The Reading Strategies Book Study - Goal 13

Hi there! I can't believe we are at the end of our book study. I have so enjoyed learning from others as I dug into this book. If you have yet to purchase The Reading Strategies Book (affiliate link), I highly recommend it. I'm excited to give some of my new favorite strategies a try this year with my students. 

Today we are taking a look at Goal 13 - Improving Writing about Reading.

If you're just getting started with the book, don't worry. You can catch up by visiting these posts:

Getting Started

Goals 1 and 2

Goals 3 and 4

Goals 5 and 6

Goals 7 and 8

Goals 9 and 10
Goals 11 and 12

This goal is something that I haven't really been concerned about teaching younger students, and Serravallo agrees as she explains, "It's the rare first-grade student for whom writing about reading will be the most important goal at any point in the year." 

I would add to that few second-graders as well. I spent three years teaching 1st grade and four years teaching 2nd grade. Most of our reading time was spent on strengthening decoding skills, fluency, and comprehension.

Here's a few of my favorite strategies:

13.2 Quick Stops Using Symbols

This strategy teaches using symbols to remind the reader of their thoughts. It is the idea of a "stop and jot" to lessen the interruption in reading engagement. Then when the student wants to revisit their thinking, they can look at the symbol to remind them of their thoughts. Love this anchor chart:

13.7 What's Worth Keeping?

I picked this strategy because several of the strategies use sticky notes (I love sticky notes...I mean I really wanted to pick the strategy titled Buying Stock in Sticky Notes 13.4 just because of the name! Ha!), and I can see how it would be important for students to evaluate when a sticky note is worth keeping.  Here's some thoughts about sticky notes worth keeping:

It helps me understand my book.

It connects to my goal.

It will help me talk to my teacher about my reading.

I will use it to springboard conversation.

I intend to use it to write a longer entry about my reading.

13.18 Reacting, Responding

I just love this...from the Teaching Tip section: The point of this lesson is not to kill the aesthetic experience of reading with an assignment. Instead, it's an invitation to children to use writing as a tool to hold on to their most powerful feelings in response to something they've read.

Yep! I mean...this is how I study the Bible. As I'm reading, I stop and jot notes about what the Lord is speaking to me about concerning specific verses. There is just something about writing things down that more permanently imprints them on our minds and hearts. 

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I want to hear from you! Tell me about your favorites either in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Don't forget to check out the other blog posts below for more thoughts and ideas!

This concludes our weekly book study. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Wishing you a wonderful and blessed school year as you head back (if you haven't already)!

An InLinkz Link-up

Goals 9 and 10 - The Reading Strategies Book Study

This week has been cRaZy. Seriously.

Monday - Pretty laid back. I continued to work on updating our TPT store (if you hadn't noticed, we are doing a major overhaul...trying to make it more convenient to get both our popular games in one download by skill).

Tuesday - Went to the school. I know, I know. I don't report back until August 21st. What am I thinking? Well, at the end of the year I moved all of my stuff from my classroom into the library (my new office is just off the library), and I felt guilty for anyone trying to clean and/or work around my stuff. My few hours there were not too productive. Too many people in the building. Now I remember why I usually set my classroom up in July!

Wednesday - Went at 6:30 a.m. to try and avoid people (not because I don't like my people, you know what I mean :-)) and got some more done. The problem is I'm cleaning out the office first and there is A LOT of stuff to clean out.

Thursday - Went and bought furniture! I cannot even explain my excitement except to tell you that in 21 years of marriage, we have always just had hand-me-downs. I also did a TON of staining for my laundry room closet doors (the last DIY project I'm trying to get done before returning to work) and enrolled my daughter (junior) and my son (SENIOR - WHAT?!?! When did that happen?).

Friday - Family day! We're surprising the kids with a little fun before we head back to school. :-)

Okay, now that you know way too much about my week, let's jump into the book study!

If you've missed the previous ones, check them out here:

Getting Started

Goals 1 and 2

Goals 3 and 4

Goals 5 and 6

Goals 7 and 8

Don't have the book yet? Grab it here: The Reading Strategies Book (affiliate link). This is definitely one of those teaching books you will use! 

"Readers of nonfiction have to decide and remember what is important in the texts they read if they are going to learn anything from them." ~Harvey and Goudvis

9.7 Click and Clunk

I'm telling you. I love the catchy phrases within a lot of the strategies of this book. Kids love catchy phrases and so do I! This strategy teaches that after reading each sentence, the reader should think about whether they got it ("click!") or it's confusing ("clunk"). If it is a "clunk," go back and reread. 

