Strategy Based Information System: Reading Strategies by https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6 Below are six different comprehension reading strategies that can be used in my classroom that are practiced either before, during or after reading. en-us 2014-04-13 16:01:53 UTC 2014-04-13 16:04:07 UTC hello@padlet.com http://d262le4z25sx36.cloudfront.net/portraits/sticky.jpg Strategy One: Activating Prior Knowledge                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Category: Pre-Reading                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The first pre-reading strategy I chose is Activating Prior Knowledge.  Activating prior knowledge happens before students read a story or a story is read to them.  The teacher activates student’s prior knowledge through questioning.  For example, before reading the story My First Day of First Grade I would ask my students questions about their experiences on their first day of first grade.  This is a beneficial strategy to use in my classroom because studies show that students who activated both subject knowledge and personal knowledge prior to reading were better able to apply their knowledge and also had a more positive attitude (Spires & Donley, 1998).  This strategy will work for my students because it is a simple, oral task that allows all students to participate, even those who are struggling readers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       To teach this strategy to my students, I would first introduce the name and explain what it is all about.  I would explain to my students that sometimes, before readers read a story, it can be helpful to think about how this story might be relatable to their own lives.  I would explain that when we practice this strategy, I will always read the title, author and illustrator of the book.  I will allow you to look at the cover of the book and give you a brief overview of what it will be about.  Then, I will ask you some questions that will help you to relate to the story to become more familiar with the text. To assess the effectiveness of this strategy, I will use informal observations through questioning. hramsey https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912118 2014-04-13 16:04:35 UTC https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912118 Strategy Two: Predicting                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Category: Pre-Reading                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The second pre-reading strategy I chose was Predicting.  Predicting activates readers’ schemata because predictions are made on the basis of prior knowledge.  Gunning (2012) states “Predicting also gives readers a purpose for reading and turns reading into an active search to see whether a prediction is correct (p. 317).  This strategy would and does work for my students because it provides an opportunity for students to use the pictures in the stories prior to reading to guess what will happen and also use these predictions to help decode difficult words.  For example, if a student is reading a page from the story and comes across the sentence “The dog ran behind the couch” and the student gets stuck at the word “couch”.  If they had gone through the book and made predictions for each page, they would remember there is a couch in the picture.  The strategy of predicting will help students to decode that word. I believe all students would benefit from using this strategy because it can be used at varying levels of text and genres.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      To teach this strategy to my students, I would introduce the word “predictions” and have a discussion about what that means.  Afterwards, I would model to students what making predictions looks like.  I would choose a mentor text that we have not read yet and look at the title and cover photo and orally predict what I think this story might be about.  I might go through a picture walk and continue that process to give students several examples.  To assess this strategy, when I read with my students on-one-one, I will have them make predictions on the story before they begin reading. hramsey https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912149 2014-04-13 16:06:58 UTC https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912149 Strategy Three: Check for Understanding                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Category: During Reading                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The third strategy I chose that can happen during the reading process is the strategy called Check for Understanding.  Check for understanding is a strategy that students may use frequently while reading a story.  With this strategy, I would teach students to begin reading a few pages from their book, maybe two or three pages.  Then, they mark their page and close the book and ask themselves, “What happened so far in the story?” If students are able to recall most of the important events and details they can continue reading.  If students realized that they cannot recall most or any of the events or information that took place then they need to go back and re-read.  Once they have gone back and re-read, they check for understanding again.  This strategy would work for my students because it teaches them to become more aware of what is going while they are reading a story rather than waiting until it is over to think about whether they understood what was going on.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        To teach this strategy, I would model how to check for understanding.  I would choose a book and read a few pages, close the book and do a think aloud so students can see the process of what it will look like when they do this strategy.  I would even do a few practice rounds where I will allow students to practice using this strategy as I walk around and help students if needed. To assess this strategy, during Read to Self, I would meet with one student at a time and ask them to show me how to check for understanding and I will assess if they were able to do it successfully. hramsey https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912196 2014-04-13 16:09:13 UTC https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912196 Strategy Four: Asking Questions throughout the Reading Process                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Category: During Reading                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The fourth reading strategy I chose that can happened during the reading process is asking questions throughout the reading process.  I believe this is such an important strategy to practice during reading to truly comprehend a story while reading.  I would explain to my students that this is a strategy all good readers use to help them understand what is going on in the story.  