Critical Reading Lesson
Instructional Model for AVID Teachers
Do athletes do better in
school during their season?
By Morgan DiVittorio and Matthew Barbato
Published March 17, 2016
AVID’s Critical Reading Process
This lesson will follow AVID’s critical reading process
and will utilize the following strategies:
1.)Pre-reading
2.) Interacting with the text
3.) Extending beyond the text
AVID’s WICOR Methodology
This lesson utilizes the WICOR methodology. The WICOR
icon will be used throughout the lesson to communicate
when an activity is using WICOR methods.
Writing
Inquiry
Collaboration
Organization
Reading
Cornell Notes
Essential Question:
How do readers actively read and isolate essential
information in a text?
Critical Reading Strategy Focus:
Strategy details are available at AVID Weekly. Sign in to
avidweekly.org and download the strategy from the matrix.
First Reading
•“Marking the Text:
Circling and Underlining Essential Information”
•Identify and underline information relevant to
the writing task.
•Common Core College and Career Readiness Standards
•R 1: Read closely to determine what the text
says explicitly and to make logical inferences
from it; and cite specific evidence when
writing or speaking to support conclusions
drawn from the text.
•R 8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and
specific claims in a text, including the validity
of the reasoning as well as the relevance and
sufficiency of the evidence.
Second Reading
•“Writing in the Margins:
Summarizing and Clarifying Ideas”
•Explain what the author is saying in select
paragraphs.
•Common Core College and Career Readiness Standard
•R 1: Read closely to determine what the text
says explicitly and to make logical inferences
from it; and cite specific evidence when
writing or speaking to support conclusions
drawn from the text.
Reading Prompt: In the article “Do athletes do better
in school during their seasons?” Morgan DiVittorio and
Matthew Barbato acknowledge that in-season studentathletes are challenged to be more organized and better
managers of their time, but those skills do not always equate
to higher grades year-round. As you read, circle the names of
experts cited throughout the article and underline evidence
that the authors use to support their claims. In the right
margin, summarize important details that the experts state
that support the authors’ point.
Estimated Preparation Time: 20–30 minutes
Estimated Instructional Time: 130 minutes
Recommended Pacing: 2 days
Critical Reading Lesson
Instructional Model for AVID Teachers
Do athletes do better in school during their season?
Page 2
Using the AVID Weekly Resources
Making Predictions (approximately 5 minutes)
Before teaching this lesson, go to avidweekly.org to access
additional teaching tools. Find the following sections in the
top navigation.
Once students have had an opportunity to build prior
knowledge through writing and speaking, they are ready
to make some predictions.
•Hand out a copy of the article. Ask students to survey
the text. Have them report on what they see. Are there
subtitles? Is the text divided into sections? What is the
length of the individual paragraphs? Have them scan
the whole text in order to get an idea of its length.
•It’s a good idea to have students make predictions
before they read. Ask them to read the title and make
predictions about the message of the text. You could
ask, “What will this text be about?” You could also ask
them to read the first and last paragraphs and make
another prediction.
•Take a look at the publication and author
information. You can discuss this information as a
class or you can have students discuss this information
in collaborative groups. Why should students read
this information? The publication date tells the reader
when the text was written, allowing him or her to
better understand the issues during the time in which
the text was written. Author information can be useful,
too. An author’s personal and professional experiences
can tell the reader a lot about the purpose of the text
and the intended audience.
Teacher Resources
This page offers strategies and approaches that will help
you prepare for the lesson, set expectations, and prepare
for the reading.
Assessment Tool
This page offers general questions teachers can use to
assess students’ understanding and analysis of a reading.
Pre-Reading
Developing Students’ Understanding of the Subject
(approximately 15–20 minutes)
Respond and Discuss
1.)Ask students to complete the following academic
language script:
T he one thing that motivates me to do well in school
is __________. This motivates me by _______________.
I know this is a successful motivator for me because
__________.
2.)Have students move around the room and share
their prepared script with two other students.
3.)Solicit volunteers to share their script with the
entire class.
Building Vocabulary (approximately 15 minutes)
Key Concepts:
• student-athletes
• seasonal sports
• academic performance
Key Vocabulary:
• organized (par. 3)
• focused (par. 3)
• motivated (par. 3)
• efficient (par. 6)
• eligibility rules (par. 10)
• support programs (par. 16)
• time management (par. 19)
Interacting with the Text
Instructions for the lesson are provided in this section.
