What could go right?
Who might be at an advantage?
Well, the boy with autism would probably learn more or learn better because he has his service dog with him. Is it an advantage compared with not having his service dog? Probably. Is in an advantage over other students? I’m not sure.
What could go right? Well, may be the boy with autism learns better.
Why might having a service dog in class be a great idea? Maybe other students get to see how the service dog works? Maybe it helps build acceptance of different people?

Finally, if you don’t care about this issue at all, then try to think of the opposite and come up with a good reason why you should really care about this.

Why might people feel so strongly about this?
What might someone have experienced that makes them close minded about this issue?
Well, maybe people feel strongly about this because they have a dog allergy or their kid has a dog allergy and they don’t want their kids to be near a dog.
Or, maybe someone knows someone personally who needs a service dog in their life and if they weren’t allowed to have the service dog in a public space, then this make them mad because this is something they feel they have a right to have.

Alright, practice time.

Let’s look at an informative text about this issue.

The title of the article is “Service dog not allowed in class to help boy with autism”

We just spent some time exploring that issue, so let’s go into the next sentence.

“In Canada, a human rights tribunal said it was okay for school to deny a boy with autism his service animal in class.”

Now there’s more to this paragraph, but there’s a lot to take apart in this first sentence, so let’s think about this for a bit.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #1: Restate part of a sentence from the text as a question that includes a modal verb. (For example, should, could, would, or might.)

We might say something like

Could this happen in my country?
A tribunal’s like an informal court. Would a different court give a different answer?
Or maybe the question is, “Should a human rights tribunal say this was okay?”

Pro Tip #1 is also about coming up with a question that includes a value word. (For example, better, less, fair, wrong all include values.)

We might ask something like

Is Canada a better place because of this decision? Is this a step in the wrong direction for Canada in terms of human rights?
Will this ruling prevent more people from reporting this type of issue? I mean, what’s the point? Schools can just get away with things like this.
What about, how do courts and tribunals make things fair?

Let’s focus on one question. Right now, our guiding question will be, “should a human rights tribunal say this was okay”

As in, should a human rights tribunal say it was okay for the school to prevent this kid with autism from bringing his service animal in class?

Pro Tip #2 We need to clarify the criteria for evaluating.

So, we need to define the underlying concept that we’re going to use to evaluate or judge our guiding question.

We have to come up with a concept word.

I see the phrase “human rights tribunal” in the guiding question so let’s start with that.
What’s the point of a human rights tribunal?
If we Google it or find a definition of this phrase we find out that a human rights tribunal is like a court
Okay. If we keep looking, it turns out that a human rights tribunal specifically deals with claims of discrimination.
I think we need to figure out what discrimination is because then we can figure out for ourselves if we agree or disagree with this human rights tribunal. Did they make the right call?

What’s the point of discrimination?

Well, it’s kind of an odd way to phrase it but basically discrimination is about putting people down because they’re different from us.
If we look up the definition of discrimination, we see something about unfair treatment based on a category of people.
By category of people, we could be talking about race, gender, religion or a person’s ability or disability.
When we talk about unfair treatment, this could be about excluding people, denying them something good, or imposing an extra burden and making it harder for people in this category to succeed.

BE CAREFUL!

You need to make sure that you get to the real underlying concept that you’re trying to evaluate in your guiding question.

This core concept may not be directly stated in the text
In this example, in order to answer the guiding question, the concept we need to really understand is discrimination.
But that word discrimination isn’t in what we’ve read so far.

To summarize what we did,

We started with a word from the text. In this case, we started with “human rights tribunal”
then, we defined the word.
A human rights tribunal’s like a court.

Does thinking about a court help us to answer our guiding question?

Should a human rights tribunal say this was okay?
Well, a court makes decisions to figure out if things are fair.
But we don’t know whether something is fair or not fair because this tribunal rules on issues of human rights.
So, we have to dig a little deeper with this definition. We keep on defining the word until we get to the big issue.
In this example, we figured out that a human rights tribunal is about dealing with claims of discrimination. So, they deal with issues where people feel they’ve been discriminated against.
Really, we need to figure out what discrimination is.

When you’re figuring out a key concept to answer your guiding question, you need to stop and check your work.

The real underlying concept may or may not be directly stated in the text
When you think you figured out the key concept word, you need to double check that key concept word helps answer your guiding question.
In our example, knowing about discriminations help us figure out whether this human rights tribunal should have said it was okay or not okay for a school to deny a boy with autism their service animal.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #2: We are clarifying the criteria and now we’re going to make a checklist.

Just copy down our ideas about discrimination and then we narrow down the list.

Sometimes, it may not be possible to narrow down the list because you only have a few key ideas in there.

In our list, we only have two criterion. Discrimination is 1) unfair treatment that’s 2) based on a category of people.
We have different examples of unfair treatment but they’re just examples
We also have different examples of categories of people, but again, there just examples.
So, there’s not much to narrow down here.

Are there any deal breakers or must-haves? Is there anything here that we can get rid of?

Well, if we got rid of unfair treatment, then is it really discrimination?

People were treated fairly.
That’s like the opposite of discrimination, so we can’t get rid of unfair treatment.
This is kind of a dealbreaker. Something has to be unfair treatment for it to be considered discrimination.

Can we get rid of category of people? Let’s see what it sounds like.

If we said discrimination is random unfair treatment but not based on a group of people then it’s just unfair treatment.
There is no pattern. It’s not a pattern of disadvantage for a group of people because of who they are.
So, this is probably a deal breaker, too.

So here’s our checklist to help us decide if we agree that the human rights tribunal should be okay with what the school board did. Remember, coming up with criteria doesn’t mean that everyone will come up with the same answer in the end. It does mean that we are trying to be rational and logical in our decision-making process.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #3 is about playing with the words.

Let’s modify the sentence or question to see if we can unlock any new points of view.

We can play with the words by asking something similar, asking the opposite or simplifying the scenario.

Let’s try to ask something similar.

What if instead of saying “service animal” we said the school denied a boy with autism “from attending class at all”

does this change anything? Does it sound wrong if you said a kid with a disability couldn’t come to class at all?

What if instead of saying “human rights tribunal”, it said “person in charge”?

This makes me wonder if there’s anyone in charge of a human rights tribunal? Or can a human rights tribunal say whatever they want?

We could also make something into the opposite

Canada is a democracy. That means people vote and choose who they want to lead them in government.

What’s the opposite of democracy? Would that be a dictatorship? A country with a totalitarian regime?

What if we said, “In an undemocratic country, a human rights tribunal said it was okay for a school to deny a boy with autism his service animal in class.”?

How does that sound?

Well, would you really expect human rights to be respected or protected in an undemocratic country?
No. People in power can do whatever they want if they are a dictator.
In this case, Canada is a democracy. People vote for their leaders. These elected officials control the systems and laws that affect all Canadians…
If you see examples of discrimination that are built into a system, then being an active citizen means participating in your community to make it better.
In other words, if you see something, say something. I imagine people who live in a country with a dictator don’t have that opportunity.

