Reading Strategies Goal 5: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction

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: Teaching Fluency

This goal is all about supporting comprehension in fiction.  Serravallo says that in order "to help students achieve that lost-in-a-book, engaged sort of reading that makes reading enjoyable, they have to understand what's going on."  

Students who need to work on this goal are the ones who when asked to retell a text include EVERY SINGLE DETAIL, or the ones that say too little, or the ones who mention events in the story, but do not seem to have a clear understanding of how they are related.

Focus Strategy 1: Series Books Have Predictable Plots

As students become more proficient at reading, they often gravitate towards series books.  There are several benefits to reading series books including:

• a deeper connection with the books' characters
• an increase in comprehension
• an increase in time spent reading 
• less wasted time trying to decide what book to read next.

You may want to read this article about a Las Vegas school that created a culture of reading using book series.

In this strategy, you use the fact that things are often similar from book to book in a series to help students figure out what's most important, to retell what they've read, and to predict what come's next.

Serravallo suggests organizing your class into book clubs to give students support for understanding patterns in series books.  Some prompts you might ask students include:

• What do you know about other books in this series?
• Is there a patterns to how the stories go in other books you've read?
• What might happen based on what you know about how problems were solved in other books in this series?

Focus Strategy 2: Let The Blurb Help You

Just like any other text feature, students need to learn how to use the blurb on the back cover of their books.  Serravallo suggests that you can use the blurb to teach text structure, main problem, and theme.  She also suggests a variation for using with nonfiction texts.

Some prompts you might ask students include:

• What will the structure of the book be, based on what you read?
• Do you have any ideas about the main problem the character will face?

Using this blurb from Big Nate Blasts Off, the students might determine that the text structure might consist of both text and comics.  They could also determine some problems that Nate might have including getting in a fight with Randy Betancourt, a crush on the new girl, Ruby, and doubts about the annual Mud Bowl.

Focus Strategy 3: Chapter-End Stop Signs

This strategy is great for those students who have trouble remembering events from a chapter books.  Essentially, you let students know that each chapter will have at least one important event.  You ask them to stop and jot about what that most important event is as soon as they finish reading a chapter.  When they pick the book back up, they can remind themselves what happened so far by re-reading their notes.  These notes can also be used to write a summary.

Serravallo says that students can use sticky notes, a notebook, or a paper with spots to jot after each chapter to keep track of their notes.

Here is a free Chapter Stop and Jot graphic organizer.

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!  You can see a complete list of all of the strategies here.

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. 


Amanda from The Teaching Thief is officially hosting goal 5 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

Back to School Product Giveaways

We have been having so much fun sharing some of our favorite TpT products with you!  It is time for another chance for you to win!  You can enter to win one product, or all 4.  There will be one winner chosen for each giveaway.

This week, I am giving away my Capitalization Rules! pack.  

This packet will help your students to learn and remember all of the times that they should use a capital letter in their writing.  Best of all, there is no prep for you - just print, copy and go! To enter to win, complete the Rafflecopter below:

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Paula from Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten is giving away one of her top sellers, Oceans Hundreds Charts. 

It includes 8 ocean mystery pictures: fish, shark, turtle, crab, jellyfish, seahorse, whale, and an angelfish.  

This resource is super flexible, because each puzzle comes on both a numbered and a blank hundreds chart, with directions to further differentiate if needed.  Use these puzzles with units on animals, oceans, summers, or ponds.  

Skills covered include number recognition to 100, writing 2-digit numbers, following directions, and fine muscle development.  To enter to win this prize use the Rafflecopter below:

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Our next giveaway is from Mickey's Place. She is giving away her Alphabetical Order product. 

 Here is what she has to say about her giveaway:

First Grade is filled with many skills to learn.  Here is a Hands-On Learning Game with 32 different ways to practice Alphabetical Order while practicing First Grade Dolch Words!
Best of All It Can Be Used Year to Year!!!!

