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Teaching Main Idea and Details
Teaching main idea and details in kindergarten and first grade might sound like something to save for later—after students are fluent readers. But here’s the truth: even our youngest learners can start to understand the “big picture” of a text- a skill that will support their comprehension across all subjects. In this post, I’m sharing…
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Why and How to Teach Sequencing
I had so many questions after reading one of my student’s stories: “I asked my mom if I could have cake and my sister got mad at me. Mom said it was ok so we had the cake. My dad got the cake for my mom.” After questioning, I learned that Dad had bought a…
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How to Teach Making Inferences: Comprehension Strategy
There are few lessons I love to introduce more than making inferences! Kids love to be detectives so when I come out from behind my desk in my trench coat and detective hat, holding my oversized magnifying lens, and hum the Mission Impossible song as I furtively sneak up to the board, it’s always a…
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Activities to Teach Self-Monitoring Reading Comprehension
In my previous post, I discussed using pictures as a comprehension strategy using Eagle Eye. As I mentioned, the more advanced kids become at reading, the fewer pictures their books will have. So, it’s important to teach other self-monitoring reading comprehension strategies. I’ll share some easy lesson activities you can do to model and teach…
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Using Eagle Eye as a Comprehension Strategy
Can you believe he was picking his nose?? Not what you thought? Pictures are a huge help to beginning readers when monitoring comprehension! Even when decoding accurately, factors such as figures of speech and background experience can affect a student’s comprehension. Some kids can decode an encyclopedia (do they even have those anymore??), but if they aren’t monitoring their…
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What To Do With Extra Classroom Magazines
Do you have extra Scholastic News Magazines lying around your classroom? I hoard save Scholastic News magazines because I just love them and can’t imagine discarding them. However, we just never get to all of them and I always have a big pile by the end of the year. Well, I finally buckled down and…
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The Why and How of Teaching Comparing and Contrasting
If you ask a student to get you a red coat from the class closet, they will likely find it easily among a sea of black coats. However, if there are 3 red coats, they will need more guidance to find the one you want. This is where comparing and contrasting comes in. It’s a…