Use an overhead projector or document camera to model
and support the following activities.
Numbering the Paragraphs (approximately 5 minutes)
Note: Students familiar with the “Marking the Text” strategy
may be able to mark the text during their first read. If not,
have students read the text once without marking or writing
in the margins.
1.)Go over the “Marking the Text” strategy with your
students. (If you do not have a copy of this strategy,
please visit avidweekly.org and download a copy
from the matrix). Students should have copies of this
handout on their desks or the ideas from this handout
should be available to them in some other way.
Critical Reading Lesson
Instructional Model for AVID Teachers
Do athletes do better in school during their season?
2.)Begin with numbering the paragraphs. If students
are not familiar with numbering paragraphs, we will
want to help them number individual paragraphs.
First Read: Circling and Underlining Essential
Information (approximately 20 minutes)
Note: Depending on your students’ skill level, you may want
to work through a few paragraphs as a class. You might also
reduce the amount of rereading students do by directing them
to specific paragraphs that contain essential information.
Consider having your students work in pairs as they learn
how to circle and underline essential ideas in a text.
Circling Key Terms
3.)Here are some key words students should identify
and circle.
a.Paragraph 2: “Evanston Township varsity
baseball coach Ross Freeland”
b.Paragraph 4: “Riverside Brookfield water polo
player and swimmer Hannah Flynn”
c. Paragraph 9: “The University of Kansas”
d.Paragraph 10: “The Illinois High School
Association (IHSA)”
e.Paragraph 11: “Riverside Brookfield assistant
principal John Treiber”
f.Paragraph 17: “Evanston Township sophomore
Jay Moore is a multi-sport athlete”
You may be able to find additional key terms in the
text that are not included in the list above. Identifying
these words will help students summarize the text
either verbally or in writing.
Underlining Essential Ideas
4.)Here are some essential ideas students should
identify and underline.
a.Paragraph 2: “… coach Ross Freeland said
he has noticed a patten amongst some
student-athletes.”
b.Paragraph 3: “I definitely have athletes who,
when they’re in season, seem to be a little bit
more organized, more focused and maybe a
little bit more motivated.”
Page 3
c.Paragraph 4: “In season, athletes have less free
time on their hands.” and “… she knows how
precious time is.”
d.Paragraph 5: “During the season I have to
manage my time …”
e.Paragraph 6: “Athletes can also be more
efficient in season—a time crunch encourages
organization and there’s not much down time
to relax.”
f.Paragraph 8: “It’s not just students and coaches
who see a difference. Many studies have shown
that student-athletes’ grades are higher than
those of non student-athletes.”
g.Paragraph 9: “They found in general ‘there were
significant differences among the athlete and
nonathlete populations’” and “‘in each measure,
athletes had higher academic performance
than nonathletes.’”
h.Paragraph 10: “Part of the reasoning behind the
higher grade trends could be eligibility rules.”
i.Paragraph 11: “To put in simpler terms: Students
must be passing at least five classes to remain
eligible for their sports.”
j.Paragraph 14: “So what are schools doing to
help their athletes not only be competitive in
their sport, but also in the classroom?” and “…
adapting a ‘study table’ method.”
k.Paragraph 15: “‘A study table is another name
for an athletic study hall’”
l.Paragraph 16: “… morning support programs
before school …”
m.Paragraph 17: “… the effect on grades really
depends on what sport it is.”
n.Paragraph 19: “Unsurprisingly, it all depends
on the student-athlete. Time management,
organization and eligibility can all play a role in
higher (or lower) grades.
You may want students to underline essential ideas
that are not included in the list above.
Critical Reading Lesson
Instructional Model for AVID Teachers
Do athletes do better in school during their season?
Second Read: Summarizing and Clarifying Ideas
(approximately 20 minutes)
Note: Engage your students in pair-share and small group
activities as they as they work through the paragraphs.
Analysis of individual paragraphs may vary.
