Text Markings - Paul Quine and Janet Rauch

Text Markings

Paul Quine and Janet Rauch were teaching their students how to summarize with a technique called “Text Marking”. Students were given a passage and were asked to chunk information from each paragraph underlining key terms using the basic signal words to guide them; who, what, where, when, and why. They then put the information into their own words. By marking up the text and writing their key thoughts, students were able to understand what they were reading.  They did this throughout the text. Students put their thoughts down for each section. If students were at a standstill, they would back up and process and read the work to that point. This technique helped to jumpstart their thinking. If students had trouble formulating what to write, they would act out parts of the reading. Visualizing the text, helped the students comprehend what was happening in the story.