Hey there! It's time for our weekly link-up with Teaching Little Miracles for:
Goal # 5 - Understanding Plot and Setting
Students "have to understand what's going on....to be able to 'make a movie in their mind.'" (p.130)
Strategy 5.2 - Title Power
I love doing this with my students by asking them to predict what the book will be about based on the title. By keeping the title in mind while reading, students can connect the problem back to the title.
The above book by Verna Aardema is one my favorite read-alouds, and the title helps students make easy predictions about the problem.
Check out the anchor chart from the book (just having access to these helpful and well thought out anchor charts is another benefit of buying The Reading Strategies Book!):
*5.11 - Retell What's Most Important by Making Connections to the Problem
"At and after levels M/N the characters often have multiple problems, both internal and external, and it's more likely that the problem is resolved instead of solved..." (p. 144)
I LOVE this strategy as an adult because not every story has a happy ending. Sometimes getting to the solution is difficult, and the problem can't be solved the way you had hoped - what a great life lesson!
Have you noticed that some kids lead complicated lives full of multiple problems? Making connections continues to be a meaningful strategy.
In addition, this strategy highlights the importance of developing those higher level thinking skills throughout school, and through our reading, we can learn important lessons. The difference between resolved vs. solved is huge and difficult to grasp for many.
*5.16 - Summarizing with "Somebody...Wanted...But...So..."
Summarizing is one of those extra important skills, and this strategy really breaks it down easily and helpfully with a formula!
Goal #6 - Thinking About Characters
*6.1 How's the character feeling
This anchor chart makes me so excited because it's interactive and can be used with multiple stories. Plus, we all know how much kids LOVE to write on sticky notes!
Again, the prompts for the strategy involve checking the picture for clues on how the character feels as well as noticing what the character says.
*6.9 Text Clue/Background Knowledge Additions
I'm just in love with this anchor chart and making inferences - one of my favorite reading strategies!
*6.12 Empathize to Understand
My favorite book to teach empathy is Just Grace Walks The Dog:
Grace uses her "empathy power" frequently!
According to my son, Andrew, who just became an official pharmacist, empathy is a key skill in his interactions with people!
Today is a perfect 10 day so I'm hoping to get outside after I finish procrastinating to do my cleaning chores by blogging! Enjoy your day!
