A great way for students to think about and organize what they are reading is to make a bubble map showing the main topics of the chapter and then listing linking information that belongs to each category as they find it in the text. I like to have kids use either Inspiration or my favorite, [...]

Wow – The internet has the greatest tools! A free tool that you definitely will want students to take advantage of is www.bubblus.com. On this tool your students can collaboratively make connections to what they already know about the topic and then create a mind map of their ideas and connections. Following reading, students can [...]