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Facts about history
dates
names
geographical places

success criteria

Objectives
Success Criteria
I can state the facts about history not yet, sometimes, yes
I can say some dates
I can say some hero's names

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Theme: 200 Years celebrating Independence Day
Before Reading:
Audio/Visual Hook
Kids can have an open discussion relating to the theme/video and talk about their past experience.
Tell us stories from grandparents or past celebrations and what they remember
Strategies: Pair share, First lines

During Reading:
Read the Lesson and reinforce the lesson with a variety of activities:
Younger age group: Arts and Crafts, white Board, sketching
Older age group: Writing and Speaking
Strategies: Selective Highlighting, Jigsaw, Fill in the blanks, word hunting, Analyze words and roots, role playing

After Reading:
Reflecting: Prompt questions, exit cards
Summarizing : Q & A
Retelling : Retelling with pictures to differentiate Sticky notes, side notes

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Example: Our National Anthem >>
we will tech in Greek really, but for us now...part of it in English:
"I recognize you by the fearsome sharpness,
of the sword,
I recognize you by your face
that hastefully defines the land (i.e. the land's borders)."
Before : introduce to our flag, make an image within a wreath , speak about history
During : Read the lyrics, make exercises, analyze vocabulary, ask them to draw an image from the subject
After: in younger children "make a copy" , in older kids "analyze the emotions together" .... and provide connection and meaning

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Kyra Sarakosti By: Sarah, Athena, Katerina & Ageliki

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Kyra Sarakosti By: Sarah, Athena, Katerina & Ageliki

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Before:
1. Students look at the photo and talk about it.
2. Vocabulary

During:
1. Show video with song as an intro
2. Read the song once and divide into parts.
3. Summarize song.

After:
1. Students make a drawing on how their Kyra Sarakosti should look like.
2. Students follow recipe step by step and make their own Kyra Sarakosti at home with γιαγιά και παππού (grandparents) to continue the tradition.

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Before
- Gather information on March 25th Celebration (videos, images, related articles etc.)
- Present them to the class and ask questions on what they already know about this Celebration
- Ask the class to give you vocabulary related to this celebration

During
- Delve deeper into the historic events
- Present more elaborate videos
- Drawing and crafts for the younger students (games etc. )
- Greek Flag
- Play performance and concerts related to the celebration
- Pre-covid: parade

After
- Homework: Research on the Heroes of the Revolution
- Discussion at home on the importance of the Day
- Presentation of more advanced vocabulary
- Summarize in various ways what you have learnt
- Q & A on the material presented
- More personal experience: Talk about why this day is important for you to celebrate
- Close the class with the Greek Hymn

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Dimitris, Suzy, Elaine, Anatoli(Group 1)

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Dimitris, Suzy, Elaine, Anatoli(Group 1)

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Lesson: Little Red Riding Hood
Before:
- prereading: book cover( ask the students to predict what the story is about)
- prereading: vocabulary(καλάθι/basket, δάσος/woods) + flash- cards
- prereading: Describe the story characters.
During:   Story map
Setting
Where?
When?
Main Characters
Problem
Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
Resolution

After:
Summarizing
Role playing
Exist slips(What did you like about the story?)
Comic strips
Who was your favorite character?
Lesson learned that they can apply in their lives.
To end in a fun way, we recommend watching a short video about the story

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During

After

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U
B   before Reading

S During Reading
E
A
R
C
H
After Reading
P.
S.

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Hierarchy of comprehension skills by grade

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Hierarchy of comprehension skills by grade

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The Melissa Institute
Literacy Website

The Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and prevention of violence through education, community service, research support and consultation.

Did you know that 85% of youth in trouble with the law have reading difficulties?

The Institute's mission is to prevent violence and promote safer communities through education and application of research-based knowledge.

What is the connection between violence prevention and a literacy website?

Evidence shows that students who do not learn to read on level by 3rd grade are much more likely to develop low self-esteem, drop out of school, and engage in antisocial and aggressive behavior. To help prevent this spiral of failure The Melissa Institute has introduced The Balanced Literacy Diet website to support educators in developing effective and engaging literacy programs across the elementary grades.

The good news is that literacy failure is preventable!

With the support of The Melissa Institute this website was developed by university-based literacy experts and school-based practitioners - literacy specialists, classroom teachers as well as district and school administrators. The Balanced Literacy Diet framework is designed to provide a comprehensive multifaceted internet resource to support the development of research-informed reading and writing instruction in schools. It is a free website for use by educators everywhere.

Thank you...

We want to thank all of the generous contributors who have made the development of this website possible.

We also want to express a particular debt of gratitude to the many educators who have opened their hearts to this project and shared their time and expertise so that others can benefit from their wisdom.

We hope to continue to add to the website, so if you find it a useful resource we hope you will support us in our efforts to make it even better.

Donations to the Melissa Institute via credit card are possible through our Secure Server.

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BALANCEDLITERACYDIET :: Balanced Literacy Diet

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The Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and prevention of violence through education, community service, research support and consultation. The Institute's mission is to prevent violence and promote safer communities through education and application of research-based knowledge.

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Comprehension: The Goal of Reading

Comprehension, or extracting meaning from what you read, is the ultimate goal of reading. Experienced readers take this for granted and may not appreciate the reading comprehension skills required. The process of comprehension is both interactive and strategic. Rather than passively reading text, readers must analyze it, internalize it and make it their own.

In order to read with comprehension, developing readers must be able to read with some proficiency and then receive explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies (Tierney, 1982).

