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)!

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