Looking for tips to achieve differentiated reading instruction in K-3? You're in the right place! (This post contains affiliate links.) Differentiation. It's the big buzz word these days, isn't it? But what does it really
We must explicity teach reading strartegies. Reading strategies do not function in isolation; they work synergistically to help students fully access text.
Teaching summarizing? Try using story element examples. When kids learn to pick them out, writing a summary is easy.
hold students accountable while they independently read with these easy to implement reading tips and tricks and strategies
Need tips for teaching vocabulary in context and how to apply these tips into your daily lessons? This post provides vocab in context teaching strategies!
Are you trying to encourage your child to love reading? Do you find yourself wishing they would engage in reading just because it's fun? Read on
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
Do you have a student (or several students) who struggle with poor reading comprehension? In this post, I share the step-by-step process that I use to improve my students’ reading comprehension! I wrote this post primarily for Kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers. However, if you are a Kindergarten teacher, some of these ideas may not apply to you (although some may). At the end, I’ll address Kindergarten separately. 🙂 Photo Credit: KK Tan, Shutterstock Gather More Information First, if I notice that a student has poor reading comprehension, I try to gather a little more information. I look for answers to the following questions: Does the child have good (or better) listening comprehension? (Can the child successfully discuss and answer questions about texts read aloud to him?) Is poor decoding affecting comprehension? At what reading level does the student comprehend (if any)? Is poor fluency affecting comprehension? (Is the student reading so slowly or disfluently that it’s difficult for him to comprehend? Is the child spending so much time and effort sounding out words that he doesn’t have any brain power left to focus on meaning?) Are there specific comprehension skills (i.e., retelling, inferring, asking questions) that the child excels at or especially struggles with? Does the child tend to invent (incorrect) answers to comprehension questions, or does she simply say, “I don’t know”? As you probably already know, so many different factors can affect comprehension! In order to appropriately address the problem, I always try to pinpoint what the underlying cause is. For example, sometimes students can decode texts that are much harder than what they can comprehend. This is why, when I assess students’ reading level, I always take comprehension into account. The Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System is my favorite tool for determining students’ reading levels because it incorporates decoding, fluency, and comprehension assessment. Let’s say that a student can decode a Level L text with high accuracy. But her comprehension is poor unless she reads a level H text or below. This means that she should be reading Level H or Level I books during guided reading. A Level L text is too difficult for her to understand, even if she can decode it perfectly. Or, to give another example, you may find that a student’s fluency is holding him back from successfully comprehending a text. In this case, I would, again, move the child back to an easier reading level at which he/she can read more fluently (and give more attention to comprehension). Moving students “back” levels is not necessarily a bad thing! It just means that you are providing them with opportunities to be successful with decoding and understanding texts. This builds confidence and is necessary for them to move forward! But, of course, if none of these issues is at play, it may just be a matter of comprehension! Sometimes neither decoding nor fluency is the problem, and a student simply struggles with understanding what she is reading. If this is the case for some of your students, keep reading—I’m going to share exactly what I do to help solve this problem! Establish the Importance of Comprehension When our students come to us, we rarely know EXACTLY what they understand to be true about reading. Do they believe that it’s all about decoding the words? Did their previous teacher focus on reading speed? So when a child struggles with comprehension, I make sure that I am sending the right message: that comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. To do this, I: Outright tell the student (repeatedly) that understanding the text is extremely important! It allows us to enjoy and learn from a text. Reading isn’t very much fun when you don’t know what the book is saying! Make sure to always address the content of the text right after we read it (rather than jumping straight to phonics or other teaching points). Use thinkalouds during individual, small group, and whole group instruction to show that I am thinking about what I’m reading, I also share how I notice and fix my own problems in comprehension. Make the Child Responsible for Checking Comprehension When I set out to improve a child’s comprehension skills, the very first thing I do is to make him responsible for checking his own comprehension. To do so, I use a simple stop-and-check strategy. Before I read a text with the student, I place sticky notes at various stopping points. I might put them at the bottom of each page, at the end of a chapter, or even after each paragraph. Then, as the child reads with me, he is responsible for stopping at each sticky note. He retells what has happened in the text (since the previous sticky note). If he can retell successfully, he continues reading. If not, he goes back and rereads. If you use this strategy, you’ll want to try to determine the largest amount of text that a child can read and still recall (this may take some trial and error). As time goes on, the amount of text that a child can read and retell should increase. Your sticky notes should grow farther apart! Although I originally provide some feedback about the child’s retellings, I eventually begin asking, “What do you think—did you understand that part? Should you go back or continue reading?” Again, I’m trying to put the responsibility on the child for monitoring his own comprehension. When I see that the student is successful with this strategy, I begin asking him to place the sticky notes himself. Next, he decides on stopping points beforehand (i.e., after every chapter) but does not place any sticky notes. Eventually, the goal is for the student to use this stop-and-check strategy independently: without my assistance, and without any sticky notes. This takes time, of course! Focus on Literal Retelling After we’ve worked on the stop-and-check strategy for a couple of days, I also begin incorporating a whole-text retell. In addition to having the student retell individual parts of the text, I also have him retell
Free back-to-school activities for grades 3-5! Grab free back to school printables and read tips for completing each activity.