Okay, we need to watch out with how we communicate.

We have to be aware of how we phrase things.

Words matter.

How we say things may impact others in ways we haven’t considered.

We want to make sure that we are not diminishing the atrocities of real-world dictators by comparing their horrible actions to a much smaller issue. For example, earlier I talked about a general undemocratic government instead of naming a specific individual or country.

We play with opposites to help us see a different side of an issue, but we always have to be conscious of how we phrase things – especially when we’re trying to think critically about controversial issues.

Let’s try another example. Another way to ask the opposite question might be to wonder what’s the opposite of “human rights”?

Well, I know human rights can be taken away – maybe in wars?
So what if we asked, should a war crime tribunal say this was okay
Well, that kind of sounds like an odd question. This isn’t a case that a war crime tribunal would even look at. It’s kind of like going to a phone store and saying hey, can you help me fix my bicycle? I think something is wrong. Well, we specialize in phones here – I don’t really know anything about bicycles.
I guess in the same way, “should a war crimes tribunal say this was okay?” Well, this isn’t something that a war crime tribunal would take care of – it’s not the right issue for them.

Let’s try to simplify the question

What if instead of saying that the school denied this boy with autism his service animal in class, what if the sentence read, “In Canada, a human rights tribunal said it was okay for a school to discriminate”

We’re just trying to simplify the idea here. How does that sound?

Heads up!

We have to be aware of bias in how we phrase things because we could also simplify the sentence this way:

“In Canada, a human rights tribunal said it was okay for a school to make fair but unpopular choices”

and that slants the question in a very different way

so now I wonder, was refusing a boy with autism access to HIS service dog this discrimination or was it not discrimination but people don’t like that answer?

Playing with words helps us gain a deeper understanding of an issue.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #4: Start with the other side

Let’s try to be open-minded. Based on what you know so far, is this discrimination?

If we only look for information that proves our point, then we might be close minded.

We also have to

choose to look for information that supports the other side of the issue and then
wonder how that information might actually be correct.

So in this scenario, let’s say we see the word “deny” in the sentence and in our checklist we see the word “deny” – as in denied benefits. So maybe, this is unfair treatment.

And I can see here, it says boy with autism and I know people who have autism spectrum disorder are a group of people. Autism is a recognized disability protected by human rights here in Canada, so then it seems like this is unfair treatment based on a category of people.

So now, we have to wonder what how might this actually be an example of fair treatment.

What if he was denied something that wasn’t a benefit?
If we play with the sentence, and we change the sentence to say the school denied the boy with autism his stuffed animal toy – does that help us to see it from a different angle?
Is it unfair treatment for a school to deny a kid their stuffed animal? Could a stuffed animal be considered a denied benefit?

Remember, critical thinking is about using criteria to help us make more logical rational decisions.

It’s about trying to be open-minded, thinking about our biases, and trying to be unbiased.

But it’s also about being full-minded.

We’ve done some great active reading here, but we’ve only read two sentences so far.

If this is the only information we know about this topic, then our minds might be kind of empty.

We need more information from the article to be more full-minded.

Using the Evaluating Reading Strategy is an ongoing thing, you know?

WARNING!

Most informational texts are secondary sources of information. What does that mean?

A primary source of information comes straight from the source – people who are directly involved with an issue or an event. A secondary source of information is one step away from a primary source of information.

The author of an informational text is usually not directly involved with that issue or event. They’re writing about the topic to explain something to the reader. A textbook, article on the internet, or an article studied in class might include information from primary sources, but the author has done some thinking of their own to figure out how to best explain this issue to the reader.

In other words, the author of the text gets to choose which quotes and which facts you get to read in the article. They’re providing a layer of analysis (or a filter of analysis) before you even read about this issue.

So, if we want to be full-minded about this issue, as we read the article…

we need to think about what information we might be missing and then
we actually have to go out and try to find the missing information straight from the primary source,
and of course, we have to try to keep an open mind as we digest that new information.

More practice – your turn to try the Evaluating Reading Strategy.

Here’s the next sentence:

“The ruling is controversial. It has sparked debate over service dogs in school. it also shows barriers that students with disabilities face in the education system.”

What do we do first?

We restate part of the sentence from the text as a question that includes either a modal verb or a value word.

Let’s come up with some questions right now that use a modal verb.
Pause the video.
Now, brainstorm some questions that include part of the text and the value word.
Pause the video.

Okay, we have a list of questions that we’ve brainstormed. Now, choose one question to focus on. (As we continued to read the text, you may decide later on that there’s a bigger issue to think critically about. It’s okay to change your guiding question later on.)

So, what is your guiding question for right now?
Pause the video.

What do we do next?

Pro Tip #2 – we’re going to clarify the criteria that we will use to judge this question.

How do we do that? What are four steps we can use to clarify criteria?

First, we need to identify and define the underlying concept word
Then, we take our brainstormed ideas and we make a checklist.
Next, we narrow down our checklist to just the most important criterion.
Finally, we identify any deal breakers or must haves.

So, take a moment right now to try to identify your underlying concept word.

Look at your guiding question.
Try to figure out what’s the key underlying issue that we really have to understand in order to be able to answer our guiding question well.
Pause the video.

Okay, this is an important place to stop and check.

Look at your concept word.
Does defining that word help you answer your guiding question?
If it doesn’t, you need to keep on defining that word until you unlock a better concept word.

Once you’ve identified the underlying key concept that you need to explore, it’s time to define that word and clarify your understanding of it.

Define your concept word.
What’s the point of that word?
Pause the video.

Okay, so now let’s make a checklist from our definition.

Is there anything on that checklist that we can remove to try to get our checklist down to 2-3 items?

What can you get rid of or combine?
Take a moment right now to do that.
Pause the video

Welcome back. Are there any deal breakers or checklist items that have to be in your checklist. This means if what you’re thinking about doesn’t have this checklist item, then it doesn’t really fit into your concept word.

Circled the really important checklist items. The must haves.
Pause the video.

Now, we have our criteria checklist. What do we do next?

Pro Tip #3: We play with the words to see if we can discover other points of view.

How do we do that?
What are three ways that we talked about to modify the sentence or question?

We can:

ask something similar,
ask the opposite, or
simplify the question.

What new ideas can you find using this strategy?

Take a moment right now to look at your guiding question and the text we read from the article.
Play with the words and see how things sound.
Pause the video.

Now what do we do?

Pro Tip #4 we start with the other side and we try to be open-minded.
Look at your guiding question.
If you agree with your guiding question then come up with a good reason how the opposite might be true.
And, if you disagree with your guiding question then look at the criteria checklist and come up with a good reason how the opposite might be true.
Either way, you need to wonder how the other side might actually be correct.
Pause the video.

Okay, what do we do now?

We try to be more full minded.

How can we be more full minded?

We can read the rest of the article.
We have to remember that informational texts are secondary source of information. It’s a great place to start when were thinking about an issue, but we should also go to the original source and see for ourselves what happened.
In other words, we have to try to find primary sources of information as well.