9.15 Using Analogies

I chose this one because my 2nd graders really enjoyed spotting analogies (once I taught them what they were) and discussing why the author would choose to compare the two items. They actually got pretty good at it! I'm looking forward to doing more with analogies as I work with upper elementary this year. 

"Instruction needs to be more than about identifying the {text} features; rather we need to help students use these features to get more information from a text." (pg. 271) YES!

10.2 Cover Up Then Zoom In

I think littles especially would enjoy this one, although it is suggested for all levels. Here's how it works:

Take a sticky note and cover an image on a page. Read and think about the text. Then, uncover the image and 'zoom in' on it and ask, "What new information am I getting from this image?"

I can just imagine my little readers enjoying the picture much more because of the anticipation of waiting to see it! ;-)

10.10 Why a Visual?

Okay, this is just one of those obvious things that I hadn't thought about purposely teaching. Insert embarrassed emoji here. I mean, students always tend to want to skip over visuals (especially charts and graphs). I draw attention to them as we read and ask questions about it, but teaching this strategy with this wording...

STOP and THINK. 

What information am I learning? 

Why is this information important?

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I want to hear from you! Tell me about your favorites either in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Don't forget to check out the other blog posts below for more thoughts and ideas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Goals 5 and 6 - The Reading Strategies Book Study

Hello again!

Welcome back to the summer book study. I have been so excited to read the other blogs and hear your favorite strategies each week. It seems like there is always a strategy or two that I overlooked and have to go back and check it out after reading other's thoughts about it! That is EXACTLY why I wanted to do this study and collaborate with you all. :-)

 If you are playing catch up, no worries. 

Here's links to the first three posts:

Getting Started

Goals 1 and 2

Goals 3 and 4

***So I went back to copy these from the previous post, and accidentally deleted it. Can you say mini heart attack? Got it back up though. Whew!***

I'm very excited to start digging into the comprehension goals! I don't know about you, but I have had many little friends over the years who could read wonderfully, but struggled to comprehend. It has been my desire to "unlock" the love of reading for them, which as Serravallo points out, "...that lost-in-a-book, engaged sort of reading that makes reading enjoyable..." can only come if they understand what's going on.

I loved her idea of planting sticky notes inside a text for students as they read to encourage them to stop and jot (respond in writing). She suggested the sticky notes could say:

--Retell the most important events that happened in this chapter.

--Why did that (event) happen?
--Describe the setting. Use as much detail as you can.
--What is the main problem the character is facing?

She also gave a resource for retelling rubrics that you might want to check out. 

Here's a few of my favorite strategies from this goal:

5.3 Summarizing What's Most Essential

Summarizing has always been difficult for my 1st and 2nd graders. They either tell way too much or not enough. 

In recent years, I have resorted to asking them, "What will you tell mom or dad about this story when you go home?" It does help because they realize that their parents have not read the story and need some key details, but I am always looking for ways I can help students with this skill. 

I love the visual! 

5.13 Summarize Based on What a Character Wants

I really liked how this strategy encourages students to think about how each chapter in the book connects back to what the character wants. I think too often some readers have trouble making connections between chapters, and this strategy with the terrific prompts will be very helpful.

Another great graphic on this one--seriously--the visuals/graphics/charts included are amazing!

5.16 Summarizing with "Somebody...Wanted...But...So..."

This one jumped out at me because I use it for writing! 

When I'm trying to teach my littles to write a fiction story, this is one of the strategies I use to try and help them brainstorm.

It makes perfect sense to also use it as a summarizing strategy.

Serravallo says that in fiction comprehension, plot and setting are first, but character is a very close second!

"Characters can become our friends, can help us learn about lives outside of our own, and can help us think differently about or better understand people in our lives." (pg. 162)

After reading the introduction to this goal, I felt challenged to better understand text level. Serravallo explains that understanding will give us a better expectation for my reader's responses.

My favorite strategies from Goal 6:

6.2 What's in the Bubble?

This strategy is all about prompting our students to consider what the character is thinking and/or why they are saying and acting in a certain way.

I'm ordering some of these thought bubble sticky notes (affiliate link) to make this strategy easy to do. :-) I like how these are white...some of the brighter colors make it harder to see the writing.

6.10 Who's Telling the Story?

The example of lesson language in this strategy caught my eye because I remember having the exact conversation with my kiddos reading Horrible Harry this year!

It is so important that readers know who the narrator is and who is speaking by noticing dialogue tags. This strategy had another great visual and some great prompts that I will definitely be using this year!

6.12 Empathize to Understand

Okay, so I chose this strategy because it could serve a dual purpose in the classroom. 

We are lacking empathy in our society today! 