To use this strategy, I would teach my students that a lot of time when you are reading a story, you find yourself asking questions about what is happening in the story.  The important part is noticing you are asking yourself those questions and using them to your advantage.  I would model this strategy to my students by stopping at random spots during reading and asking questions out loud as if I would be asking them in my head.  This strategy would be effective or my on grade level and above students.  Because my struggling students are still focusing on decoding skills, comprehension comes second to that.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Like stated above, to teach this strategy I would model to my students how to ask questions about the text as I am reading.  I would have students practice this strategy with a partner, pairing high and low readers together.  To assess students of this strategy, I would give each student a stack of sticky notes.  I would ask them, while they are reading, to write down any questions they asked themselves and stick it by the sentence or page that triggered that question.  Then, I could go through and see what types of questions students are asking about a piece of text and if these questions are useful in helping them comprehend the story better. hramsey https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912242 2014-04-13 16:12:48 UTC https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912242 Strategy Five: Summarize Text: Include Sequence of Main Events                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Category: After Reading                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The fifth reading strategy I chose to use after the reading process is complete is summarizing the text by including a sequence of main events.  One of the hardest skills to teach first graders is sequencing main events that happen in the story.  Often times, readers (even high readers) can tell you all the different events that happened in a story but the events are so scattered and not in order.  This strategy I would use with my on grade level and high readers.  This strategy would work this these group of students because it teaches them not only the importance of being able to summarize and remember what happened in the story but being able to put those events in the order that they happened.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             To teach this strategy, I would have to do a lot of modeling at first.  I think that using different thinking maps like flow charts would be an effective way for students to summarize and sequence events.  To assess the effectiveness of this strategy, I would have students choose a story, read the text and complete a graphic organizer that would demonstrate their ability to locate important events in the story and put them in chronological order. hramsey https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912286 2014-04-13 16:15:14 UTC https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912286 Strategy Six: Recognizing Literary Events                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Category: After Reading                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The final, after reading strategy I chose to help my students with comprehension is recognizing literary events in the story.  This involves identifying the characters, setting, plot problem and solution. This strategy gets students to think about all the different events that make up a story and how literary event plays an important role in the make-up of the story.  This strategy would work for my students because a lot of the literary events that students need to identify are fairly easy to do: characters and setting, for example. Practicing identifying these particular events in a story is a helpful practice in order to build students’ knowledge to identify more difficult concepts in a book: plot, problem and solution.  I would use this strategy for all my students but teach the more difficult events like plot and problem/solution to my non-struggling readers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            To teach this strategy, just like all the others, there needs to be a ton of modeling.  Firstly, students need to understand the academic vocabulary of this strategy: characters, setting, plot, etc.  Once these concepts are understood, students and I can practice finding these different literary events by completing read alouds together.  Eventually, I would have students read a book independently and complete a graphic organizer identifying all these literary events. I would use this graphic organizer to assess students’ understanding of the terms and whether they could apply these terms to use this reading strategy effectively.       hramsey https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912329 ]]> 2014-04-13 16:17:19 UTC https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912329 Strategy Three: Check for Understanding                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Category: During Reading                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The third strategy I chose that can happen during the reading process is the strategy called Check for Understanding.  Check for understanding is a strategy that students may use frequently while reading a story.  With this strategy, I would teach students to begin reading a few pages from their book, maybe two or three pages.  Then, they mark their page and close the book and ask themselves, “What happened so far in the story?” If students are able to recall most of the important events and details they can continue reading.  If students realized that they cannot recall most or any of the events or information that took place then they need to go back and re-read.  Once they have gone back and re-read, they check for understanding again.  This strategy would work for my students because it teaches them to become more aware of what is going while they are reading a story rather than waiting until it is over to think about whether they understood what was going on.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     To teach this strategy, I would model how to check for understanding.  I would choose a book and read a few pages, close the book and do a think aloud so students can see the process of what it will look like when they do this strategy.  I would even do a few practice rounds where I will allow students to practice using this strategy as I walk around and help students if needed. To assess this strategy, during Read to Self, I would meet with one student at a time and ask them to show me how to check for understanding and I will assess if they were able to do it successfully. hramsey https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912442 2014-04-13 16:22:37 UTC https://padlet.com/hramsey/de6lq9opt6/wish/25912442