Comprehension Strategies - Making connections, questioning, inferring, determining importance, and more from Strategies That Work, Mosaic of Thought, and Reading with Meaning, this page gives you information on the six comprehension strategies known as making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining importance, and synthesizing.
Interactive Read Aloud: How To Do It and Why It Works Every teacher should know how to do an interactive read aloud. Here is why it works and how to do it. When you consider a framework for best literacy methods within a classroom, daily read alouds from a variety of genres should be a foundational teaching practice. There are a variety of purposes for reading books out loud. Other purposes can include: develop background knowledge necessary for understanding a topictarget vocabulary developmentdemonstrate prosodylearn how to inference, make judgements and use meta-cognition strategiesintegrate higher order questioning skills set the stage for a unit or lessondevelop connections to a text (text-to-self, world or another text)meet academic content standards at a students frustration level However you choose to use reading aloud to kids, it should be done in a variety of ways across different genres, every single day. What is an Interactive Read Aloud? Texts used during the interactive read aloud should be from a wide variety of genres. 1. 2. 3.
Inferencing Mini Lessons These lessons were modified and modeled from ideas in Strategies that Work by Harvey and Goudvis and Reading With Meaning by Miller. I am currently working on my Masters. One of my projects for a class was to create this HUGE unit using the Understanding By Design Backward Planning Model. I decided to create a unit about inferencing because this is an area I struggled with last year and was not really pleased with how I pulled it all together. Well, this project became a MONSTER. Click here to see a content map of all the objectives taught in this unit. Books Used in the Unit Mini Lesson Plans Printable Copy of Plans Printable and Activities Used in This Unit Other Links and Resources Books Used In This Unit: A Study of Eve Bunting: Train to Somewhere Smoky Night The Blue and the Gray Fly Away Home Books for the Browsing Box: A Day's Work The Wednesday Day Surprise Gleam and Glow How Many Days to America: A Thanksgiving Story Dandelions Red Fox Running Cheyenne Again The Wall A Picnic in October Teammates
Adrienne Gear Reading Power Recommended Book Lists Adrienne Gear's recommended book lists: Fiction Reading Power - Tried & True Connect (Primary, Intermediate), Question (Primary K-3, Intermediate Gr. 4-7), Visualize (Primary, Intermediate), Infer (Primary, Intermediate Gr. 4-7), Transform (Primary, Intermediate Gr. 4-7) Fiction Reading Power - What's New? (Spring 2010) Connect (Primary, Intermediate Gr. 4-7), Question (Primary, Intermediate), Visualize (Primary, Intermediate), Infer (Primary, Intermediate), Transform (Primary, Intermediate) Nonfiction Reading Power - Tried & True Recommended books for read alouds, Zoom In, Determining Importance, Question, Connect, Infer and Transform Nonfiction Reading Power - What's New? Nonfiction Reading Power Anchor Books Adrienne's Hot Picks for Novel Studies and Lit. Novel List - What's New? Books for Spring (Spring 2011) Primary K-3, Intermediate Gr. 4-8 Books for Fall (Fall 2010) Primary K-3, Intermediate Gr. 4-8 Writing Power Top Pick Anchor Books 2011 Primary K-3, Intermediate Gr. 4-8
Independent Reading: 101 What is Independent Reading, Really? Independent reading is any time carved out of your day in which your students are reading self-selected books that are a "good fit" for them. There are different kinds of reading that may be going on in your room during this time and it will look different from classroom to classroom.The focus of this time is to support, encourage and validate your students as they grow as readers, through all of their ages and stages. The main components of independent reading are outlined below. When do I find the Time? Independent Reading is an indispensable part of the day in a literacy rich classroom. More Formal/ Larger Chunks of Independent Reading Time Informal (yet super powerful) Reading Times Getting Started: The Nuts & Bolts On Keeping Reading Logs For what purpose? On Use of Reading Levels Watch Donalyn Miller's Keynote via The Educator Collaborative, LLC Sharing my thoughts...
Literature Circle Models After experimenting for many years, I discovered an approach that's easy, fun, and effective. I refer to it as Classroom Book Clubs because it's a more relaxed method of doing Literature Circles that doesn't involve roles. You can view a narrated slidecast to this model by scrolling down to the Classroom Book Clubs section. On this page you can also learn about different types of Literature Circles. Ways to Structure Literature Circles Classroom Book Clubs - My favorite method at the moment is a flexible approach to Literature Circles that does not require the use of extensive handouts and assignment booklets. Classroom Book Clubs I love this model because it's a very flexible and fun approach. Mini Literature Circles (Using Leveled Readers) Are you required to use a basal reading program in your classroom? Assign 3 or 4 students to a leveled reader based on their reading level. Literature Circles with Roles Some students enjoy having roles within their Literature Circles.
CAFE In our classroom, we will use the structure of CAFE to focus on reading comprehension strategies. During Daily Five, two of our whole class mini-lessons will focus on CAFE strategies. I will also meet with small strategy groups and individual students when I finish meeting with guided reading groups. Our CAFE board shows the four strategies we will focus on- Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding Vocabulary. As we learn skills for each strategy, we will post them below. This is our CAFE board. Here are the skills we will work on this year: Your TICKET to teaching comprehension! A Photo Tour of my Pensieve Don't try and implement this without reading the book by The Sisters! Reader's Workshop.org We Read, We Blog, We Teach
Reading Workshop - Information, ideas, and resources from Busy Teacher's Cafe The Reading Workshop is a teaching method in which the goal is to teach students strategies for reading and comprehension. The workshop model allows teachers to differentiate and meet the needs of all their students. Reading Workshop helps to foster a love of reading and gives students chances to practice reading strategies independently and with guidance. This workshop model is similar to the Writing Workshop model. Many school districts use the Reading Workshop Model but there are other models of literacy instruction as well. This page gives a basic overview of the Reading Workshop. Components of the Reading Workshop: Description of each component: From Revisiting The Reading Workshop Embarrassed to Read by Donalyn Miller A recent National Literacy Trust report found that 17% of children surveyed would be embarrassed if their friends saw them reading. According to a dictionary, “Embarrassment is an emotional state of intense discomfort with oneself, experienced upon having a socially unacceptable act or condition witnessed by or revealed to others.” Embarrassment is tied to our need for social acceptance. If you have ever chased a naked toddler, you know that children aren’t born with an understanding of socially acceptable behaviors and must learn them from people who understand society’s rules. So, where do children learn that reading is embarrassing? Children receive the message that reading a lot isn’t cool from adults. In modern society, children’s future success depends on their acquisition of literacy skills. I fight this perception that reading is nerdy with my students every year. As adults, those of us who love books and reading often gravitate toward other readers. Like this: Like Loading...