​ Strategies for reading comprehension in Read Naturally programs

​General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

The process of comprehending text begins before children can read, when someone reads a picture book to them. They listen to the words, see the pictures in the book, and may start to associate the words on the page with the words they are hearing and the ideas they represent.

In order to learn comprehension strategies, students need modeling, practice, and feedback. The key comprehension strategies are described below.

Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing

When students preview text, they tap into what they already know that will help them to understand the text they are about to read. This provides a framework for any new information they read.

Predicting

When students make predictions about the text they are about to read, it sets up expectations based on their prior knowledge about similar topics. As they read, they may mentally revise their prediction as they gain more information.

Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization

Identifying the main idea and summarizing requires that students determine what is important and then put it in their own words. Implicit in this process is trying to understand the author's purpose in writing the text.

Questioning

Asking and answering questions about text is another strategy that helps students focus on the meaning of text. Teachers can help by modeling both the process of asking good questions and strategies for finding the answers in the text.

Making Inferences

In order to make inferences about something that is not explicitly stated in the text, students must learn to draw on prior knowledge and recognize clues in the text itself.

Visualizing

Studies have shown that students who visualize while reading have better recall than those who do not (Pressley, 1977). Readers can take advantage of illustrations that are embedded in the text or create their own mental images or drawings when reading text without illustrations.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Narrative Text

Narrative text tells a story, either a true story or a fictional story. There are a number of strategies that will help students understand narrative text.

Story Maps

Teachers can have students diagram the story grammar of the text to raise their awareness of the elements the author uses to construct the story. Story grammar includes:

Setting: When and where the story takes place (which can change over the course of the story).

Characters: The people or animals in the story, including the protagonist (main character), whose motivations and actions drive the story.

Plot: The story line, which typically includes one or more problems or conflicts that the protagonist must address and ultimately resolve.

Theme: The overriding lesson or main idea that the author wants readers to glean from the story. It could be explicitly stated as in Aesop's Fables or inferred by the reader (more common).

​ Printable story map (blank)

Retelling

Asking students to retell a story in their own words forces them to analyze the content to determine what is important. Teachers can encourage students to go beyond literally recounting the story to drawing their own conclusions about it.

Prediction

Teachers can ask readers to make a prediction about a story based on the title and any other clues that are available, such as illustrations. Teachers can later ask students to find text that supports or contradicts their predictions.

Answering Comprehension Questions

Asking students different types of questions requires that they find the answers in different ways, for example, by finding literal answers in the text itself or by drawing on prior knowledge and then inferring answers based on clues in the text.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Expository Text

Expository text explains facts and concepts in order to inform, persuade, or explain.

The Structure of Expository Text

Expository text is typically structured with visual cues such as headings and subheadings that provide clear cues as to the structure of the information. The first sentence in a paragraph is also typically a topic sentence that clearly states what the paragraph is about.

Expository text also often uses one of five common text structures as an organizing principle:

Cause and effect

Problem and solution

Compare and contrast

Description

Time order (sequence of events, actions, or steps)

Teaching these structures can help students recognize relationships between ideas and the overall intent of the text.

Main Idea/Summarization

A summary briefly captures the main idea of the text and the key details that support the main idea. Students must understand the text in order to write a good summary that is more than a repetition of the text itself.

​K-W-L

There are three steps in the K-W-L process (Ogle, 1986):

1. What I Know: Before students read the text, ask them as a group to identify what they already know about the topic. Students write this list in the "K" column of their K-W-L forms.

2. What I Want to Know: Ask students to write questions about what they want to learn from reading the text in the "W" column of their K-W-L forms. For example, students may wonder if some of the "facts" offered in the "K" column are true.

3. What I Learned: As they read the text, students should look for answers to the questions listed in the "W" column and write their answers in the "L" column along with anything else they learn.

After all of the students have read the text, the teacher leads a discussion of the questions and answers.

Printable K-W-L chart (blank)

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers provide visual representations of the concepts in expository text. Representing ideas and relationships graphically can help students understand and remember them. Examples of graphic organizers are:
Tree diagrams that represent categories and hierarchies Tables that compare and contrast data Time-driven diagrams that represent the order of events Flowcharts that represent the steps of a process​
​

Teaching students how to develop and construct graphic organizers will require some modeling, guidance, and feedback. Teachers should demonstrate the process with examples first before students practice doing it on their own with teacher guidance and eventually work independently.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension in Read Naturally Programs

Several Read Naturally programs include strategies that support comprehension:

Read Naturally Intervention Program

Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Prediction Step

Retelling Step

Quiz / Comprehension Questions

Graphic Organizers

One Minute Reader Live:
A component of web-based Read Live for supplemental, independent reading that develops fluency with support for vocabulary and comprehension.

Take Aim at Vocabulary: A print-based program with audio CDs that teaches carefully selected target words and strategies for independently learning unknown words. Students work mostly independently or in teacher-led small groups of up to six students.

Main idea

Literal

Vocabulary

Inference

Vocabulary: Clarify target words

Vocabulary: Study word parts and review target words

Vocabulary: Apply the target words

Bibliography

Honig, B., L. Diamond, and L. Gutlohn. (2013). Teaching reading sourcebook, 2nd ed. Novato, CA: Arena Press.

Ogle, D. M. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The Reading Teacher 38(6), pp. 564-570.

Pressley, M. (1977). Imagery and children's learning: Putting the picture in developmental perspective. Review of Educational Research 47, pp. 586-622.

Tierney, R. J. (1982). Essential considerations for developing basic reading comprehension skills. School Psychology Review 11(3), pp. 299-305.

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To improve comprehension, students must have some reading proficiency and receive explicit instruction in skills and strategies for reading comprehension.