Stop by and visit Mickey’s Place!  Most products are designed for use from Pre-K thru 4^th grade.  Also, they are usable over and over!  Definitely a Time Saver!

A special thank you to Kelly for spotlighting this give away!

Mickey

You can enter to win this product by entering the Rafflecopter below:

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 Our last giveaway is from Cait's Cool School.  She is giving away her Matilda by Roald Dahl Read Aloud Activities.  Here is what she says about this awesome product:

"Read alouds in the classroom can be so fun in the classroom. One of my favorite books to use is Matilda by Roald Dahl. To continuously build my students' comprehension, we use question task cards to help my students really think about the story they're listening to. I've used these in whole group discussions, and have had small groups start their own book talks using these questions. They work well in centers, or even just a quick way to close out the reading for the day. I'm always so impressed by the connections they make and their understanding of the text that is demonstrated through their answers. And I know they're really in love with reading when I start to see copies of Matilda appear around the classroom because they can't wait to see what happens next! "

You can enter to win this product by entering the Rafflecopter below:

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Explore Like a Pirate Book Study Ch. 7

Today I am linking up with Sweet Sweet Primary for our book study of Michael Matera's book Explore Like a Pirate.  Join us each Tuesday as we share our takeaways from this book that is all about engaging your students.If you missed my previous posts you can find them here:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

Matera says that this chapter is a treasure chest full of mechanics ideas and he isn't lying!  It is packed with so much info about the mechanics of game play that can be used in the classroom.  Because the chapter is so long, I have decided to only share a few of the mechanics with you, but there are so much more!

The author warns that not every student will be motivated by every game mechanic.  As discussed in chapter 5 with Player Types, he reminds us that individuals are motivated in different ways. He also reminds us that we don't have to do everything at once.  He suggests picking and choosing only two or three mechanics to start with at the beginning.

Experience Points (XP)

The first mechanic he introduces is experience points which is a unit of measurement in many role-playing games.  Players start the game with little or no Experience Points, and as they proceed through the game they earn more points, and often powerful upgrades.

Matera says that Experience Points can be a wonderful addition to the game, but when used alone, are often useless.  In Matera's class, students earn Experience Points by completing Extra Credit Assignments, and or designated days in class.

He uses three leader boards to track points: individual, house, and group.  He says that this pushes students to help each other to ensure that everyone is contributing to the team score. I really like this idea of teamwork.  

Levels

Levels are another mechanic of gaming.  Levels indicate the players' position or rank.  It can also be used to refer to a player's current stage in the game.

Leader boards

As previously stated, the Leader boards are used to show the standings for players or groups. Matera says that he uses leader boards to display a ton of information.  He says that they provide game data necessary for players to make strategic decisions.  Students are motivated by their ranking and work to stay at or near the top.

I have seen evidence of this motivation both in my classroom via Kicking' It Math, and with Marzano Scales, but also in conversations with students about games they play at home.

Guilds

Matera says that this is just a fancy term for groups.  He places his students in guilds and only changes them four or five times a year.  He says that in real life we don't get to choose our own teammates, and they don't change daily or weekly.  He also believes that this helps them learn how to work together long term.

He often determines group placement randomly (but he gives a few additional ideas).  He does this by having students select a card, and depending on the suit they draw, that is the team they are in.

On boarding

This mechanic is how you get players into your game, and how you familiarize them with the possibilities withing the game.

Matera tells his students that they are on an adventure while he displays a picture of a castle on a screen with epic music playing in the background.  He then launches them in their first house challenge.

I LOVE this idea!

He gives one student a sealed letter with cryptic instructions inside.  Together, they need to figure out this message and unlock its mystery.  He says there are a series of clues, and students have to look up information in their textbooks and on the web to figure out the message.  When they finally do, they are led to open a Google Form where they enter their team information and first see the Leader Board.

Achievement

Achievements are anything that are unlocked through game play.  They are often badges or items that might relate to the game's theme.  They can also be used to demonstrate mastery.

