Reading Strategies Goal 9: Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction - Key Details

Welcome to our book study of The Reading Strategies Book:  Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers by Jennifer Serravallo! I am joining forces with some other fabulous teacher bloggers to discuss the reading strategies we come across in this AMAZING professional text!  If you missed my first post about this book study, you can find it here, along with a suggested way to set up your book for easy reference.

You can also find my thoughts and ideas on other goals in this book below:

Goal 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers   
Goal 2: Reading Engagement   
Goal 3: Supporting Print Work  
Goal 4:  Fluency
Goal 5:   Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Main Idea and Plot
Goal 6:  Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Characters
Goal 7:  Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Theme  
Goal 8: Supporting Comprehension in Non-Fiction - Main Idea

This goal focuses on supporting comprehension in non-fiction, specifically in determining key details.  Serravallo points out that "there is a difference between reading for details and reading for key details".  That difference being that a student has the ability to determine importance.

Students who might benefit from this goal are those who:

• can support a main idea with just one detail, but need prompting to list more than one.
• can support main idea with just one portion of the fact
• lists random facts to support details.

Focus Strategy 1: A Spin on KWL

This strategy is a pre-reading strategy and is a take on the traditional KWL method. Like the KWL, this method helps the student to prepare their brain for new information or learning.

You would have the student jot down:

1. What you know for sure.
2. What you think you know.
3. What you wonder.

Focus Strategy 2: Gather Up Facts

This strategy has students to gather up the facts that they learned in a particular book, article, or section of either.  You would tell the student that one way to remember all of the things they learn is to stop often and gather up all that they know.

Some prompts you could use include:

1. What did you learn in this part?
2. List what you remember.
3. That's one fact, let's see if we can list anymore.

Focus Strategy 3: Important VS. Interesting

This strategy asks the reader to consider whether a statement is an important detail that supports the main idea or just an interesting fact.  You would let the student know that in order for a detail to be considered a key detail, it must connect to the main idea that the author is presenting.

Young Teacher Love has a great anchor chart that goes with this strategy.

Life in 4B also has a great lesson that would help you to teach this strategy.

Remember, we are only picking and choosing some of the strategies to share with you - there are so many more great ones in this section as well as the rest of the book!

If you would like to purchase the book mentioned above, you can find it here.



Other books by this author that I LOVE!






This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 


Diane from School House Treasures is officially hosting goal 9 over at her blog, so make sure you head over there to see which strategies she chose to share!  While you are there, be sure to leave some comment love!

If you would like to link up your own blog posts about this book, feel free to do so in the linky below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Reading Strategies Goal 3: Supporting Print Work

Welcome to our book study of The Reading Strategies Book:  Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers by Jennifer Serravallo! I am joining forces with some other fabulous teacher bloggers to discuss the reading strategies we come across in this AMAZING professional text!  If you missed my first post about this book study, you can find it here, along with a suggested way to set up your book for easy reference.

You can also find my thoughts and ideas on other goals in this book below:

Goal 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers   
Goal 2: Reading Engagement

This goal is all about increasing accuracy as students read.  In order to construct accurate meaning from a text, students use three sources of information: meaning, syntax, and visual.  Sometimes when children learn to read, they may not use all of these systems together, or they may over rely on one or two of them.  This will affect their accuracy and ultimately their comprehension.

Meaning is what the reader thinks about as they read, and what makes sense based on the picture, and/or what's happening so far in the text.

Syntax is when readers use their prior knowlege of sentence structure, grammar, and parts of speech as they read.

Visual is when the reader looks at the letters in the word and uses what they know about how words work to read a word they see in print.

Serravallo says that the best way to know if a child needs to work on this goal is by using a running record.  You can take a record of a child reading any text on a blank piece of paper or use a form like this one from Mindy at Kindergarten Kidlets.

If you aren't familiar with using running records, or you need a refresher, Scholastic has an easy to read guide to help you out.  You can download it here.

Focus Strategy 1: Use A Word You Know

In this strategy, students use words they already know to help them read a word they're having trouble with.  You have the student look at the word to find a part that looks like a word they already know.  