Book clubs for children are a great way to get children reading new books. It can be hard to choose books that are appropriate for the tween years though. I put together a list of perfect homeschool book club books. They inspire conversation and even include a related craft idea.
If your child struggles to sound out words or blend the sounds together, these 5 Tips for Helping Kids Sound Out Words may help!
I finally nailed teaching symbolism! Using candy was both engaging and efficient - a major win that students remembered all year long!
When planning for the year, start with the end result in mind. Think about where students to be and work backwards from that ending place.
What reading strategies do students need to know? Find out here and keep track with a free chart!
Download this FREE Help Your Child Learn to Read reading tips brochure for your students' parents to support their child in learning to read.
hold students accountable while they independently read with these easy to implement reading tips and tricks and strategies
I am about to start my fourth year as a literacy coach at my elementary school. This has been an exciting journey and I love my job. Like...
April is National Poetry Month, and what better time is there to teach and explore poetry with your students?!?! I love to spend the month of April having students read, write, and share poetry in our classroom. At the beginning of my poetry units each year, I find that my students are often intimidated by poetry, especially when it comes to writing it. Over the years I have tried to find the perfect activities to ease them into writing their own poems. One of my favorite activities is taking my students on a Haiku Hike!! Several years ago I found this book, Haiku Hike from Scholastic. The story and poems in this book were written by a class of 4th grade students. The idea behind the book is that the students in this class went on a nature walk, and instead of taking pictures of the different things they saw, they used the form of haiku to capture different moments and scenes in nature. I loved this idea so much that I decided to implement it in my own classroom. Here’s how it works... What is Haiku? Before you take students on a Haiku Hike, you will need to make sure that they are familiar with this poetic form. Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that is often used to describe nature or the seasons. Haiku is a three line poem that follows a specific pattern based on syllables: Line #1: 5 syllables Line #2: 7 syllables Line #3: 5 syllables I would suggest creating an anchor chart to discuss and display the elements of Haiku. Take a Hike! Once your students are familiar with Haiku, they are ready for their Haiku Hike. You could schedule a hike or nature walk as a mini field trip, but I simply take my students on a walk around the grounds of our school. Students take “field notes” throughout the hike. I ask them to take notes about what they see, hear, and feel, and encourage them to be as descriptive as possible. I also ask them to try to capture a moment in time or a scene in nature. Below is a page you can provide for students to record their field notes. Click HERE to download this FREEBIE!! Time to Write Once you return from your hike, it is time for students to turn their field notes into haiku. Ask them to write two to three poems based on their experiences and observations. They can write these drafts in a writer’s notebook or journal. Have students share their poems with you and their classmates for feedback. Then have them choose a final haiku to publish. Since students are using haiku to “capture” a scene or moment in time, you can have them use the Polaroid page below to record and illustrate their haiku. This page is also included in the free download!! These “snapshots” make a beautiful bulletin board for students to display their haiku!! This activity is the perfect way to ease students into writing their own haiku. It gets them outside to observe their environment. What better way to inspire nature themed poems, than going outdoors to explore?!?! If you are looking for more poetry activities, check out this blog post on my blog, Create Teach Share. You can also check out my Poetry Toolbox in my Teacher Shop!!
Book Clubs for kids is a reading strategy teachers should use to build comprehension and other reading skills. Literature Circles is another name!
I made this Subject & Predicate Writing Game from craft sticks as a fun way to show the students that every sentence need a subjects and a predicate. I made the sentence options very simple,
As an adult, sometimes it is hard for us to understand why children cannot make inferences. But as a teacher, we understand that our students struggle with this reading strategy. Especially because of their age, reading ability, upbringing, etc… Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusion is a higher level complex skill that will develop over time. […]
Parent communication is a big deal for our young learners. Our students rely on parent-teacher partnerships that help them grow their skills and feel excited
Are you classroom teacher looking for engaging ways to teach your students to comprehend stories? Read this post for primary ideas on how to get children to learn to visualize and build reading comprehension.
