Parents can help students question at home too!

One of our goals while helping students become 21st century learners is to help our students become critical thinkers who are inquisitive. We also know as educators that the work that we do at school can be reinforced at home and help deepen a child's understanding. I found this page that helps parents use questioning techniques while they are reading at home with their children. Parents always want to know what they can do specifically to help and this will give them a good idea on how to boost their child's reading comprehension.

http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/Jennifer%27TipsforParents-EncouragingQuestioning.pdf

Reader's Theaters

My class is working on Thanksgiving Reader's Theaters right now! I love using Reader's Theaters to practice fluency and expression. My students are so engaged and excited to present to other classes!

Here is a site that gives tips for Reader's Theaters, scripts, and lesson plans!

http://www.literacyconnections.com/ReadersTheater.php

Comprehension Strategy Studies

I read a great book in my master's class this summer called Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman. This book really changed the way I thought about teaching reading comprehension. In the past, I had always thought that teaching reading comprehension strategies was important. In the basal though, they would focus on a different strategy each week. This book taught me the importance of really delving into a strategy and studying it for 6-8 weeks.

I am on my second strategy study so far this school year. We studied the strategy of using schema to make connections first and now we are studying inferences. I have been using the technique of gradual release of responsibility. I model with lots of think-alouds using high quality texts and gradually start having my students practice the skill, first in groups and then independently. I love how they have been using the vocabulary! They can tell me if they are making text-to-text connections or when they are inferring. I have seen my students use much more metacognition this year. I love these strategy studies and if you haven't read the book, you really need to!

Here are the strategies the book addresses:
1. Monitoring and Revising Comprehension
2. Using Schema to Understand and Remember
3. Questioning
4. Inference
5. Using Sensory and Emotional Images to Enhance Comprehension
6. Determining Importance
7. Synthesis

Reading Workshop

In our township, we use the Literacy Collaborative framework. Two important parts of the framework are the reading and writing workshop. I found this awesome video on how to run a reading workshop. This video shows Beth Newingham conducting a reading workshop in her classroom. I am a visual person, so I love to watch an expert teacher model strategies!

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2009/10/reading-workshop.html