5.)For this second read, have students use the “Writing
in the Margins” strategy. Students should go back
through the text and briefly summarize/clarify
ideas in select paragraphs. Students could use
the table below to keep track of their summaries
or they could write them in the margins next to
the paragraphs they are summarizing. One way
to scaffold this work is to pre-identify challenging
paragraphs and summarize/clarify the ideas as a
class. For our advanced students, we could ask them
to summarize the ideas and then argue in one or two
sentences why they think their summary sentence
best captures the main ideas in the paragraph or
passage. To learn more about the “Summarizing
and Clarifying,” visit avidweekly.org and click on the
“Summarizing and Clarifying” strategy link found at
the top of the monthly article matrix.
Paragraphs Summarize or Clarify the Main Ideas
1
2–3
4–5
6–7
8–9
10–12
13–16
17–19
Extending Beyond the Text
Closing activities do not need to be process papers,
writing assignments that go through multiple drafts. As
students learn how to read more critically, we should give
them opportunities to write brief analyses of what they
read. These focused responses will help deepen their
understanding of the texts they read while developing
their academic writing skills. Writing or speaking exercises
like the ones listed here can also serve as formative
assessments, providing valuable feedback about what
your students know and what they still need to learn.
Page 4
•Have students write a one-page paper that addresses
the writing prompt. (approximately 50 minutes)
Writing Prompt: In the article “Do athletes do better
in school during their seasons?” Morgan DiVittorio and
Matthew Barbato acknowledge that in-season studentathletes are challenged to be more organized and better
managers of their time, but those skills do not always
equate to higher grades year-round. Summarize the
authors’ claims and explain whether or not you agree
with their arguments based on the evidence provided
in the text.
•Engage students in one of the AVID Weekly Lesson
Templates. Log in to AVID Weekly and click on
“Teacher Resources.” Then, in the left navigation,
click on “Lesson Templates.” This page offers
instructions on how to run Socratic Seminars,
Four Corners Discussions, and other studentcentered activities. (approximately 20–50 minutes)
•Engage students in a “3-Part Source Integration”
writing exercise. A 3-Part Source Integration is a
statement that includes the title of the text, the
author’s name, author information, source material
that is either paraphrased or directly quoted, and
a brief statement explaining the significance of
the paraphrase or quotation. The following is an
example of a 3-Part Source Integration.
(approximately 15 minutes)
Sample 3-Part Source Integration: In “Ethanol’s
Failed Promise,” Lester Brown and Jonathan Lewis,
two environmental activists, claim that food-to-fuel
mandates are causing damage to our environment
(par. 3). This is important because as America moves
toward energy independence, it must be vigilant
to ensure that new energy sources do not cause
new problems.
•Engage students in a Summarizing Nonfiction Text
activity. Use the attached student handout pages to
scaffold this writing process for students.
STUDENT HANDOUT (1 of 2)
Summarizing Nonfiction Text
Directions: Using key information from your marked text, record your ideas below as you work your way
to a summary.
Title of Text: ___________________________________________________________________________________
Author: __________________________________ Type of text: (essay, article, manual, etc.) __________________
Topic or main idea of the paragraph ________________________________________________________________
1. What is the subject the author is writing about?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What is the big main idea or claim the author wants the reader to understand? Paraphrase this.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
3. For each paragraph or chunk in the text, what is the author saying? Use your underlined topic sentences
and margin notes, specifically “what the author is saying,” and your circled words/terms/ideas to paraphrase
the author in one to two sentences per paragraph/chunk. Write these in the same order they appear in the
text.
a. Paragraph/chunk #1 (author is saying and key related ideas):
_____________________________________________________________________________________
b. Paragraph/chunk #2:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
c. Paragraph/chunk #3:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
d. Paragraph/chunk #4:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
e. Paragraph/chunk #5:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
f. Paragraph/chunk #6:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
STUDENT HANDOUT (2 of 2)
4. Create a summary paragraph identifying the author and the text and using the sentences you listed above.
Make sure you write your paragraph with topics and details as they are listed in order above.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Read the summary you created in #4 and add transitions and combine sentences where needed.
Mullen, M., Valdez, S., Carter, M., Compton, R., & Golden-Gutiérrez, S. (2012). The Write Path English Language Arts: Exploring
Texts with Strategic Reading (pp. 282–283). San Diego, CA: AVID Press.