Wondering what to do when students "hate" reading? Here are some tips to empower parents that can help bridge the connection between school and home.
This product includes anchor charts for each Reading Literature and Informational Standard for Grades 3-5 that provide skills and strategies at your students' fingertips. Why Reading Notebook Anchor Charts?The charts in this product are meant to be used inside students’ reading or writing notebooks. This is why they are shown two on a page. I don’t know about you, but the budget on copies has always been an issue we are always trying to find ways to save paper and copies! More importantly, as ELA teachers we tend to use a lot of anchor charts in our classroom. With the number of charts we make- it would be impossible to keep all of them up throughout the year and sometimes students probably forget they are even there. Having them right in their notebooks allows easy accessibility to help during independent Reading or Writing. You might also find these useful for parents to use at home. Since I began using anchor charts inside our Reading and Writing Notebooks, I have noticed my students are able to work better independently. They have the tools they need to support their learning. The charts have also been helpful in planning and presenting lessons. For example, when talking about “theme,” you have examples and ways to find it by using the chart. This helps to bring a large and broad topic down to a concrete idea.This set also includes a variety of graphic organizers for both fiction and nonfiction. What is included? >>> READING LITERATURE CHARTS <<< The following charts are included aligned to the 3 clusters of the Reading Literature Standards for Grades 3-5. Key Ideas & Details Wise Readers ask Questions Who… What…When…Where…Why…How Using Text Evidence Inference Character Feelings Character Traits Recount Stories (Somebody Wanted But So Then) Recount Stories (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?) Summarize Stories (Somebody Wanted But So) Think FAST about the Characters FAST Chart (3 Versions) 5 Elements of a Story Story Mountain Crafting a Theme Statement Theme THEMEssage Common Themes Craft & Structure Literal vs. Nonliteral Language Figurative Language Idioms 1 (blank) Idioms 2 (blank) Idioms 1 Idioms 2 Allusion Poetry, Drama, & Prose Point of View Point of View (blank) Integration of Knowledge & Ideas The Quest Movie vs. Text (Blank) Movie vs. Text (Filled in) Comparing Themes, Topics, & Patterns of Events Good vs. Evil Thinking about Theme Revealing the Theme Extra Reading Charts & Tools The Story in a Nutshell Graphic Organizer (1 per page) The Story in a Nutshell Graphic Organizer (2 per page) Main Idea & Details Boxes & Bullets (2 per page) What's the Big Idea?! Boxes & Bullets Graphic Organizer for Text Writing a Summary (1 per page) Let's Talk Genre! (Genre Notebook Chart) Traditional Literature Notebook Chart My Reading Log (2 per page) Words We Should All Spell Correctly Transitions Responding to Fiction 1 Responding to Fiction 2 Responding to Nonfiction Readers Choose Just Right Books My New Year's Reading Resolutions Ways I Can Help Myself Grow as a Reader Parts of Speech Reading is Thinking (boy) Reading is Thinking (girl) >>> READING INFORMATIONAL NOTEBOOK CHARTS <<< Key Ideas & Details Super Star Partnerships Wise Readers Ask Questions Using Text Evidence Types of Informational Texts Main Ideas and Supporting Details Inference Talking about the Text Main Idea and Key Details (Graphic Organizer) Main Idea and Key Details (Graphic Organizer) Summarizing Nonfiction (Somebody Wanted But So) Summarizing Nonfiction (Notes with Example) Summarizing Nonfiction (Notes with Example) cursive font Determining Importance Determining Importance (Interesting or Important) Sentence Starters for Main Idea See, Think, Wonder (Blank) Craft & Structure Alpha Boxes Context Clues Firsthand vs. Secondhand Account Primary vs. Secondary Sources Description Sequence Compare & Contrast Cause & Effect Problem & Solution Cause & Effect Graphic Organizer Nonfiction Signal Words 1 Nonfiction Signal Words 2 Integration of Knowledge & Ideas Reasons & Evidence Text Features 1 Text Features 2 Text Features 3 Combining Texts Combining Texts Combining Texts (Graphic Organizer) Bonus* Readers Gonna Read (My To-Read List) 🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5.If you ever find that you are looking for a specific chart that is not included, please let me know at [email protected]. I am ALWAYS looking for ways to improve the quality of my resources. :) Let’s connect! The Literacy Loft Blog The Literacy Loft on Instagram The Literacy Loft on Pinterest The Literacy Loft on Facebook
Looking for help with nonfiction text features? This blog post provides teachers with free resources that help with teaching nonfiction text features.
