Fifth Grade

Reading Strategies: Non-Fiction Reading
Coding the Text

Reading textbooks can be more difficult than reading for pleasure for 5th graders. To help students better understand the material, Coding the Text may be used. While students are reading the lesson, they use colored Post-It tabs to mark off sections of the lesson that relate to new vocabulary, ideas that are new, main ideas, and information that sparks a question. Since students are taking the time to code their text, they are also reading more carefully and considering what they are reading more thoroughly. The worksheet below can be copied or printed out to be filled out by the students based upon what they coded in their reading. It is strongly encouraged that students use this technique and worksheet when they are reading lessons in their social studies and health textbooks.

Blue = Vocabulary

Write down two vocabulary words you coded:

1. __________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________

Pink = New Idea

Write down two examples of information that was new to you.

1. __________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________

Yellow = Main Idea

Write down two examples of information that you think is really important and  is probably a main idea of the lesson (something a test would have).

1. __________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________

Green = Questions and Learn More

Write down two examples of information that sparked a question that you would like to find out the answer to or learn more about.

1. __________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________

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