What does that mean?

What are three things we can do?

As we read the secondary article…

we figure out what information or points of view might be missing
then, we choose to go out and find the missing information, and
while we get new information, we try to keep an open mind.

Let’s summarize the Evaluating Reading Strategy.

Pro Tip #1 – Restate part of the sentence from the text as a question that includes either
- a modal verb or
- a value word
Pro Tip #2 – Clarify the criteria for evaluating our guiding question.
- This means identifying and defining the underlying concept word,
- making a checklist,
- narrowing down the list, and
- identifying any deal breakers.
Pro Tip #3 – Play with the words to find other ideas.
- We could ask a similar question, opposite question or a simpler question.
Finally, Pro Tip #4 – Start with the other side.
- Try to be open-minded. Wonder how could the other side be correct?

BIG PICTURE: Evaluating and 21st Century Learning

Evaluating is one of the many strategies and skills we use when we read.

We live in unprecedented times where things are too close to call, people are divided and emotions can run high.

Evaluating and Critical Thinking are things we do in life, and when we read… Thinking about the information we get and our own biases help us survive and thrive in today’s changing world.

One 21st Century Learning Competency that will help us get through today’s reading challenges and tomorrow’s tough obstacles is our personal character.

One way to make our character stronger is to actively choose to be in a growth mindset. This means accepting that we are not always right. No one is. In fact, not getting something right is an opportunity for us to change our thinking when we get new information. We have to choose to learn from our mistakes.

The Evaluating Reading Strategy and Evaluating in general are important 21^st Century Skills.

Considering alternative ideas is a key part of trying to get to an unbiased decision. We need character to be willing to look for our biases and accept our errors or weaknesses.
Active citizenship means helping our community to become better. We need to evaluate what we know about our community so we can make informed decisions about how to improve our local and global communities.
Collaborating is not about executing a plan as a team. It’s about working together to create the plan. We need to evaluate ideas from our group to decide which ones will help us reach our goals.
Everyone communicates, but not everyone communicates well. Communication is a two-way street. We need to appreciate who our audience is in order to evaluate how to communicate effectively. We also need to evaluate when an issue is a deal-breaker that we need to be assertive and hold our ground, and when we should pick and choose our battles and let an issue go.
Creativity is not just about art. We need to be creative to solve problems. And, we need to evaluate our ideas to identify what we already know so we can try to draw upon our life experiences to innovate and come up with ideas we haven’t thought of yet.
Finally, Critical Thinking is key when we evaluate and form ideas. We are bombarded by information from the internet, the news, social media, friends and family. We need to think about the things we find out to see if it’s high quality information, or if it’s misinformation or disinformation.

GET THE RESOURCE: Slideshow and Handouts

Teacher Talk

What does Evaluate mean in Reading?

Evaluating is a comprehension reading strategy to help students understand the text.

Students can use these 4 pro tips to make informed decisions and opinions about the text.

Evaluating is a higher-order thinking skill on Bloom’s Taxonomy.

The evaluate / understanding reading strategy is included on this different reading strategies list.

What if I took it off for you? Reading Response Passage

This singer / songwriter wonders if she took it off for you, would people like her better?

What are we talking about?

Can your Middle School* and High School* students infer based on clues from the text?

* WARNING: Although this text is available at a Grade 4 reading level, please read the content warning and mental health alert at the bottom of this product description to decide if the subject matter is appropriate for your class.

Read on!

Reading Comprehension Article

Get the Lesson

SEL Story 007 - What if I took it off for you - Inferring Reading Strategy — Get the Lesson

Read the Non-Fiction Article:
What if I took it off for you?

At school, she had no friends. She would have play dates with girls separately and hang out at their houses as a child. But they weren’t friends at school.

Nemah Hasan just thought that’s how friends worked. Today, she seems like an extrovert with twenty million likes on TikTok. But Hasan is a true introvert. She is happiest when hanging out alone. She likes to do her own thing.

Hasan pays close attention to life. Her experiences would lead her to become a singer and songwriter one day. Hasan is proud to be one hundred percent Palestinian. She was raised in Canada on a small farm outside of Toronto. Growing up, her family was the only Muslim family in Milton.

Substitute teachers would have trouble saying her name at school. Nemah would explain, “it’s like Emma with an N in front of it – Nemah.” One day, she heard Nicki Minaj sing, “oh, my nemesis, exclamation, just for emphasis.” Hasan realized nemesis sounded like Nemah. That was in Grade 10. Since that moment, she started introducing herself, “it’s like nemesis – Nemah.” Hasan would turn that saying into her artist name, Nemahsis.

Hasan taught herself how to sing. As a kid, she used to hum a lot. She even sang without realizing it.

“It started as like a soothing thing because I was really introverted and making friends was really hard and I got really anxious around a lot of people. I’d always just said be humming and singing to kind of like cope, with the crowdedness of everyone around me.”

Someone pointed out that she sounded good. Hasan had trust issues. But there was no reason for that kid to lie to her. So, Hasan started to believe she sounded okay.

In Grade 11, a student teacher overheard her singing in the hallway. The student teacher said she should listen to Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse was a singer who sang deep, expressive, and soulful music. Hasan practiced an Amy Winehouse song for two days. Then, she performed with a live instrument in the school talent show. That was an important moment in her life. She talked about it during an interview with Colors:

“That was the first time I think the world got to hear my voice, the way it was supposed to be heard. That’s when I was like, ‘oh, okay, so I do sound okay, it’s not just a lie.'”

When Hasan was growing up, music was haram. Haram means forbidden by Islamic law. Her dad was religious and conservative. But her mom grew up with music. Music was a big part of her mom’s life. So music became a secret thing that the family hid from their dad.

Hasan and her mom, brothers, and sisters would listen to Arabic CDs. Hasan’s mom brought these CDs with her to Canada when she immigrated. In middle school, Hasan and her siblings started asking for CDs. They wanted songs from pop artists they heard on the radio.

If you like this content, you should definitely check out the reading comprehension strategies PDF bundle.

Hasan was in her early twenties before her dad discovered she could sing. A family member from Saudi Arabia sent her dad a video. It was an old video that Hasan had posted on social media years ago. In the video, Hasan was singing a Lana Del Rey song. When her dad played the cover of the Lana Del Rey song to her in the car, Hasan was horrified. Hasan felt ashamed. She retells the moment in an interview with CBC:

“I look over, and I was like, I’m so sorry. The first thing I said was I let you down. You and mom fought as immigrants trying to pave a way in this small town that’s predominantly White people to give us the chance and the opportunities you didn’t get, and I’m just out here throwing it all away.”

Her dad was crying. Here was an entire side of his daughter’s life that he had only discovered. He wanted to help his daughter. Her dad wanted to support her if she wanted this. It took Hasan a couple of years to think about it. Eventually, she accepted that she wanted to go after a music career.

In June 2021, she released her first song. The debut single was called “what if i took it off for you.” In March 2022, she released her first short album. It was an EP called “eleven achers.” Hasan then went on tour. She played concerts in Amsterdam, Paris, and London. In February 2023, she had more concert dates. These were in Toronto, Montreal, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles.

