All In One Comprehension With No, David! Synthesizing Our Thinking

On the fifth day, we synthesized our thinking in a very simple way. I asked who would recommend the book and why or why not. The explanations the children give are what really matters. We tallied our opinions to show that we don’t all agree. Then we discussed our thoughts.I asked each child to explain why they liked or didn’t like the book. I was really interested in what the two children who didn’t enjoy the book said. (Our next book will be another David book which will allow us to further synthesize our thinking about David, getting into trouble and making Text to Text and Text to Self connections.)

As teachers we often make this strategy way too hard for little people. This is a great starting point. As we read more books and learn more about subjects or characters, synthesizing becomes more complicated.(previous blog on synthesizing)

Introduction   Day One   Day Two   Day Three  Day Four  Day Five  Day Six

All in One Comprehension With No, David! Visualizing

On the third day I introduce the “Visualizing Wizard” who quickly accesses his 5 senses when he is reading, to see what he might be seeing, hearing , tasting, smelling or feeling as the story is read. The students then discuss their senses and which ones if any helped them visualize the events in the story, did they have a “movie playing in their minds”, or a good picture?

I write down many of their comments on the anchor chart and give them some time to talk to each other. I then asked the children to draw how the story made them feel. I also ask them to draw their favourite part to see if it had anything to do with the story. In grade one they sometimes have to explain their drawing to me!

Introduction  Day One

Day Two 

Day Four    Day  Five   Day Six

All in One Comprehension With No, David! Making Connections

On the second day, we re-read the book No, David! by David Shannon.  I write on the anchor chart – Think of a time you were in trouble. (Students do this alone-everyone’s  background knowledge is different and it is important for children to understand that there is no right or wrong, but it must be relevant to the story ) Then in eye-eye/knee-knee position share what happened with a friend. Be able to tell your friend how your connection helps you to understand the story. (eye-eye/knee-knee is a strategy I learned from Debbie Miller’s work-it takes a bit of practice for kids to get good at it.) You don’t get the chance to hear every child share everyday but with this way of sharing everybody gets to share and everybody gets to listen.

For the assessment, we again had a class checklist, where we listened to the pairs talking, and jotted notes about the kind of connections they were making. Relevant, Not Relevant, How did it help them understand the story.

Introduction  Day One  Day Three    Day Four     Day Five      Day Six

All in One Comprehension With No, David! Asking Questions

On the first day I had an anchor chart ready with the title of the strategy and the tile of the book, as well as the words Before, During and After . I asked the children to look carefully at the cover and I wrote down some of their questions. I was careful to point out that I would not be writing down everybody’s question. We discussed how some questions might not have an answer and that’s ok, but it is important to ask questions that pertain to the story. As each child asked a question, I put their initials at the end of the question. This is very helpful  for assessment purposes.

We began to read the story and I took a few more questions as I read. AT the end of the story, we added a few more and then went back through the story to see which questions we now had answers to. We talked about how asking questions keeps us focused and helps us know if we are understanding what we are reading.

At the end of the process we had the children meet in small groups to discuss any questions they still might have. Again, this is a good opportunity to assess how students are questioning. A simple class list with space to write beside each name, allows you to check off who is asking questions, as well as what kind of questions they are asking. Teaching children question words is helpful for this strategy!

Introduction   Day Two   Day Three     Day Four   Day Five   Day Six

Comprehension With No, David!

Combining Comprehension Strategies with One Book

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reading about teaching comprehension strategies. Because of my learning I have really moved away from the idea of teaching comprehension in silos. The major point of teaching strategies is to enable our children to know which strategy they need to help them understand. Using them in conjunction with each other or in isolation as needed. Teaching children to be metacognitive does not mean teaching them to be listing strategies, but rather knowing how and when to use them. I have been wondering how different my teaching would look if I changed it up. I believe I still have to explicitly teach each strategy through the Think Aloud process. However I do think the process needs to be sped up so that the children have as many of the strategies as possible at their fingertips quickly.

I chose to do an integrated lesson with a grade one class to try this out. All of the strategies had been introduced through think alouds. The following lessons took a little over a week.

