Black Out

When was the last time you read something legal?  A house closing is always my favorite example, but a business contract (your professional employment contract?), an insurance policy, a marriage or divorce or custody agreement, a voting ballot...

Try the upcoming Pennies for Pinellas ballot. Have you read this yet? Most of us haven’t read the actual text of it. Check it out.

Shall the levy of the Penny for Pinellas one-cent (1¢) local infrastructure sales surtax be extended for an additional ten (10) years to finance county and municipal projects, including roads, bridges, flood and sewer spill prevention, water quality, trails, parks, environmental preservation, public safety facilities, hurricane sheltering, vehicles, technology, land acquisition for affordable housing, capital projects supporting economic development (pursuant to section 212.055(2)(d)3, Florida Statutes), and other authorized infrastructure projects.

• FOR the one-cent sales tax
• AGAINST the one-cent sales tax

Now, read it again, but this time, use metacognition to think about WHAT you do when you’re reading.

Me? I skip over the legal terms that don’t sound useful and pull out key words to help me understand the GIST of the text. When I read, it sounds like this (in my head).

Blah blah Penny for Pinellas one-cent (1¢) local blah blah sales surtax be extended for an additional ten (10) years blah blah blah blah blah, including roads, bridges, flood and sewer spill prevention, water quality, trails, parks, environmental preservation, public safety facilities, hurricane sheltering, vehicles, technology, blah blah for affordable housing,blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bla, and other authorized infrastructure projects.

So, when I read and cut through some of the terms that don’t stand out at me, I’m left with the more important words. It helps me read better

It’s one of the strategies that good readers use -- often without realizing that they’re using it.

Do you ever ask your kids to highlight text (or notes or whatever) -- and then they highlight EVERYTHING? Do you ever look at the paper and see a giant neon-colored paper?

Yup. Me, too, even though you and I try to model how to highlight and give clear directions.

Maybe it would help to try the idea of highlighting strategy -- but BACKWARDS.

This strategy is called “Black Out” and it’s the opposite of highlighting.

The short explanation is -- it’s where you black-out everything that you DON’T need to have to understand the document.

The long explanation is that when kids need to watch it modelled and practice it judiciously with gradual release (please don’t just tell them to “do it” and then get annoyed when they do it poorly). When they learn it slowly, with plenty of practice, then can learn to figure out which words are important and which are not. It looks like this:

Shall the levy of the Penny for Pinellas one-cent (1¢) local infrastructure sales surtax be extended for an additional ten (10) years to finance county and municipal projects, including roads, bridges, flood and sewer spill prevention, water quality, trails, parks, environmental preservation, public safety facilities, hurricane sheltering, vehicles, technology, land acquisition for affordable housing, capital projects supporting economic development (pursuant to section 212.055(2)(d)3, Florida Statutes), and other authorized infrastructure projects.

Is that a more manageable chunk of text? For many students, it is. (PS -- if you want to do it digitally, you can just use the highlighter but choose black or dark grey as the color)

Sometimes when we use historical documents, bills, laws, and other types of complex text, it may help the students to try to do the opposite of highlighting -- the “Black Out”.

Here are a few tips...

1. Model it. They don’t know what you mean if you don’t show them.
2. Don’t use sharpies on the first try. :) They’re still learning how, so it’s okay to use write-and-wipes or draw a line through the word(s) they are crossing out. Try projecting it and the kids Blacking Out the words on your board a few times (so it’s not permanent and you won’t have to run another set of copies).
3. Let them practice with a partner. It makes them really discuss what words are important and what are less useful for a particular piece of text. That’s important thinking and talking!
4. Start small. Don’t give them the whole Declaration of Independence. Give them a paragraph or a few small paragraphs.
5. Don’t count points off if they don’t do it perfectly. What is important to you may not be important to them -- and sometimes that’s okay. Plus, they’re learning. Part of learning is messing up. Learning, itself, is messy.

, What do you think about the Black Out Strategy? Will you try it? If so, please let me know how it works!! I love to hear from you!

-Tracy