“eleven achers” only has six songs. That’s because it is an EP. An EP stands for Extended Play format and has fewer songs than a full album. The title “eleven achers” has two different meanings. “eleven achers” is about the eleven acres of farmland she grew up on. The title is also about lessons learned and the aches and pains of growing up. Hasan posts on TikTok. She posts original songs, viral covers, beauty tips, and forward fashion. She also posts little snippets into her life:

“Not only did I hide from my ‘religious’ father that I listened to music growing up but that I could secretly sing. He found out when I was in my 20s and was heartbroken that he just got to know the real me. Now I’m touring my original music and my family is going to be in the audience supporting me. People change and dreams do come true.”

Hasan loved singing. But Hasan didn’t think people like her could write songs. After all, when she grew up, she didn’t see people who looked like her in pop music or on TV. But then she started wondering if she could do something positive:

“I wanted to write a song for younger me that could potentially listen to and feel uplifted. You know, you have breakup songs, you have all these things that can help you get through where you could cry, eat chips, and sing to these songs stereotypically, but there was no anthem for what I was going through and no warning for what I would be going through in my late teens and I was like, ‘oh, this is a missed opportunity.'”

“what if i took it off for you” is the first song Hasan wrote. It is about feeling different and excluded. Hasan sings about wearing a hijab. Hasan grew up in a community where she was the only hijabi. She wonders if she removed her religious head covering, would people treat her differently? Would it open more doors? If she took off her hijab, would she get more opportunities?

The official music video went viral. It has over one million views. Hasan writes a message to listeners in the YouTube video description. She tells us there’s a deeper backstory about the song.

“… it tells the story of my experience shooting a global campaign for a multimillion dollar makeup corporation and being offered no recompense for it. Their justification was that ‘it’s more of an opportunity for the people of your community.'”

Hasan never tells us the name of the makeup corporation. She doesn’t talk about the company’s name in interviews or on social media. Readers can only guess what happened.

Influencer marketing is a type of advertising. Businesses connect with social media personalities to create content. Big corporations would make sure a contract was signed before starting any work. A contract can help avoid problems later on if people disagree. Once you sign a contract, you have to do what it says.

Legal documents can include many things. A legal contract can include a confidentiality section. (This means you can’t talk about what’s in the contract.) Contracts can also have a compensation model. (This means the contract says how people will get paid.) Contracts often include content usage terms. (This means how the company can use the photos. Normally an artist owns their content. But a contract can transfer the copyright and ownership of images to the company. This means the corporation owns the content as if you didn’t exist.)

You might not know what to look for when you sign a contract. A lawyer can give you advice about possible issues. You might also not know you can hire a lawyer to help you. For example, imagine you signed a contract, but the contract didn’t say you would get paid. Then, later on, you are at a group photoshoot. You discover other people are getting paid. The company doesn’t have to pay you. You already signed a contract that doesn’t force the company to pay you.

You also had to allow the company to use your images. The legal document probably gives the company “worldwide, irrevocable” rights to use your photo. Irrevocable means you can’t revoke your permission. You can’t take back your consent to use the images.

A confidentiality clause could allow the company to sue you if you talk about your deal with the company. So we will likely never know the name of the makeup corporation that Hasan is singing about. But we do know how she feels about it. She tells us in her lyrics:

        what if i took it off for you?

        would you love me the way they never do?

        i thought i should take it off for you

        what a fool

        i’m such a fool

Hasan did an interview with Complex. She explains how she told the brand, “I’m not going to be anybody’s token Hijabi girl.” Unfortunately, she couldn’t stop them.

“I felt like such an idiot. I was supposed to be strong and independent. I was too proud to admit what had happened. But I will not be anybody’s victim.”

“what if i took it off for you” combines strong feelings. Many people know what it’s like to be excluded. We know how it feels to be left out in social situations. We also know how frustrating it can be when you’re powerless to stop something. Sometimes, life is unfair. The song is like a personal anthem. It delivers a simple message. Many girls can relate to this song. Many people, in general, can relate to this message.

What if I… from an SEOT perspective

We can learn a lot about growing from mistakes from Hasan’s story. Optimizing is when you improve results. You can improve by using resources. You can also get better by using information. Finally, you can boost results by using a better process.

We can use numbers as a source of information. We can use data to help us make informed decisions. Hasan’s story shows us that optimizing can be more than looking at numbers. We don’t have to use numbers. We can also pay attention to everyday moments. Thinking about life can help guide our actions.

OPTIMIZATION Idea: Pay attention to life, consider options, and then take positive action.

Hasan’s origin story shows us a series of events. She started in a household where music was forbidden. She goes through several steps in her journey as a singer. The steps lead to her performing at concerts. Her family fully supports her in the audience.

Hasan’s humming started as a way to cope with crowds. Someone told her she had a nice voice. Hasan analyzed the information. She had to figure out if it could be true. Hasan decided the person had no reason to lie. So she started to think she did sound pleasant.

A teacher that Hasan didn’t know suggested she listen to Amy Winehouse. The person invited Hasan to perform one of Amy Winehouse’s songs. Hasan again analyzed the feedback. Based on this information and encouragement, Hasan sang in the school talent show. She felt more confident singing. The feedback from the crowd was positive.

The conversation with her dad was heartbreaking. His willingness to change must have been a powerful moment for Hasan. It was a sign that music could become a viable career for her.

Hasan didn’t think she could be a songwriter. She thought it wasn’t for people like her. The idea to write songs came from a powerful desire. Hasan wanted younger people (like her) to see their stories reflected in the media. Hasan decided to do something. She tried to help fix the lack of representation. She wanted to share her story with others.

Hasan channeled her negative experience with a makeup brand into songwriting. She found the process both healing and inspiring. Sharing a part of yourself can feel scary because you are so vulnerable. When people liked the first song, Hasan decided this process was working. She continued to tell other personal stories with more songs. Hasan knows she’s heading in the right direction with her music because her family is in the crowd. They are supporting her at one of her concerts.

Hasan’s story shows us a way to succeed. We can change what we do so that “dreams do come true” if we pay attention to life, think about events, and take action.

We can infer that if it worked for her to get through some tough times, it might work for us too!

Get the Lesson

Content Warning / Mental Health Alert

The title “what if i took it off for you” is suggestive.

Younger students might only focus on the issue of taking off the hijab to gain acceptance.
Older students will likely realize that this song appeals to both religious and non-religious girls, girls feeling pressured to wear more revealing clothing or to have sex or be intimate with a partner.

There is no mention of sex, romance, or intimacy in the article, although these are logical inferences that may come up based on lyrics quoted in the article.

what if i took it off for you?
would you love me the way they never do?
i thought i should take it off for you.
what a fool.
i’m such a fool (article page 4, par 30-34)

You can read the full lyrics and watch the official video for Nemahsis – what if i took it off for you on YouTube:

Mental Health Alert:

NOTE: This information can also be found at the start of the Answers to the Discussion Questions PDF

This article and the ensuing discussion questions powerful because they explore real-world issues of doing things we may not really want to do to gain acceptance (i.e. what if i took it off for you.)