We began by reading the book No, David!  By David Shannon. I told the children we would read the book many times, thinking about it in a different way each time we read it. We talked about how we really need to think about what we how we understand what we are reading and how different strategies help different people.

( I do use the word strategy in grade one.)

Lesson One  Lesson Two  Lesson Three  Lesson Four  Lesson Five  Lesson Six

Daily 5 Book Bins

It is so important that students are reading “Just Right ” books everyday. Not only do we, as teachers, have to provide our students with interesting books at their level, but we must teach them how to choose books that they can read. I find it so frustrating when students tell me what level they are , rather than being able to tell me what they are looking for ” I know most of  the words, I understand what it’s about…”is far more important. Children who perceive themselves as a “level” will not be able to choose books at home, at the library or at a bookstore.We must give them the confidence and skills to see themselves as readers not as a “level”.

In the classroom, storing a variety of “Just Right ” material is essential. The Two Sisters suggest magazine boxes. While some people really like them, I have not had a great deal of success with those. They always seem to fall over and all the books fall out. I prefer to see each child with a personal bag-cloth or the enormous durable, ziplock bags. I have also seen some great re-usable tubs from Target or the Dollar Store. Here are some photos  of Daily 5 storage for students that I have seen in classrooms I have visited recently. It doesn’t really matter what you choose, as long as they are easily accessible, easy to store and hold a variety of  just right texts.

What Really Matters in Fluency

What Really Matters in Fluency is a powerful book which will help teachers at every grade level. He offers simple suggestions that teachers can try right away, to improve student reading fluency. Allington talks about the research behind fluency and how essential it is that students be provided with DAILY reading time.  Teachers will be inspired by this easy to read book and confident to teach fluency! I highly recommend it.

Yes- I admit it-I am a nerd. I was so very excited to read today that Richard Allington will be at the Saskatchewan Reading Conference in April. He is one of my constant “go to ” sources. Dick Allington has inspired me for the last several years. He writes in a way that makes sense to me-with ideas I can use tomorrow in a classroom. I know that his research is sound, student centered and that anything he has to say will be well-regarded by the Gurus of reading!!

Visualizing in Kindergarten part 3.

( part 1)  (part 2)

My next step is to read a book but not share the pictures. In this case I chose Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

I choose 4 strategic visualizing  places to stop ahead of time. I give the children a large piece of paper folded into four. I number the sections 1 2 3 4

I start by telling the children that I will read them the story twice; once without the pictures, and once with the pictures. I tell them that when I stop reading, they need to go to their places and colour/draw a picture of what they are visualizing is happening in the story.

After they have done all 4 ,we share their drawings for each section, in partners. The children explain their thinking to their partner. Some children share their thinking with the whole group and I assess by making sure to listen to each child at least once.

I extend the lesson by listing any questions they might have, making connections to activities the children have done in the snow and predicting what the snowmen might do next!

Here are the visualizations for Snowmen at Night.

Each child visualized in a different way. I love the last drawing of the snowball fight. “so many snowballs you can’t see the snowman.”

Library Thing other good books for visualizing.

Other ideas for making mental images by Debbie Miller

Thanks so much to LA for letting me try these lessons out in her classroom and sharing her kids with me.

Poetry is another great way to teach visualizing, but that’s another blog!

Visualizing in Kindergarten part 2

After I have built the wizard anchor chart with them (part 1), I read them the names of different things and ask them to think about the taste/smell/sound/feel/ and look of the item I name- I try things I am sure they will know: Pizza, ice cream, then I make it harder with an idea like a puppy –that always brings laughter would you lick a puppy? Amazing how many kids have! We go into items that you wouldn’t use all your senses and I tell them they just have to think about all of the senses and decide which ones help them more.

To practice visualizing , I read them the following sentences about a lollipop (you can do anything, but I find starting with food easiest.)

Students will draw while I read.

This is a good assessment for the teacher to see if children are indeed visualizing (not every child can) and also good to have the children share with each other. It is so important to state that no two people visualize the same way, and that as long as it resembles what we were talking about, different is good. It is a great time for students to praise each other’s work and share their thinking. Here are some samples from a kindergarten class I was in.

  Book Cover for the lollipop illustrations

part 1

suggested books for teaching visualizing Library Thing