Determining What Is Important

Making use of this strategy requires that readers understand what they have read and make judgments about what is and is not important. Most texts contain much more information than a reader can focus on and learn. Consequently, determining what is important is a crucial and frequently required strategy. Sometimes texts include direct clues to what is important—overviews, headings, summaries, and the like. However, in many cases, the text does not contain these very obvious clues to what is important, and students need to rely on their prior knowledge to infer just what is important in a particular selection.

As teachers model this strategy, they help students look at the visual clues and demonstrate the thinking that is involved in determining what is important, especially in expository text. Experience with determining what is important in expository text builds the foundation for learning in other subjects.