In particular, Questions #3 (Describe something you thought about doing to gain acceptance) and #6 (Create a self-script for younger you to get through the moment you described in question #3) have the potential to inspire great social-emotional learning moments, or unintentionally trigger mental health challenges.

The learning objective of this article is to develop reading strategies and inference skills to explore how themes of social exclusion and powerless frustration can lead towards positive change. i.e. if we feel social exclusion or powerless frustration, maybe if we can pay attention to life, consider options, and take positive action, we can get to a place where “dreams do come true.”

The reality is that as teachers, we can never fully be aware of who is in the audience or what hidden trauma or life obstacles our students are going through.

Every classroom reality is different. Please consider checking in with your parent/guardian community, and principal/administrator for feedback.

Teaching Ideas

Here are some guidelines to consider before leading classroom discussions or having students fill out the worksheet.

1. Share only what you’re comfortable sharing. Consider giving students the right to pass and not answer.

2. Make sure your response is appropriate and safe for a school environment:

Only share things you’re okay with your teachers, classmates, parents, and principal finding out.
Your teacher has a professional obligation to pass on information to other adults to help keep you and other students safe.
A school worksheet is not an ideal place to ask for help with a tough situation. (Teachers have a lot of marking and may not see a plea for help.) Get help in person from a trusted adult

3. Know where to get help

MENTAL HEALTH ALERT: Life is not fair. Life can be challenging.
If you’re going through tough situations, please talk with a trusted adult to get help!
Sometimes, everyone needs a helping hand, and that’s okay.

Preparing for student discussions / responding to questions #3 / #6

1. Consider brainstorming with your class examples of responses that teachers might have a professional obligation to take action on.

If you wrote about committing a crime…
If you wrote about someone getting physically hurt (you or someone else)…
If you wrote about someone getting emotionally / mentally hurt (you or someone else)…
If you wrote about property getting damaged…

2. Consider brainstorming with your class examples of too much information at school…

Your friend may not want you to tell the teacher about that information…
You may trust your teacher and some close friends to know about something personal about you, but what if a classmate accidentally reads your work (because it was left on a desk somewhere… or someone grabbed it from you?)
You may not want your parents to know about this. What if your teacher or classmates mention it in passing to your parents? What if your parents want to see your marks? (I.e. In Grade 8, Hasan was probably okay if the teacher told her mom about her music, but would be horrified for her dad to know.)

3. Consider brainstorming some “school appropriate” examples

Peer pressure to like a certain song or type of music
Hiding the fact that you like playing Minecraft / Paw Patrol
Laughing at jokes / pretending to be dumb / something you’re not so that your crush likes you
Not trying out for something because it’s not cool. Only trying for something so you look cool / fit in. Not answering in class because you don’t want to look dumb.

4. Consider brainstorming a list of trusted adults.

Who could we turn to get help or a second opinion about how to handle a tough situation?
Some people will trust some adults but not others.
Nobody is trusted by everybody all of the time.
Friends are good, but they may not have the years of life experience or the breadth of knowledge that adults might have to help you get through tough times.

Possible adults:

Parents/Guardians? Other Adult family members?
Teachers? Guidance Counsellors? Principal? Other caring adults at school?
Religious Leaders? Community group leaders? Police officers? Outreach Groups?
Doctors? Counsellors? Therapists? Social Workers? Psychologists?
Anonymous helplines? Distress and Crisis Lines? Kids Help Phone (Canada)?

Get the Lesson

Devious Sips, TikTok trends, and Active Citizenship

Reading response article about CITIZENSHIP.

How can we discourage negative social media challenges like the Devious Licks TikTok challenge that destroyed school bathrooms in Sep 2021?

Reading comprehension article handout written at three different grade levels (Grades 6, 8, 10) with matching paragraph numbers. Includes sample answers.

Differentiated Reading Text: New TikTok challenge Devious Sips dares kids to take action - SEL Character

Want to see exactly what you get before you buy this product?

Watch the PREVIEW VIDEO

Look at the PREVIEW PDF.
(It is a watermarked version of the entire PDF resource.)

This article goes well with the MAKING CONNECTIONS reading strategy.

READ MORE

Get Resource

New TikTok Challenge Devious Sips Dares Kids to Take Action!

Ten discussion questions help students analyze and evaluate different responses to Devious Licks, including:

positive social media challenges,

arresting students, and

reporting videos to shut down social media accounts.
(If you can’t post a video, it can’t go viral…)

Devious Sips and Devious Licks are really lessons in active citizenship.

What do we do to encourage positive behaviors and challenge negative ones?

How is responding to racism similar or different from responding to Devious Licks?

New TikTok Challenge Devious Sips Dares Kids to Take Action

Allison Shay is a teacher on TikTok. She keeps up with the trends. She posted a video of students doing something positive at her school instead of a devious theft.

Two students walk down the hallway. They don’t trash bathrooms or steal soap dispensers. They also don’t swipe SMART boards and other classroom supplies. Instead, these students walk up to a teacher and hand them a warm drink and a new package of pencils.

Shay narrates the video with an excited voice. Other people have used her voice over on their TikTok videos. “New TikTok trend: You bring your favourite teacher their favourite hot drink and supplies for the classroom.”

Devious Sips is a feel good social media challenge. Teachers, students and parents are getting behind this one. Christina Marfice wrote on Scary Mommy about this trend on Sep 22, 2019.

“The hashtag for the challenge has already racked up 353,000 views, and you just love to see something so wholesome going all the way viral. Kids may be jerks sometimes… but this proves that they’re just as capable of being sweet and kind.”

Six days later, the hashtag #DeviousSips already has 1.8 million views on TikTok.

Devious Sips is in direct response to the Devious Licks challenge. In September 2021, some students vandalized school property. They would then post on TikTok to brag about it. A lick is slang for stealing something.

Phillip Hamilton first wrote about Devious Licks on Know Your Meme on Sep 8, 2021. “TikToker @dtx.2cent posted a video with the on-screen text “only a month into school and got this absolute devious lick” unzipping his backpack and pulling out a hand sanitizer dispenser that he [allegedly] stole… The video gained over 7.2 million views in two days.”

Hamilton discovered more information and updated the post. The trend started with TikToker @jugg4elias posting a video on Sep 1, 2021. The video showed a box of disposable masks in his backpack. The caption called it an “absolutely devious lick.” This original TikTok video that started the craze gained 239,000 views within a week.

Devious Lick affected many middle schools and high schools. Principals closed bathrooms. Officers arrested students and laid felony charges. News stations ran stories.

If you like this content, you should definitely check out the reading comprehension strategies PDF bundle.

Rob Dirienzo reported on Fox 5 Atlanta on Sep 20, 2021. Two middle school students were charged. The students destroyed a school bathroom and filmed the whole thing. “Authorities just arrested two kids at Evans Middle School in the county after a staff member noticed the soap dispenser in the bathroom was ripped off the wall and missing.”

