Text Coding: An Analytical Approach

Text coding is a great tool for metacognition. Like other forms of annotating, text coding allows readers to actively track their thinking and monitor their comprehension. Instead of open-ended annotations, text-coding allows teachers to assign symbols (or codes) to specific metacognitive meanings that engage students and prompt them to "think about their thinking."

Text-Coding Chart from our most recent Poetry Unit.

Our most recent educational endeavor has focused on strategies that encourage teachers to move poetry and verse out of April (National Poetry Month; which inconveniently coincides with standards-based test review), chop it into slivers of mini-lessons and activities, and sprinkle it throughout the curriculum map.

It is common practice that poetry is taught in isolation with a strict skill set:  poetic devices and figurative language; even though said conventions are not limited to poetry and verse. In order to link conventions, forms, and structures of poetry to prose, we have to teach students to read and analyze poetry the same way we scaffold understanding and comprehension of prose.

Text coding is a great starting point. Once students annotate the text and monitor their thinking, they then have the tools to analyze, summarize, and synthesize (as it is becoming common to see poems as parts of paired texts and passages used to assess comprehension skills on standardized tests)

The text codes we chose to use are digitally-generated symbols. This lesson (which we will publish shortly) culminates with an independent activity in which students collaboratively text code and summarize a poem (chosen from a variety of genres and accompanied by video/audio) in Google Slides, then work cooperatively to generate questions using SOL stem-starters (after modeling and practice). Students are able to manipulate the text codes in Google Slides by copying and placing their chosen symbols directly into the text and using the Comment icon to share their thinking with their partner or group members.

Click on the Text Code image to view the Slide in Google. Want to edit? To access an editable copy using Google, open the Slide or Doc, click on File, then click Make a Copy. Rename the document and enjoy full editing rights.

As always, please modify and adapt as needed for your students, and feel free to share!

NY Times Found Poetry Contest

Click for NCTE PDF on Found and Headline Poetry

The New York Times announced on March 31st that submissions for their 7th Annual Found Poetry Contest are now being accepted.

Not only is this contest an excellent enrichment activity for students performing above grade level, but it also includes the components of a balanced literacy lesson.

The activity requires students to read, analyze, and ultimately choose a NY Times article (or two) to summarize, personalize, and manipulate into a "found poem." This is a multi-step process that requires direct instruction, modeling, analyzing mentor texts, guided reading, and independent reading (as well as re-reading). 

From comprehension to application to synthesis in the areas of both reading and writing, this extension activity will get students actively engaged with an opportunity to lend their voice to a published article or text.

Here are the guidelines from their website:

– Each poem must be 14 or fewer lines.

– You may give it your own original title if you like. The title does not count as one of the lines.

– Your sole source material must be Times pieces. You can use up to two articles. (Note: This is a change from previous years, when we allowed you to mix words from as many items as you wanted.)

– The poem itself should use no more than two of your own words. The rest of the words and phrases can be mixed up any way you like, but should all come from The Times.

– You might choose to write in a traditional poetic form, or not.

– Poems may be submitted by groups or by individuals. Only one poem per person is allowed, however.

– You must be from 13 to 19 years old but can be from anywhere in the world.

– You must post your poem as a comment on this post by 7 a.m. Eastern time on May 3.

– At the bottom of your found-poem post, please provide us with the URL(s) of the article(s) you used.

– Though The Learning Network often publishes excerpts from literary and historical works on our blog via our Text to Text andPoetry Pairing features, those are off limits for this contest. The Times articles they are paired with are, of course, fair game

Note: Our commenting system doesn’t recognize fancy spacing, so using words to create interesting shapes is, unfortunately, not an option