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 reading, they could be completely missing the point!
So, it’s important to teach students how to self-monitor their reading. One important strategy to teach beginning readers is to check their reading with the picture.
EAGLE EYE COMPREHENSION Strategy- Look at the Picture
I used to use Eagle Eye as a decoding strategy and would ask kids to look at the picture to make a word prediction. After reading the science behind how kids learn to read and realizing the importance of keeping phonics first and foremost when teaching decoding, I’ve changed Eagle Eye to a comprehension, rather than a decoding, strategy. This pack reflects teaching it as such and encouraging students to check the picture after using decoding strategies to read the text.
Eagle Eye is a fun way to teach this comprehension strategy because it uses a cute character that reminds kids to check their reading!
You can introduce this strategy by modeling with a big book. Cover the pictures up, model using strategies to decode the sentence, then reveal the picture to see if it matches your reading.
If you want a done-for-you resource that includes a PowerPoint presentation to introduce, practice, and reinforce this strategy, then you’ll want to keep reading for a deep look at my Eagle Eye strategy pack.
PowerPoint to Introduce the Eagle Eye Strategy
I love to use PowerPoint slideshows to introduce concepts for several reasons. It’s interactive and fun, follows a step-by-step sequence, and keeps me on track so I don’t forget anything,
It’s helpful to teach by modeling first, practicing together, then letting kids work independently while you monitor. So, my PowerPoint slideshows incorporate each of these formats- opportunities for you to model, work together, and end with kids going off to practice independently.
What Does this Look Like?
In my Eagle Eye PPT, the first slide is a poster that identifies the strategy. That’s followed by a story for you to model and practice with your students. The story included has 3 different levels so you can use the one that best fits your students’ needs. There are 8 sentences in each story, on individual slides. After kids decode the sentence, click to reveal the picture and check reading.
After the story, there is a little song to help kids remember the strategy. The Eagle Eye song goes to the familiar tune of Jingle Bells. Kids love to sing and songs really help them remember the strategies, which is why I’ve added songs to all of my reading strategy packs.
The PPT ends with asking kids to practice independently with their own texts and fill out a strategy certificate. You can again model this with a big book before you send them off.
Practice Activities
Of course, students will need more than one exposure to this strategy, so I’ve included LOTS of practice opportunities! Here are some of them.
PICTURE MATCH: Students cut and paste the pictures to match the text.
TASK CARDS: Find the picture that matches the sentence.
POCKET CHART SENTENCES: Use this whole-group or at a center. Display a few sentences and have kids find the picture that matches.
MINI-READER and EAGLE EYE PAGE: Kids read the sentences, then highlight the part of the picture that confirms their reading.
DIGITAL Activities
Most of the activities shown above are also included in Google Slides format! Here are just two of them.
REFERENCE TOOLS
To help your kids remember the strategy, I’ve also included posters for you to display, as well as mini-posters to place on popsicle sticks for use during small groups or centers and Eagle Eye lenses you can make for extra fun.
Looking at the picture is an important comprehension strategy for beginning readers because most books have pictures to help with comprehension. Remind them to ask themselves the questions: Does this match what I read? Does it make sense with the story so far?
If it doesn’t, remind them to go back and reread, challenging them to find the error.
As kids advance in reading, their books will have fewer and fewer pictures, so it’s important to teach other ways that they can monitor their reading comprehension, such as visualizing. My next post will include more ideas for helping students self-monitor their comprehension.
You can grab my Eagle Eye Comprehension Strategy pack here from my TpT store.
For more on using DECODING STRATEGIES, read this blog post with my step-by-step guide for helping kids when they’re stuck on a word or this post that goes through each decoding strategy.
For a free bookmark with the decoding strategies and Eagle Eye check-up, you can sign up for my emails and download the freebie below instantly!
