Comprehension

Using Anticipation Guides

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 4:09 p.m.
The purpose of an anticipation guide is to activate students' prior knowledge and engage them with key vocabulary and concepts before reading a text. This strategy is particularly helpful for struggling learners, as it provides a structured way to preview important terms and ideas, allowing them to approach the reading with a better understanding of what to expect.
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Bricks and Mortar Vocabulary Activity

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 2:02 p.m.
The Bricks and Mortar strategy is designed to help students develop and strengthen their vocabulary by encouraging them to construct meaningful sentences using key vocabulary words, referred to as the "bricks."
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Semantic Impressions

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 1:31 p.m.
The Semantic Impressions activity is a powerful strategy designed to help students, particularly those who struggle, by allowing them to engage with key vocabulary before, during, and after reading. By introducing a set of important words before reading, students are encouraged to make predictions about the central idea or plot, which activates prior knowledge and sets a purpose for reading.
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Get the Gist with a Twist-Summarizing Informational Texts

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 1:25 p.m.
Providing students with a structured approach when learning to summarize or retell informational texts, such as the "Get the Gist with a Twist" framework, helps them focus on identifying and extracting the most important ideas. This structure directs students to pinpoint who or what the text is about, understand the author's purpose, and summarize the key details relevant to that purpose. By organizing their thoughts with this framework, students are better equipped to discern essential information from supporting details, improving both comprehension and retention. This approach is particularly useful for struggling learners, as it offers a clear method to break down complex texts into manageable parts. With the downloadable PDF, teachers can easily guide students through this process, ensuring consistency and providing a valuable tool for mastering informational text summarization.
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Summarizing Narrative Texts Using Somebody Wanted But (or And) So Then

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 1:13 p.m.
Providing students with a structured approach when learning to summarize or retell stories, such as the "Somebody Wanted So Then" framework, helps them organize their thoughts and focus on key elements of a narrative. This structure guides students to identify the main characters (Somebody), their motivations or desires (Wanted), the central conflict or action (So), and the resolution (Then). For stories without a clear problem, the adjusted "Somebody Wanted and So Then" structure simplifies the process while still helping students track the flow of events, as in stories like The Relatives Came. These frameworks are especially valuable for students who struggle with summarization, as they break down the task into manageable parts, ensuring that students capture the essential components of the story. By giving students a clear outline, teachers help them improve their comprehension and retelling skills, making summarizing more accessible and systematic.
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Summarization Rubrics

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 1:07 p.m.
The summarization rubrics are designed to help teachers assess students' ability to effectively summarize both narrative and expository texts. These rubrics provide clear criteria for evaluating key elements of a summary, such as the identification of main ideas, supporting details, and overall organization. Teachers can use these rubrics to gauge the level of comprehension demonstrated by students in their summaries, scoring each element as complete, partial, fragmented, or incorrect. The rubrics also account for the level of prompting needed, allowing teachers to provide tailored feedback and adjust instruction as needed. By using these rubrics, teachers can track student progress in summarizing skills, identifying areas where students need further instruction and helping them move toward more fluent and accurate retellings of the text.
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Do The Book

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 11:55 a.m.
The “DO the BOOK” instructional strategy is designed to engage students in actively learning vocabulary by physically acting out the words and actions from a story or informational text. By using body and facial expressions to mimic the actions of characters or concepts, students deepen their understanding of the vocabulary and connect words to meaning through movement. This strategy is particularly effective for language learners, as it provides a visual and kinesthetic way to comprehend new words. Acting out the text helps them grasp the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary and improves their ability to remember and use the words in the future. Through this interactive method, language learners can bridge the gap between hearing a word and fully understanding its context and application.
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Background Knowledge Playbook

  • Oct. 17, 2024, 11:21 a.m.
The Background Knowledge Playbook page was designed for busy teachers and MTSS/RTI teams as a quick reference for instructional strategies and techniques to support students who lack the prior knowledge needed to connect with topics in reading, writing, science, social studies, and other content areas. I also provide suggestions and links to additional resources for each strategy or technique.
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