Comprehension

The book states that in order to think while you read, you must:

1. Be able to quickly identify almost all the words
2. Have sufficient background knowledge that you can connect to the new information
3. Be familiar with the type of text and be able to see how the author has organized the ideas
4. Have a mindset that reading is thinking and know how to apply your thinking in comprehension strategies

Making story maps, making graphic organizers, making KWLs, participating in think-aloud's, and participating in literate conversations are great ways to practice comprehension strategies!

With all this in mind I found a great acronym for comprehension strategies!

The acronym "RISE" uses Retelling, Inferring, Synthesizing, and Envisioning/Connecting to make up the comprehension strategies being used. This is a great exercise to follow along with after reading text. Talking about the story is more effective for students than answering simple questions about the story. This makes students think, comprehend, and communicate about the text.

This is a slightly different, and more visual version of the last activity. This activity expands on the connections part of RISE. Making connections and communicating those connections to peers is a great way to enhance comprehension for students. Discussion groups would be a great vessel for this activity.

What other ways can you incorporate comprehension into your classroom?

Word Study

   Morphemes, Context, and the Dictionary are three helpful things to help students refine the meanings of words.

   Learning root words, prefixes, and suffixes makes it easier for students to predict a word that they do not know.

   Learning how to use context to figure out a word, or what a word means, is an important concept in learning how to read.

   The dictionary is an important tool for young readers to be able to know how to use. Looking up words that are unknown and copying the definitions are a great way to use the dictionary to learn new words.

This Word Study chart is a great way to build                       This is a great worksheet that could be
vocabulary for your students. Each day of the                        added to either the word study chart on
week is a different activity, all incorporating                         the left, or used in the beginning of a new
word study! If teachers have new vocabulary                         lesson or vocabulary list! This is a great
every week, then this is the perfect way to study                    way for students to really understand
the new words throughout the week before a                          everything about the new word!
spelling or definitions test!

Choral Readings:
What are they?

• Reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. After hearing the teacher read and discuss a selection, students reread the text together
• Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, vocabulary knowledge, motivation, and enjoyment of literature. 

Fluency

"In order to become avid and enthusiastic readers who get pleasure and information from reading, children must develop fluency." -(Classrooms that Work)

     Modeling behavior is so important for kids who are learning how to read. Reading aloud to kids can be the first step in developing children's fluency where they can at least learn what fluency sounds like. Finding easy material and having students read and re-read that material is also important for developing fluency. Finding material that is interesting to the student helps create a desire to read rather than reading something that is boring to them.

Echo and choral reading are other great idea for developing fluency. In echo reading, kids can echo sentences at a time after their teacher or even their parents at home. In coral reading you can divide students into groups and have each group read a part in a script, or a book. 

     I found this activity on Pinterest and loved it! With this activity you read every word in a box in one breath. This is a great way to practice saying words fast which will in turn help fluency in reading! It is also a fun way for students to participate- kids love to be silly and I think this incorporates an aspect of silliness in it (:

     Another great way to incorporate fluency in the classroom is to have a sight word wall. This can be set up according to preference, but as for me I think I would like to make the sight words and the caterpillar bigger so that students would be able to read it from across the room. 

Here are some questions to think about regarding fluency in the classroom:

1. What are other ways you can incorporate fluency in the classroom?

2. How are fluency and word recognition related?