JB YOUNG’s Instructional Focus Lesson  Day 1: 

Interpreting Information in a New Context

We already know what context means, right?  Wearing a cropped top that exposes four inches of bare belly and four-inch high heels in the context of a middle school is not okay.  Wearing the same outfit in the context of an MTV video or to a costume party is okay.  Get it?  Context.  Setting.  

Our instructional focus for the next seven days will be interpreting information in a new context (a new situation or setting). What that means is you learn something for a specific purpose.  For instance, in kindergarten, kids learn to cut and paste with scissors and glue.  Cutting takes away; gluing adds to or affixes.  Kids in middle school use those concepts in a new context—to cut and paste on the computer.  They know that highlighting a section and cutting it will get rid of it—and they know that pasting will put those words back or put them somewhere else.  A process (cut and paste) has been learned, interpreted, and understood in a new context—manipulating information electronically.  Heavy!  Interpreting information in a new context is actually using what you know and pasting it into a new situation.  This sounds complicated, but you’ll catch on quickly.

If the question asks you to infer, you should make an educated guess based upon the information that’s available to you.  You won’t find the answer to inference questions clearly stated in the reading selection.  You have to make that leap.

Let’s practice making inferences.  Consider this example:  Shortly before class starts, your teacher storms into the room, throws some papers on the desk, and turns red in the face.  You don’t know what happened to this teacher at home or in the hallway shortly before class.  However, you are quite smart enough to infer that your teacher is angry about something because of body language, gestures, and facial expressions you’ve seen before on people you know are angry.  That is an inference on a very simple level.  Remember, the object of the tests might as well be to trick you.  Recognizing what the following questions really ask will help you beat the test. 

Questions that want you to interpret information in a new context might ask you to:

  1. make a comparison between a new concept and a familiar concept;
  2. use information from the article to make an interpretation;
  3. use information from a passage to relate to other contexts; or
  4. use information from the passage to restate the ending.

These test items might ask you these questions:

  1. Which of these is most like that described in the article?
  2. What would be the best use of ________?
  3. What would be the best job for________?
  4. How would you use the information to_________?
Which sentence best restates the information in the last sentence?

Think about the story of the little boy who cried wolf.  He kept saying the wolf was going to get him.  People came to help—no wolf.  Pretty soon, no one came when the little boy cried wolf.  This is information in context.  Think about a little brother who constantly runs to mom tattling.   Cut the information in context from the little boy wolf example. Paste the information into a new context or situation.  Pretty soon, mom would pay NO attention to little brother and his tattling.  Same idea; new situation or context.  That’s how it works.

Read the following reading selection, and use the cut and paste strategy to interpret information in a new context. Read the whole selection carefully.

NAME____________________________

          One of the greatest inventions of all time was the railway.  Nothing like it had ever been seen before.  The iron road opened up the world to vast numbers of people.  Until that time, they had been rooted to their birthplaces.  All previous forms of travel had been slow, costly, and risky.  Now, for the first time, the freedom to travel was there for all to enjoy.  Business people all over the world soon understood the importance of railways.  Many of these people formed large railway companies.  The scale of their efforts was huge.  A prime example is Britain’s London and North-Western Railway.  It was the world’s largest joint stock company.  It designed and built its own locomotives, using steel supplied by its own steel plants.

  1. You can infer that railroad travel was

a.      faster, cheaper, and safer than earlier travel.                                              

b.     too expensive for most people

c.      not dependable.

d.     slower, costlier, and riskier than earlier travel.

  1. Railroad companies were large.  This was probably because

a.      their size made them seem more impressive.

b.     everyone wanted to work for them.

c.      huge efforts were needed to build a railway line.

d.     only a few people were needed to run a train.

  1. The passage suggests that

a.      railroads did not have much of an effect on most people.

b.     railway workers were not well paid.

c.      the London and North-Western Railway is not in business now.

d.     some people made a lot of money from railways.

  1. The invention of the railroad is like the invention of the Internet because

a.      many people got new jobs.

b.     the new technology was expensive.

c.      they both made people’s lives easier.

d.     neither was dependable.

 

Interpreting information in a new context is a difficult skill because you have to use higher order thinking skills.  You have to supply the thinking that isn’t spelled out for you in the prompt.  Let’s try another example.

Remember to cut and paste as a way to figure it out.

You were watching the History Channel (yeah, right!).  Anyway, this particular show talked about how genius Albert Einstein flunked math class, hated school, and didn’t look like he’d ever amount to anything.  His parents probably thought he’d be living at home forever because he’d never be able to find or hold a job.  Wrong.  He was brilliant.  His theory of relativity, E=mc2, still puzzles many today.    This example represents information in a context.   

       Cut what you know about Einstein         and paste it onto a kid you know in school who seems really smart but doesn’t do well in school.

BINGO, you have information in a new context.

We’re going to talk about interpreting information in a new context for the next seven days.  On the 5th day, you’ll take an assessment like the one we just worked through.  This assessment will show us what you understand and what we need to reteach.  Use the cut and paste strategy. You’ll need to get three out of the four answers correct to demonstrate your understanding.  Don’t get discouraged.  This is a tough one.  We’ll get it, though.

We’ll be coming back to interpreting information in a new context for two days before you take the real ITBS Reading Comprehension Test.  For the next seven days, practice the cut and paste strategy on stuff you see everyday.

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