Lt. Greg Vansant from the Newnan Police Department spoke with Fox 5 Atlanta News. “Those soap dispensers… or windows or anything like that are government property and any defacing or vandalizing of that property is a felony.”

Devious Licks can be disruptive, criminal and trending. But, like any internet fad, it will go away. A new challenge will replace Devious Licks. It looks like in October, the TikTok challenge is to slap a teacher, run away, and post the deed on TikTok.

Of course, there are many ways to try to stop Devious Licks. We can encourage students not to get involved. Or we can educate parents and students about the potential consequences. Students who commit Devious Licks that get into trouble might act as a warning to others.

There is also a simple action that we can all do. This action doesn’t get discussed as often. We can report the video and the user on the social media platform. We can try to get the website to take down the video and close the user account.

Reporting a video or user is not the same as leaving a comment or posting your own response video. Ironically, those actions might have the opposite result. Commenting show controversy. This can lead to more attention.

Sometimes, people ask others to stop watching, liking, sharing or commenting on videos. This may not stop viral trends. Some people love watching the poor choices people make. Just as much as they love watching funny cat videos.

TikTok uses an algorithm to figure out which videos to show you. Choosing “not interested” only tells TikTok not to show this type of video to you. It is not a video take down request. But, clicking the “report” button can lead to the removal of the video.

Real people review the videos reported by people. These moderators decide if a video breaks the rules or not. TikTok can close the accounts of people who break the rules many times.

Once someone clicks the “report” button, the app lists several reasons. This includes “illegal activities and regulated goods”. When a person selects that option, a new menu appears with more options. Some Devious Lick videos show the destruction of school property or theft. TikTok can remove these videos under the “promotion of criminal activities” option.

The app will then say that they prohibit “content that depicts or promotes criminal activities.” After sending a report, TikTok thanks the user. They will “review your report and take action if there is a violation of our community guidelines.”

At this point, there is an option to view the status of other videos you have reported. TikTok shows a message in the inbox. It will say that you anonymously reported the video. At first, the status will be “under review.” If TikTok agrees with the complaint, the website will take down the video.

Can a person repost a video that was taken down? Absolutely. Can they create another account? Definitely. Can they post the video on a different social media channel? One hundred percent. Can they post a video with a variation of a hashtag that has been shut down? Certainly.

But, that shouldn’t stop people from reporting videos and users. Making a community safer requires active citizenship. This is an on-going process. It’s not a simple one-time action.

We are part of many communities. We belong to our classroom community, our school community, and our online communities. Citizenship is more than simply having a passport. It’s more than being a citizen of a place. It’s about being part of that community.

Active citizenship is not about everyone agreeing. We don’t have to all get along. In fact, hard conversations about controversial issues are important. They bring attention to groups of people that are treated poorly. Disagreeing about things can lead to change. This might help make things more fair.

TikTok is like any other social platform. They have a Terms of Service. You must agree to this document if you want an account. This gives them the legal right to “disable your user account at any time.” It also gives TikTok the right (but not the obligation) to take action. They can use their “sole discretion to remove, disallow, block or delete any User Content” that they consider violates their policies. The website can do this “in response to complaints from other users.”

Of course, TikTok will not delete a video simply because people disagree with it and report it. Their community guidelines explain what can and cannot be posted on TikTok. Reporting illegal activities on TikTok might be one way to slow down viral trends like Devious Licks.

Some people on the internet don’t care about trending on social media. But, many people post because they want the likes. They want lots of followers. So what happens when people lose this audience? Would people destroy school property if they knew they would lose their account?

TikTok deleted the Devious Licks videos from @jugg4elias and @dtx.2cent. They also shut down their accounts. These two TikTokers lost all any followers they gained because of their viral videos. They wasted any effort they put into gaining followers before their devious theft.

Devious Sips and Devious Licks are lessons in active citizenship. What do we do as a group of people to encourage positive behaviours and challenge negative ones?

In October 2020, The New York Times ran an article about how to be an active bystander. The article focused on casual racism. There are similarities between dealing with racism and dealing with negative social media trends.

The article cites Monica Reyna. Reyna is a violence prevention educator at the Advocates. “Active bystanders see something bad happen and make discrete choices to respond to the concerning behavior.”

Reyna gave examples about what active bystanders can do when they see acts of racism. Active bystanders can record suspected police brutality. They can also challenge racist comments made during dinner conversations. Active bystanders might use humour to point out how a “compliment” might actually be racist. The idea of taking action when we see something bad is important.

We often think that we should mind our business and not get involved. Beryl Domingo is an active bystander coordinator at Quabbin Mediation. She explains why this shouldn’t be the case.

“When you don’t do something, the person doing the harm assumes that you’re in agreement with their actions… If we don’t challenge them, they will continue to do what they do and they will influence other people to do the same.”

Domingo talks about building “moral courage” to become a more active bystander. Her lessons about dealing with racism work well in many situations.

Many students won’t take part in negative social media challenges. But a few students do these negative actions because they want a little bit of social media fame. What if we took away that incentive by shutting down their videos and accounts?

How can we be active citizens when we see negative social media challenges? Do we report an illegal video to TikTok? Should we take part in feel-good challenges like Devious Sips? Or should we choose to be an active bystander in a different way? The real question is how can we respond in a way that helps make the world a better place?

Reading Comprehension Questions

Based on the article and the ideas about active citizenship in the article, how would you answer the following questions:

What is the Devious Sips challenge? What is the Devious Licks challenge?
How are closing bathrooms, suspending students, or arresting students similar? How are these approaches different? Which approach might be the most effective in stopping Devious Licks at a school?
Why do some videos go viral but not others? What might stop a video from going viral?
What would it take for the Devious Sips challenge to go viral? How could you contribute to that? Sometimes there are unintended consequences to our actions. What might be a downside to the Devious Sips challenge?
The article suggests reporting videos to TikTok in an effort to discourage Devious Licks at a school. Why might reporting videos shut down the trend at a school? Why might this approach fail?
How might dealing with Devious Licks be similar to dealing with racism? How might dealing with Devious Licks be different from dealing with racism?
What lessons can we learn from dealing with Devious Licks that might help us to discourage racism? What lessons can we learn from dealing with racism that might help us to discourage Devious Licks?
What do you think is the most effective response to the Devious Licks challenge? Explain your thinking.
Create another option to discourage Devious Licks at a school. Why might this option work well? What might be some of the unintended consequences of this approach?

Get the Resource

Dwayne Johnson The Rock

He was supposed to be playing in the NFL.

So, why was his dad driving him back home? All he had was seven bucks in his pocket.

How does the Rock go from ZERO to HERO?

By working harder than everyone else in the room. Read on!

Reading Comprehension Article

Get the Lesson

SEL Story 006 - Hardest Worker - Inferring Reading Strategy — Get the Lesson

Read the Non-Fiction Article:
Be the Hardest Worker in the Room

He couldn’t figure out where it went wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be a huge success playing pro football and living the good life.

