It Says . . . I Say . . . And So

"It says... I say... And so" is an excellent strategy to help students make inferences and to draw conclusions from the text material. The educator provides the students with some inferential questions for the text that they are going to read, and then the strategy comes into play to make sense of the text. Normally, it is used in chart form. The "It says" box is used for information that the students pull from the text itself - this information can be paraphrased or direct quotes can also be used. The "I say" box is reserved for students' opinions and their prior knowledge. This box functions as the bridge between drawing conclusions and reading information. The last box, "And so" is where they students combine the information from the previous two boxes to answer the question(s). This way, the students have an organized chart that highlights the main ideas from the text without being overwhelming or simply copying directly from the text itself.

This week, we read Chapters 5 & 9 in Content Area Reading. My two main questions are the following: Why is B-D-A instructional framework effective? Why is writing to learn so important?

It Says: B-D-A instructional framework is a method teachers can use to plan a lesson. This format of lesson planning can help teachers to incorporate instruction strategies and activities into lesson involving content literacy and learning through differing degrees of scaffolding. The lesson does not have to be confined to a one-day only period, but can extend over several days - depending on the need of the class. This structure emphasizes that readers need varying levels of guidance, and prior knowledge, familiarity with the subject, and the educator's own judgment play very important roles in the construction and implementation of the lesson. B-D-A stands for before reading, during reading, and after reading. Each of these elements are meant to assist students to pull meaning from the text. The purpose of before reading activities is to motivate students, engage them in the material, activate their prior knowledge, and gently introduce new material, such as vocabulary words. During reading activities help the students to recognize the important parts of the text by bridging the gap between the students and the text. Activities including, but not restricted to, study buddies, definitions of unknown words, collaborative reading to emphasize the important aspects of the text and to foster a deeper understanding. The after reading activities clarify and elaborate anything from the other two categories. This is the stage where knowledge is refined and it is the springboard for discussions, questions, written responses, and any other tools used to enhance comprehension.

I Say: The B-D-A framework appears to be a very effective way to organize a lesson plan around a text. Students need to be motivated before they engage in a text because many students are intimidated or overwhelmed by textbooks or any large section of text. The before reading stage is an excellent way to motivate students and to activate their prior knowledge in order to ensure that they begin reading with confidence that they have some direction and some background knowledge regarding what the text will be about. The during reading activities avoid boredom and frustration for the students. It is almost always easier to understand something if you can talk it out with another person. These activities break up the text into sections and the important content is grasped in class instead of students feeling as if they were really struggling to understand what's going on. The after reading activities are necessary for clarification. A teacher summarizing what is important helps everyone to internalize the main points and to shave off the unnecessary details. This also is a great time to get feedback and to challenge the students to dig deeper into a text. If a text is read in class, most students will be more willing to participate and ask questions because they already have a road map from their teacher and other peers. This will be especially important in my content area because material will be more difficult to understand automatically -- it's in another language!

And So: I believe that the B-D-A instructional framework is an effective and flexible way to engage students in a text. It is extremely important to begin class with motivational activities/review so that students feel that they are capable of learning new material that will be presented in class. The during reading activities are also essential because students are kids. Whether they are 5 years old or 17 years old, they are still kids. They need a change in scenery from time to time so they do not become too bored and miss what is being taught. Scaffolding activities ensure that students stay on task because they are responsible for their own learning. That ties in to the after reading activities because that is the part of class where students and teachers work together to create a meaningful summary of the important points of the text and to dig deeper into what the students think. This allows students to create connections to their own lives - the learning becomes their own. Once students internalize knowledge in this way, they are much better at remembering and applying what they learned. I will definitely be using this approach in my classroom. Spanish texts are difficult to understand not only because they are in a foreign language, but the way they are written are simply distinct from English texts. My students will need my guidance and lots of activities to be able to pull out the main points and meaning from the texts we read in class.


Writing to learn is important for many, many reasons. Perhaps the most important one is simply that students are able to learn through their own words. As I mentioned before, that gives students ownership of that knowledge and it is much more significant to them. There are an impressive number of WLT strategies, each with its own twist, but all of them involve writing and spontaneous thinking. The strategies can be incorporated into any classroom in any content area, so they are quite versatile. Writing is an essential life skill. Why would we not stress writing activities in our classroom?! These WTL strategies are perfect for incorporating into a B-D-A based lesson plan. It provides an easy way to check for comprehension and to engage students in metacognitive thinking. Writing to learn is too important of a tool to ignore.