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Comprehension and goal setting go hand in hand.  (2016, October 5).  Retrieved from
https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/self-assessment-goal-setting-go-hand-hand/

Gunning, T. (2016).  Creating literacy instruction for all students.  Boston, MA: Allyn &

Bacon.

Key comprehension strategies to teach. (n.d.).  Retrieved from
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/key-comprehension-strategies-teach

Wilson, D. & Conyers, M. (2017).  A skill strong readers share.  Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/trait-strong-readers-share

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By far my favorite strategy to teach is visualizing.  This strategy is my favorite because of the response I get from students when teaching it.  Visualizing, or Imaging, is a strategy in which students create pictures in their minds of what happens in the text.  This is a strategy I use both during and after reading to promote comprehension.  Wilson & Conyers (2017) states, "Visualizing is a powerful tool for many readers...Creating brain movies can help students make sense of complex nonfiction subject matter and vividly see the characters, setting, and action in stories, thus bringing a text to life. Teachers who use this strategy tell us their students seem to have more fun as they experience reading success." (para. 10). Imaging/visualizing allows students to play a "movie" in their minds, which I've found is the best and most effective way to promote interest and engagement in reading.  All students benefit from visualizing, and I find that all students love this strategy regardless of their reading interests or level.  Getting students engaged and interested in reading is the first step in developing comprehension strategies.

To teach visualizing, I start with the read aloud and think aloud. I read a section of a text aloud and then describe what I'm picturing by focusing on the five senses. Then, I ask students to draw out what they see in the text as I read. Once they have an understanding of this, I move them into independent work in which they visualize their own reading selections through drawings. Assessing this strategy can be challenging, because you can exactly see what's going on in a student's mind. However, I've found that drawing pictures is a fun and effective way to assess how students are responding to this strategy and how their comprehension is developing because of it.

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During Reading Strategy 2:  Making Inferences

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During Reading Strategy 2:  Making Inferences

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Making inferences is another strategy that can be used to support comprehension both after reading and during reading. I often teach this strategy during reading so that I can better support students in making inferences as they make their way through a text.  Making an inference involves students combining their knowledge of the text with their world knowledge and schema so that they can understand things in a text that might not be answered directly.  Reading Rockets (n.d.) states, "It has been shown that when readers are taught how to make inferences, they improve their abilities to construct meaning. Indeed, research indicates that the ability to make inferences is crucial to successful reading." (para. 10). Inferencing is important to readers because they develop an understanding of how to "read" characters, events, and other details that might not be spelled out of them in the text. This develops and increases their span of comprehension. This strategy works well in third-grade because my students are more developed socially and emotionally, and their schemas are developed appropriately so that they can being inferencing. A certain amount of maturity is needed to make inferences confidently and in third grade students have this. As Gunning (2016) states, "Although above-average students make more inferences than average ones, below average readers should be taught the skill." (p.311). I've found that in my experience teaching third-grade, students that are above-average make inferences from the day they step into the classroom.  Making inferences is helpful to their enrichment, but is also helpful in increasing comprehension for all students.  When students are able to understand what the author is "indirectly" saying in a text, comprehension is improved, which is something that should be taught to all students.

To teach inferencing, its important to model the skill. As in a read aloud, when a teacher thinks aloud to students, they can better understand how to make an inference. When a thought process is demonstrated to students though modeling, they tend to pick up on more subtleties.  After modeling, conversation is important for students. Partner and small-group conversations allow students to see into each others' thought processes which can help develop their skills. To assess this strategy, observations and conferencing are important. When teaching this skill I tend to take on more of a coaching role to offer support. I also think it's important to observe students when reading to see how they respond to text events that might not be literal. This knowledge can guide future instruction.

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Another important comprehension strategy to teach in third-grade is summarizing. This strategy involves students being able to retell important parts of a text. Though I marked this strategy as post-reading strategy, it's important to note that I use this strategy both after reading and during reading. While students understand what summarizing is, I often find that students struggle with eliminating unnecessary information. In order to summarize properly, students must be engaged in a text and following along during reading. I always instruct my students to keep notes about main events, characters, and key points they come across when reading in order for them to organize their thoughts. Organizing thoughts leads to a better summary and a better understanding of the text. This strategy is helpful to third-graders because it establishes a life-long skill needed throughout their schooling and into their careers. Gunning (2016) states, "Summarizing is a key 21st-century skill." (p.309). At this stage of learning, third graders have a strong foundation of communication, and developing summarizing at this stage sets students up for better comprehension development in their futures. Students who most benefit from this strategy are students that are struggling with o organizational features of a text. Through summarizing, students become more familiar with a the layout of texts and can assemble their own summaries to better comprehend.

To teach this strategy, I typically use a lot of conversation at first.  I model the strategy, and have students participate in a "turn and talk" with a partner, during which they can explain a text to their partners.  I then coach in to support students and enrich as needed. Once students have practiced conversationally, I guide them to retell and summarize using a few guiding questions before I promote independence.  Assessing this strategy is best through observations and conferencing.  By observing students conversing in action I can step in and provide immediate feedback and support, and conferencing allows me more one on one support with my struggling students.