Copywork is so much more than copying text! When you plan copywork using great literature, you broaden a child's mind and interests.
This is a super cute book about Mr. McGreely and his garden. He has always wanted a garden so he finally decides to plant one. But to his dismay 3 pesky bunnies keep getting in and eating his vegetables. Have fun reading this Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! good tale about Mr. McGreely and the 3 sneaky bunnies. This book offers many opportunities for teaching skills and strategies, listed below is everything I think you could use this book for. Take a look and hopefully I have given you the info or ideas you needed to help you plan. Reading level: 2.6 Theme: spring, gardening, perseverance Genre: animal stories Suggested Vocabulary: by golly, hoed, sowed, gnawed, hurdle, trench, twitch Reading skills and strategies: asking questions - {possible questions at beginning} Why is the book called Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!? {possible questions in middle} I wonder why he never planted a garden till now? Why do the bunnies keep eating Mr. McGreely vegetables? What is a trench? Why doesn't Mr. McGreely just catch the bunnies instead? How come the bunnies couldn't get in the last time? {possible questions at end} Is Mr. McGreely happy at the end? How did the bunnies get in? author's point of view - third person point of view author's purpose - entertain{evidence} the author uses repetitive sentences, phrases and words like muncha, muncha, muncha. The author describes the bunnies is silly ways, like, "flop-ears" and "puff-tails". The illustrator drew the bunnies with shirts on. All of these things were done to entertain me. beginning, middle, end - {most important event from beginning} Mr. McGreely planted a garden. {most important event from middle} the rabbits kept coming to the garden and eating the vegetables and Mr. McGreely kept getting mad. {most important event from end} Mr. McGreely thought he built the perfect wall to keep out the bunnies but they actually snuck into the garden in the basket that Mr. McGreely carried into the garden. cause and effect - Why did Mr. McGreely want to have a garden? because he wanted to get his hands dirty and eat all the yummy vegetables. Why did he build a small wire fence around his garden? because the bunnies came in and ate his veggies. Why did Mr. McGreely build a tall wood wall? because the bunnies got in a second time. Why was Mr. McGreely furious? because the bunnies got in through the deep trench, over the wall and wire fence to eat his veggies. Why did Mr. McGreely build such a high wall? because he wanted to keep the bunnies out once and for all. Why was Mr. McGreely so happy? because the bunnies couldn't get in the enormous wall. Why was Mr. McGreely not so happy at the end? because the bunnies snuck into the garden in the basket that Mr. McGreely carried into the garden. characterization - describe Mr. McGreely, describe the bunnies {looks like, feelings, thoughts, character} classify & categorize - categorize things that can grow in a garden and things that cannot. compare & contrast - compare and contrast Mr. McGreely to the bunnies. connections - {possible text-to-self connections} having your own garden. Having an animal eat your veggies from your garden. Trying to stop the animals from eating your veggies. {possible text-to-text connections} Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! can be connected to How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry because in both books veggies are being stolen from a garden. main idea & details - {main idea} Mr. McGreely wants to eat veggies from his garden {details} He plants a garden. He puts a fence, a wall, a trench and a castle around the garden to keep the bunnies out. Mr. McGreely picks the veggies from his garden and reaches in his basket to find something to eat. plot - the turning point in the story is when Mr. McGreely builds the castle around his garden and the bunnies cannot get in. problem & solution - {problem} Mr. McGreely wants a garden but the bunnies keep eating his veggies. {solution} Mr. McGreely builds a series of fences and walls to keep the bunnies out, and the last one finally works...sort of. sequencing - Mr. McGreely plants a garden. The bunnies come and eat from his garden. Mr. McGreely puts up a wire fence. The bunnies hop over the wire fence. Mr. McGreely builds a wall. The bunnies tunnel under the wall. Mr. McGreely digs a trench. The bunnies swim through the trench. Mr. McGreely builds a castle around his garden. The bunnies can't get in. Mr. McGreely climbs into his garden and picks some veggies. He reaches into the basket to get something to eat. He finds the bunnies in his basket eating his carrots! story elements - list title, author, character's, setting, beginning, middle, end, or problem & solution. strong thought - students may have many strong thoughts throughout the story as they see the bunnies sitting and watching Mr. McGreely build his fences. summarize - {someone}Mr. McGreely {wanted}wanted a garden {but} but the bunnies kept eating his veggies {so} so he built a series of walls and trenches to keep them out. {then}He was {finally}finally successful with the last castle, until he climbed into the garden with the bunnies in his basket...those sneaky bunnies! I love this book so much and my daughter created such cute art for it I just had to make a teaching packet to go with it. Below is a little preview of what is included. Happy reading!