By using this strategy--which definitely would help make meaning of characters' words and actions--we would have a great opportunity to teach our students about empathy and considering other people's feelings...and maybe, just maybe, that lesson would be even more important than a reading strategy. 

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Those are a few of my favorite strategies. 

I want to hear from you! Tell me about your favorites either in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Don't forget to check out the other blog posts below for more thoughts and ideas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Goals 3 and 4 - The Reading Strategies Book Study

Happy Friday!

Is that day as exciting in the summer? I'm not sure... ;-)

Yesterday, I took a quick trip to the Mercantile with a friend of mine. We attempted to stop at a water fall near Dexter, Kansas (my dad's hometown) on our way. No water! But we did squeeze a stop in to Henry's Candy Co. The Mercantile food once again did not disappoint, and this time I came away with a new favorite coffee drink - The Spicy Cowgirl. Cayenne pepper in my iced mocha coffee...YUMMO!

Okay, on to the book study!

Thanks for joining us again for this week's study. If you are playing catch up, no worries. Here's links to the first two posts:

Getting Started

Goals 1 and 2

This week's we are focusing on Goals 3 and 4, so let's get started.

Serravallo explains, "In order to construct accurate meaning from a text, children need to read words correctly, integrating three sources of information: meaning, syntax, and visual." She goes on to explain the importance of students learning to self-monitor their own reading. In my classroom, early in the school year I teach a variation of this cross-checking and have actions to go along with it (I think it is actually from Daily 5 or CAFE).

Here it is... (dork alert :-))

3.3 Use a Word You Know

I love this strategy and use it all the time. My teaching experience thus far has only been in 1st and 2nd grade, and I feel like we have to do a pretty good job of teaching word parts, phonics patterns, and word families. 

If you've ever visited our TPT store, you will see that Kristi and I have TONS of games for specific sounds. We've been blessed to teach in districts that provide our curriculum, and we like to use the games as a fun way to reinforce the sounds and word parts we are teaching each week. 

3.15 Take the Ending Off

Another one of my go-to strategies. I think sometimes our littles are overwhelmed at the sight of a "huge" word and it just stops them in their tracks. When you encourage them to cover up the ending, they will often recognize the base word or feel more confident attempting to decode the part that is left.

3.21 Look for Vowels that Go Together

At our school, we use a reading program called Pathways to Reading.  It teaches the kids to "Spot the Vowel." I like to start out doing this with a list of words on paper...actually highlighting the vowels or putting dots under them. If they see a vowel team, they connect the dots or highlight them together. Eventually, this transfers into one of my prompts as they are reading. I'll simply say, "Spot your vowel," and they know to read the vowel sound, then the word.

P.S. I was pretty excited to see so many familiar strategies in this goal section (even going by a different name). It was hard to choose my favorites!

Oh, fluency! 

I love how Serravallo reminds us that, "It's important in our attempts to teach children to read fluently, we don't send the message that reading is just about performing."

While I agreed with what she had to say about the dreaded stopwatch, I don't see how we can avoid it when most districts are doing some type of timed testing (we use AimsWeb). I actually like to do cold reads/hot reads because it gets my kids used to being timed and they get excited about their improvement (see more about that here).

However, I was intrigued by her method of recording phrasing and expressive reading. Definitely something I want to know more about!

4.5 Say Good-Bye to Robot Reading

Now this is a strategy that I wish someone would have told me about years ago! 

I actually stumbled into a variation of it on my own. I had a group that was struggling with fluency, and I was trying to make them understand what I meant by phrasing. We were practicing with sentences on a piece of paper and I started drawing "hops" to show them how they sounded compared to "hops" when I read the same sentence.

Love the idea of "scooping" up a few words at a time. I think it will make the idea stick with my kids even better than "hops."

4.14 Get Your Eyes Ahead of the Words

This is another strategy that I know as a reader I do, but it was always difficult to explain. I LOVE the graphic on this page. So simple, yet shows what I've tried teaching my kiddos!

The Reading Strategies Book pg. 121

4.19 Snap to the Next Line

I fell in love with this one right away! 

There is always some precious kiddo in my class who struggles with this concept. I think the idea of "snapping your eyes" to the next line will really help them understand how to keep reading through the line break. 

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Those are a few of my favorite strategies. 

I want to hear from you! Tell me about your favorites either in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Don't forget to check out the other blog posts below for more thoughts and ideas!

Join in the study! Link up your blog post with your favorite strategies from Goals 3 and 4 in The Reading Strategies Book here.