In the Lesson Language section, she gives the example of reading the word "grown".  She says that she "... might notice that the gr is the beginning of another word that I know how to read:green.  And then I may notice that ow is just like in the word slow.  And I know "n". /n/."  She has the student put together the word using the parts.

I think this is a great strategy for your older readers as they come across those multi-syllabic words such as uncomfortable, important,  and information.  

In one of her prompts she offers, "Let me show you a word that will help." and suggests that your write a word with the same part on whiteboard and underline the similar part.  Have the child read the word they know first, and then read the word in the text they are struggling with.

Focus Strategy 2: Be A Coach To Your Partner

Partner reading is a great cooperative learning strategy where students can work together to read a shared text.  Although the technique is great, sometimes students need a little instruction in how to be a good partner.  That is why I LOVE this strategy.  I always have students who either play around or stare blankly at each other when they are asked to partner read.  The problem is not them, the problem is that they need more direction.

In this strategy, you teach the students how to coach each other by asking themselves, "What would my teacher say to me to help me fix up my mistake?"

She gives several prompts to give the students including:

Tell your partner, "Check the first letter!"

Tell your partner. "Think about what makes sense."

When I use this lesson in the fall, I am going to provide my students with a bookmark they can use with the strategies listed on them.  I will sit with the students the first few times to help coach them through the process.

Focus Strategy 3: Words Across A Line Break

I chose this strategy because in 4th grade, students are really beginning to read chapter books primarily and they often run across this predicament in their books and aren't quite sure what to do.  Many students naturally figure it out, but I always have those few who come up to me during independent reading with perplexed looks on their faces.

In this strategy, Jennifer Serravallo suggests having them write the word out when they see a broken word.

If their text says:

She started to feel more power-

ful.

The students would write out powerful (without the hyphen), and then read it.  Then they go back and re-read the sentence.

Remember, we are only picking and choosing some of the strategies to share with you - there are so many more great ones in this section as well as the rest of the book!

If you would like to purchase the book mentioned above, you can find it here.




Other books by this author that I LOVE!





This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

Carol from The Chocolate Teacher is officially hosting goal 3 over at her blog, so make sure you head over there to see which strategies she chose to share!  While you are there, be sure to leave some comment love!

But before you go, make sure you enter to win a $75 TpT gift card if you have't already!

If you would like to link up your own blog posts about this book, feel free to do so in the linky below!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Reading Strategies Book Study - Goal 6 - Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Thinking About Characters

Welcome to my hosted chapter of the Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo.  Before I jump into my post about this chapter, let me just say that I love everything written by Jennifer Serravallo, and own EVERY book she has ever written.  So, it goes without saying that as soon as I heard about this book, it went on my wish list to buy as soon as it was published!  Let me tell you, that this book does NOT disappoint!  It is AMAZING!

I was not the only one to fall in love with this book, so I joined together with fellow fans as part of what we call #TheReadingStragegiesCrew (because everyone needs a fabulous hash tag, right?).  We have each chosen a section to write about, and my section is goal 6. 

This book is essentially made up of many, many strategies, so we have decided to choose 2 or 3 strategies to highlight in our posts.  Let me say, that there are many, many more strategies in each section, and they cover pre-emergent readers until the end of 8th grade levels.  I find this so helpful, because my class is never composed of 100% of students reading at grade level.  Instead, I have a mix of below level, at level, and above level readers.  These strategies allow me to differentiate for my learners to meet them where they are.

If you struggle with ideas for reading mini-lessons, this is the book for you!

Below is a list of all the strategies included in this section alone!

For each strategy, Jennifer includes an explanation, lesson language, prompts, as well as anchor charts or other teaching tips to help you implement each one.  In my post I will be focusing on strategies 6.2 What's in the Bubble?, 6.11 Character Comparisons, and 6.16 The Influences on Character.

What's in the Bubble?

According to the book, this strategy is suitable for levels C-M.  In this strategy, we are teachings readers to pause and think, "What's my character thinking here?" or "What might my character be saying here?"

In the book, there is a picture of these think and dialogue bubbles.  I think they would be the perfect hands on item to have a student use to remind them of this strategy! 

A few prompts from the book include:

"What just happened?  So, what might your character be thinking?"
"What words is your character saying in his or her head?"
"Before you turn the page, pause and think about what he or she would be thinking."