As I said before, this chapter is just jam packed with ideas and mechanics.  I am really excited to see this in action, especially in seeing the new Pokemon-Go craze!

Erin Condren Planner Giveaway

Back to School means back to planning!  One of the most popular teacher planners out there is the Erin Condren Teacher Planner. As a special back to school thank you to all of our readers, some of my blogging friends and I are giving away the planner below to send you back to school in style!

Here are a few of the pages inside:

An All About Me Page where you can list your personal info so it can be returned if you ever lose it.  It also has spaces for keeping track of passwords and favorite websites.

A Dates to Remember Page with additional spots to write in your own special days.

An Absent Log to keep track of student absences.

Long Range Planning Pages for planning out your school year.

Monthly Calendars

Weekly Planners - to schedule our your week with spaces for each subject or class period.

Student Checklist for keeping track of assignments, permission slips, book orders, etc.

If you're new to Erin Condren, and would like to save $10 off your first order, click HERE to register.  Erin Condren will then e.mail you a code for $10 off.

If you would like to enter to win this Erin Condren planner, enter using the Rafflecopter below. 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: Erin Condren Teacher Planner

Co-hosts:  Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Giveaway Organized by:  An Apple for the Teacher, Mrs. Roltgen, Reading and Writing Redhead, The Tally Tales, Momma With A Teaching Mission, Sliding Into 1st, Tried and True Teaching Tools, Heart 2 Heart Teaching, Mrs. Irvin's Toolbox, The Literacy Garden, Schoolhouse Treasures, Mrs. Humphries Class, Third Grade Giggles,  Teaching With Hope, and Growing Grade by Grade.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter below to enter. Giveaway ends 7/25/16 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

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Win a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Co-hosts:  Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Giveaway Organized by:  An Apple for the Teacher, The Chocolate Teacher, Ms. K, Kamp Kindergarten, Teaching With Hope, and La-Nette Mark.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 7/23/16 and is open worldwide.

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Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

Reading Strategies Goal 4: Teaching Fluency

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

This goal is all about fluency. Have you ever read with a child and had them read word by word with no change in tone or inflection in their voice?  Or, do you have a student who reads every word fluently, but then when you ask them the most basic comprehension question they act as if they've never read the passage?  This goal is for both of those students.

Within this goal are the following parts:

phrasing or parsing - putting the words together into meaningful groups within the sentence.

expression, intonation, or prosody - matching the feeling of the piece as they read, and paying attention to ending punctuation and dialogue marks.

emphasis - emphasizing certain words in a sentence to match author's meanings.

automaticity - reading known words automatically

pace - reading at a rate that matches how we talk.

Focus Strategy 1: Say Good-Bye to Robot Reading

Sometimes students get hung up on reading a passage one word at a time sounding very robotic.  This strategy helps to break this habit.  You might say to the student, "Instead of reading word by word like a robot, it is important to read words in phrases or groups of words together.  To do this, you might want to slide your finger under the sentence and 'scoop' a few words out together."  

You can give the child an example of what you mean.  "Instead of saying, 'She. Does. Her. Homework. After. School.'  It should sound like, ' She Does... Her Homework... After School.'"

(A possible mini-anchor chart you could leave with your students)

Focus Strategy 2: Punctuation Inside a Sentence

This strategy is for students who are reading levels E and above, where they are more likely to run into complex punctuation such as commas, dashes, and semi-colons. Using this strategy, you explain to the student that just like punctuation at the end of a sentence that tells them when to pause, or read with an inflection, punctuation in the middle of the sentence also can help tell you how to read a sentence.  

Focus Strategy 3: Partners Help To Smooth It Out

I love this strategy because I am always looking for ways to help my students to be better partners to each other.  This strategy suggests becoming a "ghost partner" where you whisper into one child's ear what you want them to say to the other child as coaching.  You might whisper, "That sounded a little choppy, right?" or "Go back and try that again."