So, why was he in his father’s pickup truck getting a ride back to Florida to live with his parents? He couldn’t even afford to get himself home. All he had was seven bucks in his pocket. (He only had six dollars and some change, but he rounded up.)

Dwayne Johnson was good at playing football in high school. He was so good that he earned a full athletic scholarship to the University of Miami. Johnson played backup defensive end for the Hurricanes. The National Football League (NFL) does an event called the Scouting Combine. This is where top college players go to get drafted into the NFL. Johnson didn’t get invited to the Scouting Combine. But, he did manage to get picked up by the Canadian Football League (CFL).

“I knew in my heart I was going to make it in the CFL – and parlay that into a very successful career in the NFL. Maybe even win a Super Bowl.”
Dwayne Johnson – The Rock

Where did it go wrong? Johnson didn’t really get to play pro football. He only got to be on the practice roster for the Calgary Stampeders. He made $250 a week, which he had to send home to his wife. Johnson lived with three other practice-roster players. He slept on a used mattress he brought back from a hotel dumpster.

Calgary didn’t need him. So head coach Wally Buono cut him from the team. He just wasn’t good enough, and he had to go home. Johnson had no money, so he called his dad to drive up from Tampa to get him.

Times were tough for Johnson. He was back living with his parents, trying to figure things out, and facing some dark days alone.

“At 23, you think life is over. I fell into a deep depression, and I remember at that time, the only thing I wanted to do was clean the walls. I grabbed some cleaner and a rag, and for days I would clean – I cleaned everything. It was just the only thing I can control.”
Dwayne Johnson – The Rock

Decades later, Johnson would talk to Oprah about those dark times when he felt trapped in his head. Johnson told Oprah that he wished he knew that he wasn’t alone. The big picture can be tough to see when you’re struggling. You’re not the first to go through mental health obstacles. You won’t be the last to go through it, either.

You just feel like you’re alone. And, you feel like it’s only you, and you’re in your bubble, and I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and [say], hey, it’s going to be okay. You’re gonna be okay. I wish I knew that. Just gotta remember: Hold on to that fundamental quality of faith. Have faith. That on the other side of your pain is something good.

Johnson battled his depression. He chose to focus on what he could control. In his case, it was cleaning that small apartment. Although he wasn’t certified, Johnson got a job as a trainer at a local Bally gym. He smiled and told them he knew what he was doing. Johnson also told the gym that he was great with people.

One day, the head coach called from Calgary and asked him to return. Johnson politely thanked him for the opportunity and turned it down.

His dad thought he was crazy. Why would he throw away his football career? But Johnson knew otherwise. His gut told him football wasn’t right for him anymore. He wanted to join the family business.

Johnson comes from a family involved with professional wrestling. Johnson’s grandfather (on his mother’s side) was Peter Maivia. Maivia was born in Samoa in the 1930s and was a pro wrestler. When Johnson’s grandfather passed away, Johnson’s grandmother, Lia Maivia, took over Polynesian Pro Wrestling (PPW). She was one of the first female promoters in the business.

Johnson’s father, Rocky “Soul Man” Johnson, was also a pro wrestler. Johnson’s father was trained by Johnson’s grandfather. (Maivia was now wrestling under the name High Chief Peter Maivia.) If Johnson became a pro wrestler, he would be the third generation in his family to wrestle. Although Johnson didn’t know it then, later on, in 2022, his eldest daughter would become the fourth generation wrestler in the family. She started her career as Ava Raine in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

I need you to train me, Johnson said to his father back in the 1990s. And his dad did.

Johnson started his wrestling career as Rocky Maivia, a smiling happy guy who smiled as he got beat down. But this character felt wrong. After all, as Johnson would later put it, “Who was this guy in wrestling who’s smiling when he’s getting beat?”

The crowd didn’t believe Rocky for a second. At his first Wrestlemania, twenty thousand people chanted, “Rocky sucks!” That was tough to hear.

A few weeks later, Johnson injured his knee. He was out for the rest of the summer. During that break, Johnson realized it wasn’t personal. It wasn’t him that the crowd didn’t like. They didn’t like that he wasn’t being real; he wasn’t being true to himself.

Vincent McMahon was the promoter and owner of WWE (then WWF.) He called up Johnson about coming back as a heel. A heel is a villain in professional wrestling. The crowd already hated Rocky Maivia. It made sense to develop the storyline in this direction. Johnson could stir up people to give them someone to love to hate.

Johnson said yes, but under one condition. He wanted two minutes to talk to the crowd live. McMahon agreed. In 1996, Johnson gave a speech that showed who he really was. “In arenas across the country, I heard chants of Rocky Sucks. I may be a lot of things, but sucks isn’t one of them.”

The Rock was born; his wrestling character matched his real personality. Rocky Maivia was a cheesy, smiling, good-boy hero with streamers around his neck. In contrast, the Rock was a gritty, rough, tough-guy villain with a trademark eyebrow raise. Johnson unleashed his full charm. He insulted people and referred to himself in the third person. The crowd loved it!

Today, we’ve seen the Rock in everything from The Scorpion King to Jumanji to Black Adam. He has a production company, Seven Bucks. Seven Bucks creates content for television, film, and digital media. This includes NBC’s Young Rock, Disney’s Jungle Cruise, and Netflix’s Red Notice.

Johnson teamed up with his ex-wife Dany Garcia and a private investment firm called RedBird Capital Partners. Together they purchased the XFL American football minor league. They bought the league from McMahon went it filed for bankruptcy during the Covid shutdown. In March 2021, Johnson posted on his Instagram about what he was doing with the XFL. The XFL and the CFL were talking about working together. In the end, an XFL-CFL partnership didn’t work out.

The XFL did, however, form a partnership with the NFL. They are going to work together to develop the game and the players. They will also share innovation programs and data. Garcia is the Co-Owner and Chairwoman of the XFL. She talked about “leveraging the newest technology to enhance gameday experience.”

Life goes full circle. In his twenties, Johnson was cut from professional football. Now, he’s in his fifties and owns a professional football league. The XFL will kickstart the first game of its new season in February 2023.

Johnson once gave a speech for the LA Lakers. How do you motivate professional NBA basketball players? Remember, these athletes are the best of the best. Johnson simply shared some things that worked for him.

He talked about being grateful. When Johnson was fourteen, his family was evicted from their home in Hawaii. He was arrested as a teen in Nashville. He told the Lakers, “I would remember that, and it allows me then to be present in the moment.”

Johnson thinks about the hard times to keep focused. It reminds him to be hungry and to play angry. Playing angry doesn’t mean being hot-tempered or not smiling. After all, Johnson is a happy guy. But he uses hunger as fuel. He uses inner anger to stay focused. This is how he works towards success. He does everything like his back is against the wall. He fights for things as if the only way out is forwards. He doesn’t care who is in front of him, “they’re not gonna stop me.”

