Selection 1:  Reading with Purpose
[TIP]: This reading strategy will work with many types of texts! When you take the Reading SOL next year, take these notes as you read the passages.

Step one: as you read, stop after each paragraph and identify and write down the “who?” and the “what?” of each paragraph.
“Who?”  = Who is the most important subject of this paragraph?
“What?” = What is the most important thing happening to or with the subject?

Step two: after you read the entire text, use all of the “who?” and “what?” boxes to decide what the main idea of the passage is. Pretend that you have a friend sitting next to you and you have to tell her what happens in this passage in one sentence. That is your main idea. Then choose the three most important details that support or explain this main idea.

Assignment: Complete the chart on the assignment sheet. Please refer to the assignment sheet for what to submit to your teacher.

Practice Summarizing a Text: “Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin - Pioneering Chemist” and "The Yarn Spinner"

Step one: identify the “who?” and “what?” for each paragraph.

1 Chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was born in May 1910 in Cairo, Egypt, where her father held a position with the Egyptian Education Service and her mother studied ancient textiles. Hodgkin shared her parents' passion for the study of ancient cultures. However, her inclination changed to chemistry because of a pair of gifts she received as a teenager.

Who? Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin What? was first interested in ancient cultures then became interested in chemistry because of a pair of gifts.

Link to FCPS LIS Databases