1. Goals 3 and 4 - The Reading Strategies Book

2. Summer Book Study: Goals 3 and 4

3. Reading Strategies- Goals 3 & 4

4. Teaching With an Ocean View - Week 3

5. Decoding and Fluency Strategies |

6. More Practical Reading Strategies and a Great Give

7. The Reading Strategies Book - Goals 3 & 4

Goals 1 and 2 - The Reading Strategies Book Study

Hey there!

I hope you had a great week celebrating Independence Day and studying the first two goals for our book study. ;-)

Somehow I managed to schedule appointments in town--remember I live about 30 miles away--nearly every day this week. What was I thinking?!?! 

My friends tease me that I am a hermit in the summer, but I really just like to spend time at home as much as possible. 

What can I say? 

Teaching, coaching, and church involvement leave little time at home during the school year, so I take my time at home in the summer very seriously. 😂 Anybody else? 

Okay, enough about me. Let's get on to the real reason you are here!

This week we started digging into the "meat" of the book, the reading strategies. I can't say enough about how this book is set up! The organization by goals is so helpful for a busy teacher, and the list of strategies at a glance in the beginning of each goal section is perfect for finding what you need and getting started right away.

Goal 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers

I have to share my favorite quote from page 20-21, "We can meet students were they are and help them engage with and enjoy books, make meaning, acquire vocabulary, use text features, connect the pages, respond to texts by writing and talking, practice their fluency, and develop identities as confident, engaged, joyful readers (even without decoding)."

That is a mouthful! 

But it is an amazing list of things our littles can do before ever learning to "read."

Another great thing about how this book is organized is when Serravallo answers the question, "How do I know if this goal is right for my student?" THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

The handy "at a glance" page for the strategies in the Goal 1 section.

On to a few of my favorite strategies from Goal #1...

1.5 Word Treasure Hunt

This strategy allows the student to enjoy the story through "reading the pictures" first. Then encourages them to go on a "treasure hunt" for letters and words they know. I think this will be a perfect strategy to create joyful readers and challenge them a bit as well. 

In my role as a K-6 reading specialist (remember that is a new position for me next year--eek!), I can see myself using this with Kindergartners (letter hunt) and some first and graders (word hunt).

1.8 Express the Emotions

When I read this strategy, I wondered why I hadn't thought of it that way! I always asked my second graders to read with expression, but didn't always take the time to connect the character's feelings to how it should be read. Let's just say it was an A-ha! moment for me--and made me realize how automatic these strategies can become. I know I consider the character's feelings when I'm reading, but hadn't really thought about how I learned to do that.

I also loved the visual aid on this one--and totally plan to use it with my beginning readers this next year.

1.14 If You Don't Know, Guess

This seems so simple, but over the years I have had so many students who are hesitant to make a guess or prediction. I think if I start teaching this strategy to my littlest ones, maybe as they grow as a reader it won't be so difficult. I also like the prompts to think about what makes sense with the story because I'm sure we have all had those kids (who aren't afraid to make a guess) say something completely off-the-wall! ;-)

"Without engagement, we've got nothing." 

(pg. 44)

Isn't that the truth?

I was immediately reminded of the first year I taught an actual engagement lesson to my class. 

Afterwards, my students were cracking me up because they would say, "I'm engaged to my book..." Ha!

Building stamina as a class is something we work on extensively when training for Daily 5. This would be interesting to graph individually, but I'm not sure how that would work for a teacher working with younger readers. I'd love to hear from you in the comments if you do this with littles!

Now...a little secret about something that was mentioned in this section. 

Shhh.

I'm not a fan of book logs or reading logs.

That's all I will say about that.

2.3 Reread to Get Back in Your Book

Again, this is something that I do all the time, but hadn't really considered purposefully TEACHING to my students. 

I often tell them to "back-up and reread" if they are struggling to understand, but to link that to recognizing when they become distracted hadn't occurred to me.

2.6 Fixing the Fuzziness

This immediately made me think of a "Mr. Check-In" bookmark* that I make for each of my students at the beginning of the year. I give them out when I teach a mini-lesson about asking questions as we read. I know my students will relate to the image "fixing the fuzziness."

*I would link this for you, but I'm not finding where I got it. It seems you now have to sign up for something to get it, and I know I didn't do that (because that kind of thing annoys me). 

2.19 Finding Reading Territories

This strategy will help students answer the question, "Who am I as a reader?" That, of course, helps us to point them in the right direction for books that will interest and engage them.

The visual for this one is simple and informative, divided into three sections. 

Books I loved...

Pits Books...

When I want a book, I want it to have...

It is just a practical strategy that will help students identify the kinds of books they are looking for, and I think it really could be done at any age.

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Those are a few of my favorite strategies. 

Now it's your turn! 