There were days when Johnson had nothing. There are times when he’s grateful to have a lot. Either way, Johnson always centers himself by returning daily to his anchor. He’s found his safe place. For him, it’s working out at his gym, the Iron Paradise. (He also has a traveling Iron Paradise. This is the gym he brings everywhere while filming a movie.)

Johnson constantly posts on Instagram. It’s 3:45 AM, and he’s up doing cardio, lifting weights, and grounding his thoughts. He wears a shirt that literally says to be the hardest worker in the room. By the time regular people wake up, Johnson has already trained two full workouts to kick start his day.

Today, Johnson has an estimated net worth of $800 million. He has 357 million followers on Instagram. Johnson uses social media to grow his charming brand. He understands how to run a business because he’s had years of failures and successes. Johnson now owns a tequila company, a production company, and a football league. He is also one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood.

But he always remembers the day he only had seven dollars.

The Hardest Worker from an SEOT perspective

We can learn a lot about what real effort looks like from Johnson’s story of going from zero to hero. There was a time in his life when he only had a few dollars. Today, he’s worth $800M. He plays action heroes in movies. (Well, Black Adam might be more of an anti-hero than a typical hero.)

EFFORT Idea #1: Be the hardest worker in the room

Look around. If you really want something, you must go after it by working harder than everyone else. If you do what everyone else is doing, you’ll probably end up being average. Average just means you’re in the middle.

Johnson talks to his Instagram fans while working out at the gym. We get an inside peek at what it looks like when you’re working harder than the average person. For example, no one else is at the gym while he’s putting in the work.

“It’s four o’clock in the morning. It’s Saturday afternoon. Empty gym just the way we like it. I worked out twice before everyone wakes up. I’m out working all my competition.”

Most of us struggle to get out of bed. We hit snooze on the alarm. By that time, Johnson has already worked out twice. If you work harder than everyone else, it makes sense that, one day, you’ll outpace the competition.

Johnson replies to his Instagram comments in between workout sets. He likes to connect with his fans. Johnson wants to know what’s on their mind so he can reply. One of his followers says he’s on top and asks where he could possibly go from there. After all, Johnson always talks about outworking the competition. But if you’re at the top, who’s his competition?

“Everyone’s my competition, but the fundamental key that I’ve learned over the years is – I’ll share with you – my number one competition is me. It’s always you versus you. You’ve got to be the one to get up every morning, be disciplined, put in the consistent daily hard work because that gains success. No coach, no trainer, no mentor, no boss can do it. You versus you.”

Sometimes students want to do better in school, sports, or life. But how many of us do extra homework? Who stays after practice to go over basic drills? How often do we turn off Netflix to develop a better habit?

Johnson knows what real effort looks like. Working harder than everyone else has helped him get to the top. It also allows him to stay at the top. His story shows us that if you want to go from zero to hero, one way is to work harder than everyone else. You will find success if you can do this in everything you do.

We can infer that it if it worked for The Rock when he had nothing, it might work for us too!

Get the Lesson

News

MAKING CONNECTIONSReading Strategy

How to Make (Deeper) Connections – 4 PRO TIPS

FREE Video of the Making Connections Reading Comprehension Lesson Plan

Using the Making Connections Reading Strategy in real-life! Let’s look at some photos.

Text-to-Text Making Connections Example

Text-to-Self Making Connections Example

Text-to-World Making Connections Example

Let’s bring this back to Reading Strategies

Here are 4 Pro Tips to help you get more out of the Making Connections Reading Strategy

Making Connections Reading Strategy – PRO TIP #1: Connect the text you’re reading to something that you know personally

Making Connections Reading Strategy – PRO TIP #2: Try to avoid simple or straightforward connections

Making Connections Reading Strategy – PRO TIP #3:

Text to World Connections – Example #1

Text to World Connections – Example #2

Text to World Connections – Example #3

Alright. Time to Practice Making Connections!

Okay. More practice time. This time, it’s your turn:

What do we do next?

What are the 3 types of connections we could make?

What do we do next?

What are the two different sentence patterns we talked about in this video?

What do we do next when we’re using the Making Connections reading strategy?

Let’s summarize this Making Connections Lesson Plan

PART 3

END

Online Shopping and Fraud

Critical Thinking Discussion Questions:

Critical Thinking – Brainstorm #1

Critical Thinking – Brainstorm #2

Reading Comprehension Questions

EVALUATING Reading Strategy

How to Evaluate when Reading (Critical Thinking) – 4 PRO TIPS

BONUS EVALUATING READING STRATEGY LESSON VIDEO:

IMPORTANT NOTE: This product DOES NOT include a text for students to read!

Video Table of Contents

EVALUATING Reading Strategy Example Part 1 – Modelled Reading with teacher think-aloud (slides 36-68)

20:42 EVALUATING Reading Strategy Example Part 2 Practice – Modelled / Shared Reading with teacher think-aloud (slides 69-115)

36:00 EVALUATING Reading Strategy Example Part 3 More Practice (Your Turn) – Whole Class Shared Reading (with pauses for student response) (slides 116-146)

44:26 BIG PICTURE: Reading for Meaning / 21st Century Learning (slide 148-152)

Evaluating Reading Strategy Lesson

What is Active Reading?

Do we really need a lesson on how to form an opinion?

What is Critical Thinking?

CRITERIA

OPEN MINDED

FULL MINDED

Sample Critical Thinking Question: Are cats better than dogs?

Sample Critical Thinking Question: Boy with autism not allowed to have service dog at school

4 PRO TIPS for the Evaluating Reading Strategy to help us think more critically as we read.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #1: Restate part of a sentence from the text as a question that includes a modal verb or a value word.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #2: We need to clarify the criteria for evaluating

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #3: Play with the words

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #4: Start with the other side

Alright, practice time.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #1: Restate part of a sentence from the text as a question that includes a modal verb. (For example, should, could, would, or might.)

BE CAREFUL!

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #2: We are clarifying the criteria and now we’re going to make a checklist.

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #3 is about playing with the words.

Let’s try to ask something similar.

We could also make something into the opposite

Okay, we need to watch out with how we communicate.

Let’s try to simplify the question

Heads up!

Evaluating Reading Strategy – Pro Tip #4: Start with the other side

But it’s also about being full-minded.

WARNING!

More practice – your turn to try the Evaluating Reading Strategy.

Let’s summarize the Evaluating Reading Strategy.

BIG PICTURE: Evaluating and 21st Century Learning

The Evaluating Reading Strategy and Evaluating in general are important 21st Century Skills.

Teacher Talk

What does Evaluate mean in Reading?

Read the Non-Fiction Article: What if I took it off for you?

What if I… from an SEOT perspective

OPTIMIZATION Idea: Pay attention to life, consider options, and then take positive action.

Content Warning / Mental Health Alert

Mental Health Alert:

Teaching Ideas

Preparing for student discussions / responding to questions #3 / #6

MAKING CONNECTIONS
Reading Strategy

The Evaluating Reading Strategy and Evaluating in general are important 21^st Century Skills.

Read the Non-Fiction Article:
What if I took it off for you?

Read the Non-Fiction Article:
Be the Hardest Worker in the Room