Identifying Critical Information

Highlighting critical information strategies involves the teacher pointing out what IS important and what is LESS important based on the information he/she is presenting that day. Students are bombarded with information daily, they need to know what is extremely important so they can focus on it and make the instant connection. Students hear the teacher talking, and other students talking about the content. They also read about the content, examine pictures and observe demonstrations, but they do know what they need to take away each day? Not all of the information is equally important. You will see remarkable changes in your student’s ability to process and understand new content once they are able to identify which content is critical and understand how learned content scaffolds into complexity.

Table 6.2 suggest using these strategies.

Repeating the most important content- Repeating not only identifies which information is critical but it helps students remember that information.

Asking questions that focus on critical information- The teacher ask questions that remind students of previous content and highlight what is important in the current content.

Using visual activities- The teacher uses storyboards, TM’s, and pictures to highlight critical information, help students create mental pictures of the information, and promote comprehension and recall.

Using narrative activities- the teacher uses stories to anchor information and signal to students that certain information is important.

Using tone of voice, gestures, and body position- The teacher uses tone of voice, gestures, and body position to emphasize important information.

Use pause time- teacher pauses during the presentation of new content to highlight important points. It gives students the opportunity to take in and process content.

Identifying critical-input experiences- These introduce important new content to students and are vital to enhancing student learning. Teacher take special care in planning for these experiences.

Using explicit instruction to convey critical content- Dramatic activities- skits, role playing, other body movements.

Providing advance organizers to cue critical content- Thinking maps, verbal cues to a classroom chart.

Using what students already know to cue critical content- Teacher uses what they already know to explain critical content. Provides students with a link to old knowledge for every critical aspect of the new knowledge.

When the strategies in this element produce the desired effects, teachers will observe the following behaviors in students:

Students can describe the level of importance of specific information, can explain why specific content is important to know, and visibly adjust their level of attention when teachers present information content.

For further information regarding any of the above strategies you may check out the Identifying Critical Content book-classroom techniques to help students know what is important. 

Here is a link to the book: 
https://www.learningsciences.com/media/catalog/product//i/c/icc_lookinside.pdf