Reader's theater is the perfect tool to add to your middle school ELA toolbox for so many reasons: it is interactive, highly engaging, enhances student
Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!
In upper grade classrooms, students spend a great deal of time responding to the texts they read. Over the years I have found that no matter what grade level I teach, students have a difficult time writing thorough and meaningful reading responses. At the start of every year my students need quite a bit of guidance when writing their responses. One of the best ways that I have found to teach students to write meaningful responses is by providing them with sentence frames. I like to encourage students to follow three simple steps when writing reading responses, each with sentence frames and prompts to use: Step 1: What did you read? While reading... In chapter __ of... On page __ of... During today's reading of... Step 2: What happened in the text? Tell what a character said. Tell what a character did. Tell what a character thought, felt, or learned. Describe the setting. Describe an important event that occurred. Explain a problem that was encountered. Step 3: What did you think? This made me think... This made me realize... Based on this, I can infer... Based on this, I can predict... This reminded me of... I can relate to this because... I could visualize... I now understand... This three-step process encourages students to not only tell what happened in a text, but also reflect on what they thought or felt about what they read. Here is a sample response using these steps: I have included a FREE handout for you to share with your students to help guide them in writing thorough and meaningful reading responses. Click HERE download this FREEBIE. If you are looking for more resources for reading response, check out my Reading Response Journals for literature and non-fiction texts. These resources include anchor charts for different reading strategies and skills, as well as more specific sentence frames for the different skills. Click on the pics to learn more. Writing thoughtful reading responses is not always easy, but with a bit of guidance from using sentence frames and prompts, it will soon become second nature for students!!
Using interactive read aloud strategies in the classroom will keep your students engaged. Here are some great tools to get all your kids discussing books.
Step by step directions for teachers explaining how to teach students to build reading stamina in order to become independent readers.
Hi Everyone! Happy 3 Day weekend! :) This will be a quick post... I will be diving into inferencing next week. (although I've dabbled in it here and there) I LOVE to start with this book: It is quite a simple read with MANY opportunities for the children to use their inferring skills. I first start off by reading it orally and talking about what inference really means- Use the text clues + Use what I know (schema) = Inference The kids catch on pretty quickly! Then on the second day we use an organizer to fill in our thinking. I find that this helps those that need a visual, will understand more clearly after practicing it this way. (click above to get a copy) The sample is filled in with references to "The Stray Dog," but it could be used with any book! I also found this website that has a inferencing game!! It will give clue by clue and then allow the children to make a guess. It is super cute and VERY appropriate for young children! I have also discovered that there are TONS of people that have created inference boards on Pinterest. Oh Pinterest, what would I do without you ;) If it works... click HERE to see all the boards!! Finally, I end my unit with this AMAZING activity!! This is so fun for the kids and it pulls our "unit" together. There is a lot of prep to this, but once you have it all put together it is so much fun. If you bought this, I added a new recording sheet to it and also made a final "what really happened" story. I'd be happy to share! Just leave a comment or shoot me an email! :) Thanks to those that entered my Narrative Writing giveaway!! Amanda and Kathy were the big winners!! :) Don't forget my buy one get one offer ends tomorrow night!! Just email me for details or to tell me of your purchase!! I leave you first with my mustachey class :) (this was part of my valentine to them... BIG HIT!) ...and a tiny sneak peek at my upcoming product...
Next week marks the start of National Library Week!
Children's magazines are a great source of informational text because the articles are short, interesting, and they include a variety of text structures and features. This post from Laura Candler includes tips for selecting appropriate magazines as well as strategies for using them to teach nonfiction reading comprehension. #informationaltext #readingcomprehension #nonfictionreading #readinglessons
Spark student imagination and analysis with Creative Reading. Use this approach for independent reading, literature circles, and class novels. (blog)
Tips for Building Reading Fluency in Young Readers Graphics by Creative Clips by Krista Wallden , Whimsy Clips , and KG Fonts Sinc...
5 times for grading essays faster while providing better feedback! These tips will help ELA teachers work smarter, not harder!
Although my blog name is "Teaching Fourth," I have not always taught fourth grade. I started my teaching career in sixth grade. The following year I had an