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During Reading Strategy 1:  Determining the Main Idea

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During Reading Strategy 1:  Determining the Main Idea

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By far one of the most important reading strategy taught at the third-grade level is determining main idea. This strategy is also one of the most challenging to teach and one I find that my students struggle with the most.  Gunning (2016) states, "Deriving the main idea is at the core of constructing meaning from text..." (p.301).  In order for students to comprehend a text, students must be able to understand what the text is about and understand the supporting details.  The main idea is a short summary of what a selection is mainly about and identifying the main idea is crucial to developing and understanding of the text.  This strategy is helpful to my students because main ideas guide and navigate students through a text.  It gives a text purpose and meaning which develops comprehension in a strong way.  All readers benefit from learning about main idea, but it's important to teach students all the small skills involved in finding the main idea. (Gunning, 2016, p.301).

To teach this strategy, its important to start with small skills, like finding a topic sentence, classifying, and organizing information.  Teaching this skill in baby steps allows students to gradually increase their depth of knowledge and move seamlessly into finding a main idea.  To assess this strategy I find that guided practice and conferencing is the best practice.  Through conferencing I can hone in on students individual needs to support the development of this skill, and guided practice is a great way to give students immediate feedback so that they can more easily navigate a text.

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Predicting is a key comprehension strategy I teach in my third-grade class.  Predicting is a great way for students to tune-in to their schemas before reading.  When using this strategy, readers use their prior knowledge and what they know about the text to make predictions about what will happen in a story.  By doing so, students connect to a text and become motivated to read.
Gunning (2016) states, "Predicting also gives readers a purpose for reading and turns reading into an active search to see whether a prediction is correct." (p.299).  By teaching students how to predict, they are not only learning a beneficial comprehension strategy but are also more engaged in a reading experience.  Because this strategy is so engaging, this will work well with my grade-level.  Students at this age often find themselves bored and uninterested in reading, and by using strategies like predicting that involve students connecting with a text I am successfully engaging students in meaningful reading experiences that will ultimately support comprehension.  This strategy works well for most students, but I find that some students are reserved when making predictions aloud in fear that they will be wrong.  Because of this, one of the first things I teach when introducing predicting is that it should be expected that not all predictions will be true.  More importantly, I teach my students that making predictions that are relevant and informed are the best kinds of predictions, even if they end up not being true.

After introducing predicting in this way, I use a lot of modeling and coaching to bring out the best predictions in my students. Gunning (2016) states that when teaching predictions a teacher should, "Do lots of modeling and coaching." (p.300). Teaching the process of predicting can be challenging, so to best help students I take model the skill and then take on a coaching role, offering support and enrichment as necessary. Assessing this strategy can be done simply and effectively through prediction charts and the Reader's notebook. I ask students to record their predictions in their notebooks in chart form that asks them to establish a predictions and detail the evidence from the text they used to make their predictions. It's also helpful for students to self-monitor as they read and change their predictions as they gain new information and clues from the text. The two important features of a prediction chart can be the best assessment for the effectiveness of this strategy.

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Pre-Reading Strateg 1:  Setting Reading Goals

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Pre-Reading Strateg 1:  Setting Reading Goals

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Reading goals are goals set by students to establish a purpose for reading.  Setting goals before reading is a way for students to take control of their reading experiences.  By setting goals, students draw upon their schemas and past experiences as readers to establish an individual focus for reading.  (Gunning, 2016, p.299).  This strategy will work with my third-grade students because it individualizes strategy instruction and gives my students ownership of their own learning.  Students that are in tune with who they are as readers, their strengths and weaknesses in regards to reading, and their reading interests, students become more open and responsive to reading, which in turn, increases comprehension.  Because this strategy is easily differentiated, students with all interests on all readiness levels benefit from goal setting.

Teaching goal setting effectively is a long process.  First, I teach my students about identifying strengths and weaknesses and self-awareness.  Then, I model goal setting and self-assessing.  Eventually, I remove the scaffolds I set up and students are setting and keeping track of their own goals independently.  What I love about teaching using the Workshop model is that I can spend more time with students who need an extra boost, and release students who are performing well from scaffolds earlier on.  This allows me to assure all students are getting what they need to improve their reading and comprehension.  To assess goal setting, the Reader's notebook is the best tool I can use.  In the Reader's notebook, students set and track their goals, and I can use the data the students keep to assess how well students are understanding themselves as readers and the material they are reading.  Student self-assessment is also an appropriate way to assess this strategy.  Students can self-assess using the logs, charts, and other data entries they keep in their Reader's notebooks so that the goal setting process is continuous.
"Goal-setting and self-assessment should be an ongoing process. Although you will set lesson-by-lesson goals, often in accordance with district or state standards, students can have a voice in setting their own learning goals." (Comprehension and goal setting, n.d., para. 7).  Allowing students to track their growth and progress of comprehension and reading skills through self-assessment and goal setting, students are in charge of their own learning and therefore become more responsive readers.