Reading Archives - Page 5 of 6

Reading Comprehension Strategies

June 5, 2020 teachersbrain Reading, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Learning to read is a huge accomplishment for students. Going from needing help with books to being able to read it by themselves is a big deal! Sometimes, however, actually comprehending what they are reading can be a little more challenging.

It is important to know how to read, but it is even more important for them to understand what they are reading. It is not only an absolutely necessary life skill, but it can open up a whole new world and encourage a love of reading.

Here are some strategies that you can use to help your students achieve reading comprehension and fluency.

Find books your students will love. Finding the right book can make all the difference when students are learning to read. Books that they will enjoy will inspire them to put in the work and understand the words they are reading.
Read aloud. Encouraging students to read out loud can get them plenty of practice reading and it can also help you identify where they might be struggling.
Use metacognitive strategies. These can be great for increasing reading comprehension. For instance, pausing while reading aloud to ask the student to vocalize their thoughts can help them to understand what they are trying to comprehend.
Reread sections that are confusing. Making sure to revisit difficult sections until they understand is important. It can help better identify where they are struggling and work together to understand.
Use a ruler or finger to follow along. Helping students stay on track while reading can help them follow along with the story and decrease the risk of confusion.
Write down words you don’t know. Writing it down and working on it will help them better remember it in the future.
Discuss what the child has just read. Having a discussion can help the student think through what they just read and also help you point out areas they might be struggling in.
Recap and summarize the main points. This will be great practice for students working on their comprehension.
Reading passages and answering questions. Find some fun and engaging reading comprehension activities for your students to practice with.

Great news, I created some fun activities to help with this!

These reading comprehension activities are perfect for helping students get more practice and achieve fluency. They are set up through Google Classroom so they are distance learning friendly. These include written instructions, listening options, drag to complete the sentence activities, word families, and 20 reading comprehension passages and questions.

This option is perfect for Kindergarten and 1st grade.

This option is perfect for 1st and 2nd grade.

Want more information on reading comprehension? Check out my post here to learn more about my strategies.

Do you have any strategies for helping your students with reading comprehension? I would love to hear in the comments!

Read Across America, Book Tastings and MARCH Lesson Plans

February 25, 2020 teachersbrain Dr. Seuss, Reading, St. Patrick's Day Ideas

Hello Teacher Brains!

I hope you all have ready for some March fun with your students! My dad would say, “Work hard and play hard.” So, before you hit Spring Break, let’s talk about a lot of work that has gone into helping to ease your workload, but still makes you look like you have been laboring 24/7!

No More Seuss?

Next week is Read Across America Week. Did you know that they are rebranding? The week is no longer limited to Dr. Seuss for the celebration. They even have a new logo that appeals to students of all ages, backgrounds and will celebrate a nation of diverse readers. Of course, who doesn’t enjoy dressing up like Dr. Seuss characters and serving green eggs and ham, but now the new theme is opening ideas for more activities and resources to encourage reading!

This brings me to my NEW baby! Okay, it’s not a human baby, but I birthed it! Lol

I loved the idea of doing a Book Tasting for the celebration, but I also love doing Escape Rooms. So, I made a resource to include both! Check it out! You just add books, plates and tablecloths to the celebration while students discover a challenge and work to beat the clock by “tasting” different book genres. The genres include non-fiction, fiction, biographies and poetry. There is a fun video to use at the beginning to HOOK your students. You can decorate your room simple with adding plates and table clothes or go all out making it a Harry Potter theme or Pizza restaurant. The sky’s the limit!

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up soon too! This is one of my favorite weeks with leprechaun footprints, glitter and messy rooms. Here are some of my favorite resources:

St. Patrick’s Day Escape the Room K-3

Leprechaun Headband (hilarious! The kids love this one!)