Tell me about your favorites either in the comments below or on our Facebook page! 

And don't forget to check out the other blog posts below for more thoughts and ideas!

P.S. Ooops! I clicked something and it published so I guess today is the day!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Reading Strategies Book Study - Getting Started

 Hey there! I'm so glad you are joining me and some of my blogging friends for The Reading Strategies Book study!

Before I start discussing the "Getting Started" section, I wanted to take a minute to share a couple of goodies that might interest you.

The Heinemann website has lots of goodies on their site about the book, including a study guide.

There is a Facebook group dedicated to the book!

If you still need to get your copy, Amazon might have the best deal.

Here is the schedule for our study:

Now that we have all that out of the way, I want to jump right into the "Getting Started" section of the book. You'll find a few questions along the way that you can answer in the comments! :-)

I'm actually going to start with the last page of the "Getting Started" section (pg. 19) and share my absolute favorite quote. 

This just speaks to my teacher heart!

What is your favorite quote from the "Getting Started" section?

Goals

Aside from knowing Serravallo shares an important part of my teaching philosophy, I love how she organized the book into goals. Conferencing and setting goals with my students has always been my absolute favorite part of teaching, but it has also always been a challenge to fit it into my day. I used the Daily 5 structure in my classroom. Most of my one-on-one conferences were on Fridays (when I would not have Time with Teacher) or during morning tub time as kids trickled in from breakfast. That is one thing I am excited about for my new position as a reading specialist--more time to work one-on-one and with small groups!

How do you fit in time for conferencing and/or goal-setting?

This last year I incorporated Data Binders (PSA - If you're looking for a resource to use for data binders, check out this FREE, editable version from The Curriculum Corner) for the first time, and I loved it! My students each had a binder and tracked data for a variety of things. It made prepping for parent teacher conferences a snap too. I would have liked to use the goal section more effectively, and I think reading this book will certainly help me with that.

Here's some of my favorite quotes about goals from the book:

"...goals coupled with teacher feedback make one of the biggest differences on student achievement and progress." (pg. 2)

"...make sure you are matching the right goal to the right reader." (pg. 2)

"...work to understand each student in your class well enough to be able to articulate a goal for him or her." (pg. 5)

"...when the goal can come from the student, the student will be all the more motivated to work on it." (pg. 5) YES! YES! YES!

Strategies

Serravallo defines strategies as the deliberate, effortful, intentional, and purposeful actions a reader takes to accomplish a specific task or skill. She continues to explain that our goal should be for our readers to outgrow the strategies! In other words, as a student masters a strategy, it will become automatic and resurface when he or she needs it. YES!

"The strategy is a temporary scaffold, and like any scaffolding it needs to be removed." (pg. 9)

"...introduce one strategy at a time, guide the student in practicing the strategy, and move on to a new strategy when the student appears to be secure with the first one." (pg. 9)

Give an example of a temporary scaffold you already use in your classroom (any subject) and tell us how you make sure it is temporary.

Visuals

The examples of all the visuals were amazing--and they are all throughout the book! I really like the idea of creating a visual reminder for each reader so they are reminded of what they are working on (especially liked Lilli's Reading Goals on pg. 8).

Check out these characteristics of a helpful chart or tool:

--clear and as simple as possible

--low on text

--have icons, pictures, and/or color-coding

--appropriate for the age and readability level of the students

--clear headings

Prompts and Feedback

I definitely need to work on this area. After reading this section, I can see that I am sometimes way too wordy which means I am doing most of the work!

"...try to phrase my prompts in as few words as possible." (pg. 11) 

"...gentle nudges, to encourage the child to do the thinking, talking, jotting, and working through the strategy with me as a guide." (pg. 11)

Taken from page 11 of The Reading Strategies Book.

That sums up my thoughts of the "Getting Started" section. I'm excited to dig into the first and second goals and strategies next week. We will be choosing two or three favorite strategies from each goal and sharing how we use or will use them in our classroom. 

No blog? No problem. You can still share your favorites and ideas on how to use them in the comments section. :-) 

I can't wait to read everyone's great ideas!

To join in the discussion this week, answer these questions in the comments below (and/or simply share your thoughts on the "Getting Started" section): 

What is your favorite quote from the "Getting Started" section?

How do you fit in time for conferencing and/or goal-setting?

Give an example of a temporary scaffold you already use in your classroom (any subject) and tell us how you make sure it is temporary.

Now continue the study by hopping along to visit the other blogger's posts to see what they have to say!

P.S. I posted early this week to make sure the link up was working properly. The remaining weeks really will be on Fridays (see dates listed on the schedule).

An InLinkz Link-up