Character Comparisons

This strategy is best used with levels J and above.  This strategy involves a student thinking about two characters, and then comparing them using ideas such as traits, how they handle challenges, likes and dislikes, interests, change, an lessons learned.

When I conference with students, I like to have items to bring with me to demonstrate what I am looking for or as a teaching reference.  One way to make this toolkit easy to carry around is by using index cards on a ring.  The example picture below uses sentence stems for non-fiction comparisons, but they could easily be used for this strategy as well.

 

 

 

The Influences On Character

This third strategy is for your readers at level N and above.  In this strategy, readers consider all the influences on the character - the problem(s) the character is facing, the other characters with whom he or she comes in contact and the setting of the story.  The reader is asked to think about what effects these influences have on the character and how they act in the story. 

Another tool kit that you might want to carry is mini-anchor charts on an artist sketch pad.

 

 

 

If you would like to read other posts from our #ReadingStrategiesCrew you can find them below:

 

 

 

Goal One with Literacy Loving Gals

Goal Two with My First Grade Happy Place

Goal Three with My Literacy Spot

Goal Four with EduKateDawson

Goal 5 with Love to Teach a Latte

Stay tuned for Goal 7 coming from Owl Things First August 24th.

To stay up to date with the rest of our posts, refer to the schedule below:

100 Minutes Book Study - Chapter 4 Reading Response

 Today I am linking up with Jen from Teaching, Life, and Everything in Between our next hostess for our  book study on 100 Minutes - Making Every Minute Count in the Literacy Block by Lisa Donohue.

You can read my previous posts below:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

My thoughts on Chapter 4:

Lisa Donohuev suggests introducing reading response following guided reading.  The teacher initially teaches the skill during the guided reading portion, then the student practices it on their own.  The next day, those students are able to transfer their new learning by reading independently and completing the response to the text they have chosen on their own.  This follows the gradual release of responsibility method.

She points out how difficult it is to assess independent reading and states that the most effective way to monitor it is the use of reading responses.

My favorite part of the whole chapter has got to be the reading response task cards she has included.  There are 8 pages of these along with a list of other ideas you can use as well to make your own.

I already use reading responses in my classroom (and for homework) with my weekly read and respond reading logs and it was nice to have the affirmation of this effective process.



I will probably change the way that I introduce response prompts to the way that Donohue recommends.  I think it will create much better responses from the beginning. I also like the idea of having several response choices available for the students during their independent work time.

How will I incorporate these strategies into my current practice?  What read alouds will work best with each type of written response?  How do I encourage students to self select books that fit with certain strategies?

If you are reading along with this book, feel free to join in the discussion by linking up below.  I am looking forward to reading everyone else's thoughts and reflections!  

Next up- Chapter 5: Writing Around the Literacy Block

Be sure to visit Melissa over at Dilly Dabbles on May 27th to continue this learning journey with us. 

White Tomatoes? Reading Bunnicula

 

We have been reading Bunnicula as a whole class.  I bought a class set for $24 when they were on sale for $1 in the Scholastic catalog.  I usually buy a small group set of the dollar books, but I thought it would be fun to read a book as a whole class. So far, the class is in complete agreement!

              Waiting patiently for me to hand out the books.

 

We have been reading together at the carpet - each student holding a book and me reading out loud.  Occasionally I will stop and ask them a question and they turn and talk with their neighbors.

 

We will be working on reading partnerships as well.

Anyway... the white tomato part of this post:

 

I have a parent helper that comes in every week to help me stuff our weekly folders.  She was in when we were reading the part about the white tomato in the book.  The next day she brought in some tomatoes to share and some of the tomatoes were white! It really challenged our thinking and predictions about whether or not Bunnicula is really a vampire or not!

 

                                                                     Organizing the produce :)

After checking out the tomatoes we did a little research on-line about what makes tomatoes white.  We wrote down a few details we learned along with some reasons why we think Bunnicula is or is not a vampire.  The majority of the students have decided he is a vampire.

 

I am loving using a whole class novel - it is really pushing the thinking of some of my lower readers.

 

Have you read Bunnicula?  Do you read whole class novels?