Rainbow Craft

How to Catch a Leprechaun Writing

The Paper Leprechaun Activity

Lucky Charms Sorting and Graphing

Leprechaun Unit with Writing and Crafts

Color by Sight Word St. Patrick’s Day Edition

NEW *****NEW****** NEW ******NEW ********NEW

If you Give a STEM Challenge! This is my new series of STEM activities that relate to Laura Numberoff books. She is one of my favorite authors. I was even LUCKY enough to meet her one time when I first began teaching. She inspired me to be a writer. I have two completed.

I f you Give a Mouse a Cookie has students reading the story and building a mouse house! This one is good for primary and intermediate students with different activities to differentiate in a SNAP.

If You Give a Pig A Pancake has student reading the story and building a treehouse for the pig’s brother. So much fun!

Do you need editable word wall templates? Well, I have you covered with this download. Just type your words in the text boxes provided, pick your favorite fonts and colors to match your room!

FIRST GRADE TEACHERS,

Check out the 120^th Day of School Mystery Escape Room!

I hope you all have a fantastic month! Make sure you are subscribe to my website newsletter so you can keep up with new releases, teacher-author courses and giveaways.

Sprinkling Lucky Fairy Dust on YOU so you can have a great month!

-Cindy

Strategies for Teaching Comprehension

September 19, 2018 teachersbrain Reading, Teacher's Pay Teachers

As if teaching the basics of reading is not enough, you are responsible for teaching the most important skill of reading… comprehension. So your students can read. GREAT! But, if they can’t understand what they read… Huston, we have a problem. I always wondered when I would see posts that say, “If you can read this, thank a teacher” how many people can’t read it? How many can read it, but still don’t understand what it means? While looking at ways to improve your literacy instruction, try these 5 strategies to improve reading comprehension.

Activate Prior Knowledge
Questioning
Analyzing Text Stucture
Visualization
Summarizing

When you use these five strategies, students will begin to comprehend naturally. Activating prior knowledge is one of my favorite ways to engage students in reading. Research has shown that comprehension improves when students are engaged. What better way to engage students than to bridge their old knowledge with new knowledge? For example, if we are going to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, I might ask students to share stories of when they saw a caterpillar or when they felt really hungry. You will notice that when one student shares a story, they usually all do. That should not irritate you. When students are all wanting to share their prior knowledge, YOU GOT THEM!

Of course improving vocabulary skills, fluency, phonics and phonemic awareness are ALL pieces to the puzzle when it comes to comprehension. Teaching reading can be complex with all the skills needed to be competent readers. Using the five strategies suggested is a great way to ensure students are comprehending what they read.

Narrative, History, Dream, Tell, Fairy Tales, Book

Here are some free reading passages with questions for you to enjoy.

St. Patrick’s Day Classroom Ideas for Kids

March 7, 2018 teachersbrain Reading, St. Patrick's Day Ideas, Teacher's Pay Teachers

I was recently asked what I do for St. Patrick’s Day with students. I am a huge fan of engaging students through various holidays! St. Patrick’s Day has always been an exciting day with the students joining me in looking for a little trickster leprechaun on campus!

I made a small pair of pants out of green fabric. I would mess up the room when the kids where at lunch, sprinkle some glitter around the room (even in the toilets), and hang the pants on a cracked open window. The students would look for the trickster everywhere. When they would find the pants, we would laugh about how there was a little leprechaun running around without pants. He would always leave a gold coin on the desk for the students. Now, how does this fun tie into education? First, we would read a book about a tricky leprechaun. I also have a fantastic activity called The Paper Leprechaun where the kids have to make their own paper leprechaun using fine motor skills after listening to a poem, and the pot of gold goes missing. They write out a personality for the paper leprechaun and then write about how to catch one! For a home project, the students would make leprechaun traps working on problem solving skills at home with their parents. These would be shared with the class during the week. I would sometimes display them in the media center. During centers, students made rainbow art. Each student would get to make their own LUCKY Shamrock Hat to wear for the day.

paper leprechaun cover