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
Make sure you read to the bottom for your chance to win a $30 Amazon gift card! You can use it towards your purchase of this book or anything else you would like!
In this chapter, the focus switches to non-fiction.
Some students struggle with being able to explain what a text is mostly about, often resorting to reciting various facts or details they have read. The ability to understand what the most important parts of a text is critical to comprehension.
To determine if a student needs to work on this goal, you can have them read a non-fiction text at their independent level. You would then ask them questions such as:
1. What is this text mostly about?
2. What is the main idea?
If they struggle to answer these questions, this would be an appropriate goal for them.
Focus Strategy 1: Notice What Repeats
In this strategy, you would tell the student, "To figure out what a book is mostly about, it is helpful to pay attention to the word or words that you see again and again."
An example can be seen in the page below from the book Sharks.
Students may notice that the word sharks appears multiple times both in the text and in the captions. The student could ask themselves, is this text mostly about sharks?
Focus Strategy 2: Topic/Subtopic/Details
This strategy asks the student to first determine the topic (what the whole section is about), then the subtopic, and finally details that connect to the topic and subtopic.
Serravallo shows a simple graphic organizer that the students can create to keep track of this work.
Focus Strategy 3: Boxes and Bullets
This is a strategy we used often in class last year, as it is featured in the Lucy Calkins Units of Study. In this strategy, students draw a box and several bullets beneath it. As they read, they are supposed to ask themselves," Does this sentence say what the part is mostly about (box), or is this a detail (bullet)?" They would then write the information in the appropriate space.
You can download similar graphic organizers for this strategy here.
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!
Now... time for the Giveaway!
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Prize: $30 Amazon Gift Card
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher),
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/18/16 and is open worldwide.
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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.
Nichole from The Craft of Teaching is officially hosting goal 8 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!
