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

Harry Potter Classroom Reveal

This year I decided to go with a Harry Potter theme for my classroom.  I may have gone a little overboard, but I love it!

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. 

When my students come to my door, they see this sign:

The door opens to Platform 9 3/4.  

We made this curtain using some a red curtain and painted on the bricks using a sponge.

I love this Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 sign if you have the right types of walls to support it!

On the first day of school, my students found their Hogwarts acceptance letters on their desk.

They were then put into table groups with a little help from our Sorting Hat.

We also have many of the essential book accessories. 

A Broom

A Golden Snitch

The Mirror of Erised

Old Wizard Pictures

A Snowy Owl for delivering mail

Hanging Candles

And a few other fun touches...

Here's a similar house elf sign from Amazon.

Wizard Pencils

Have you seen this wizard photo booth prop. 

When I visited the Ron Clark Academy, I loved how they displayed photos of the students all over the school, so I used these pictures of my students to decorate the classroom.

You can find the Harry Potter House Banners here.

I Teach What's Your Super Power Sign (similar)

Harry Potter Book Cover Printables

Win Your Own Laminator

One of my mottos could be "Laminate all the things!"

Seriously, though, I can't imagine life with out my own personal laminator.  I loved the first one so much, that now I actually have two - one at home and one at school.

My blogging friends and I want to share the laminating love with you and are having a giveaway for your own laminator and supplies!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: Laminator and set of laminating sheets

Giveaway Organized by:  Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:  An Apple for the Teacher, Schoolhouse Treasures, Crystal Clear Teaching, Teaching Ideas For Those Who Love Teaching, Simone's Math Resources, Teaching With Hope, Sarah Griffin (Daughters and Kindergarten), Mrs Humphries Class, and The Literacy Garden.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/21/16 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 Target Gift Card

Have you been stalking the Dollar Deals at Target?  There are so many fabulous Back to School items right now!  Here is your chance to win a $25 Target gift card so you can buy a few things from this section, school supplies, or ????

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Target Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by:  Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:  An Apple for the Teacher, The Chocolate Teacher, Heart 2 Heart Teaching, CrazyCharizma, Mrs Irvins Toolbox, and Teacher Gameroom.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/20/16 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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An Apple for the Teacher $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Ms. K, Lindsay Marcaccio, Top Teaching Tasks, Little Vikings, La-Nette Mark, and A World of Language Learners. 

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/19/16 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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Reading Strategies Goal 8: Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction - Main Idea

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!

This Giveaway is Over!  Please visit our Giveaway page to enter our current giveaway.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $30 Amazon Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by:  Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:  An Apple for the Teacher, The Chocolate Teacher, Heart 2 Heart Teaching, The Corriganite Nation, Ms K., Teaching With Hope, Carrie Lutz, Teacher Gameroom, and Becky's Social Studies Center.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 8/18/16 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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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!

An InLinkz Link-up