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 4 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

Product Giveaways For Back To School

Several of my blogging friends have been super generous and are giving you the chance to win a few of their best selling products!  You can enter as many of the giveaways as you want!  There will be one winner chosen for each giveaway for a total of 4 winners!

I am giving away one of my math journals in your choice of grade level.

I love being able to give my students a model for writing about math that they can easily internalize and use on their own!  These math journals are so much more than a collection of word problems.  The journal prompts included ask students to defend their answers, using the MESS method (Model, Equation, Solve, Sentence).  Students are asked to draw a picture, write the equation, solve the problem, and then write a sentence answering the problem.  Writing about their math thinking helps students to prepare for standardized testing and show a true understanding of the math concepts.  

You can see how I use math journals in my classroom here.

You can enter to win here:   

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Katie from Resources by Mrs. Roltgen has got you covered if you are teaching Kindergarten this year!  She is giving away her Welcome to Kindergarten - Back To School Kindergarten Activities.

This pack included back-to-school activities that you can use during the first few days of Kindergarten. 

This resource includes tons of activities that will save you tons of prep and planning time during that busy first week!  Included are: 


* No prep printables that cover basic skills (such as cutting gluing, colors, letters, and numbers).

* Three fun mini-books

* First day keepsakes, including a handprint poem, a feelings activity, and a self- portrait

* Quick Assessments 

* First Day of Kindergarten Award

* And more!

You can enter to win here:
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Traci Bender from The Bender Bunch is giving away her Sequencing Mats which are perfect for teaching sequencing skills. 

This is what Traci has to say about them:

"My Sequencing Mats quickly rose to the very top of my best-selling resources within months and are one of my most pinned resources on Pinterest! With almost 400 perfect star ratings now, these mats continue to thrill teachers!  I love that these mats provide students practice with not only sequencing skills, but also with transitional words, following directions, and language skills.  I designed these sequencing mats as a fun way to help my students practice sequencing 4-5 step tasks.

There are a total of 12 mats; 4 which involve 4-step sequencing and 8 which involve 5-step sequencing.    I've included step-by-step sentences on each page to assist those students that need extra support.  Other students may not need the sentences and will be able to sequence the events by simply looking at the pictures.  Sentences also include basic transitional words to assist students.  You might also love my Life Cycle Sequencing Mats and my Sequencing Mats Set 2."

You can enter to win her Sequencing Mats here:  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Allison from The Literacy Garden is giving away her Identifying Character Traits Lessons and Lists.    This is such a big skill in the Common Core Standards - and I love that she has made this adaptable for grades 1- 4 so you can differentiate as needed!

This is what Alison has to say about them:

"Readers learn about a character through actions and words.  Rarely does an author directly say the character is curious or hardworking. Instead, the reader is actually using the skill of making inferences to figure this out.  For developing readers, identifying character traits can be a challenge.

When I introduce this skill, I like to read aloud a story that has very strong character such as the little wolf in The Wolf Who Cried Boy.

After reading and discussing the story, I ask the children to come up with a few words to describe how the young wolf acted.  Often they suggest sneaky or dishonest.  Then I ask them to explain which actions in the story support this.  It is important that the students don't just choose random words, but rather can give concrete examples to support their conclusion.

To anchor this lesson into our learning, I print a copy of the book's cover and add the character traits words to a bulletin board display.  

It is a great reference for future stories.  We can compare characters, connect similar traits, and the children refer to the spelling of words when they are writing their answers.  Other times, the words we are trying to come up with seem elusive.  That is when I have my students refer to their character traits list.  I've organized 135 character traits in alphabetical order.  The students keep them in their Reading Notebook for handy reference.

In order to provide several opportunities for the students to practice, I wrote several mini-stories.  Each one requires the student to identify a character trait as well as evidence to support that conclusion.

Throughout the year, we continue to identify character traits, expand their vocabulary, and add to our bulletin board."

If you would like to win a copy of this character traits list and mini-lessons, please enter the contest below!
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Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!