Informational Text

Most children like to read informational text. If they are interested in the topic, students can engage in this genre with excitement. There is no disagreement that children will need to be fluent readers of informational texts as they move forward in their learning. So, what do our students need to know about informational text?

Google or Pinterest the topic and you will see that the main focus of instruction is text features. I call these the "tricky parts" of reading informational text. While they are important, there is so much more to teach. 

Out goal is to create readers, writers, and researchers. Students must be able to comprehend informational texts and use them in authentic ways. This requires the teacher to model the reading of informational texts and teach reading strategies that will promote reading comprehension. Explicit teaching of comprehension strategies can foster comprehension (Duke & Pearson, 2002). Here is a book that will help you understand the importance of comprehension strategies!

Teachers must differentiate instruction within the classroom. Selecting books on different levels will help teachers meet the needs of their students.   Here is an exceptional article with videos that will encourage you to support all students. Don't forget to refer to the Continuum of Literacy Learning to see what the text demands are at each level. 

Mentor texts are a vital part of informational text reading and writing.  Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli in their book NonFiction Mentor Texts, offer a wide range of mentor texts and show how these models illustrate the key features of good writing. This is a great resource!

I encourage you to think beyond the "tricky parts" and go for the development of the genre. We want our students to comprehend and enjoy a wide variety of informational texts. To authentically read and write about topics of interest. 

Super Sleuths Blog Hop #19

Hi Y'all!
I am so happy to be one of 28 literacy/reading specialists involved in the Super Sleuth Blog Hop!  I love creating  items for students and teachers! I believe in using researched-based strategies and providing those resources to you as freebies!
Today's freebie focuses on comprehension.  Comprehension is all about making meaning.  I have included the Somebody Wanted But So strategy to help students summarize, a list of Generative Questions for you to help readers think deeply, and the FAST character trait analyzing strategy.  I hope that these will help you!

"True comprehension goes beyond literal understanding and involves the reader's interaction with text.  If students are to become thoughtful, insightful readers, they must extend their thinking beyond a superficial understanding of the text."  Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis  

Download Strategies Here!

Now for your clue! Just add the letter below to your list beside Literacy Minute!

 Good luck finding all the clues!  Thanks for stopping by for a minute!  Come back soon! 

Now, on to the...

  

Book Units Teacher
This is a most fabulous item!  Don't miss it!

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1. Comprehension Connection

2. Dont Let the Teacher Stay Up Late

3. The Reading Tutor/ OG

4. Learning Fundamentals

5. Reading and Writing Redhead

6. Ms. Ds Literacy Lab

7. Conversations in Literacy

8. Teacher Mom of Three

9. A Day in the Life of a Title 1 Teacher

10. Luckeyfrog"s Lilypad

11. Curious Firsties

12. All Four Reading

13. Thinking Out Loud

14. Ms. Jordan Reads

15. Big Time Literacy

16. Read with Me ABC

17. Teaching With Nancy

18. This Little Piggy Reads

19. The Literacy Minute

20. Book Units Teacher

21. Reading Toward the Stars

22. The Literacy Garden

23. Im Lovin Lit

24. Ripper Resources

25. Teachers Take-Out

26. Sweet Integrations

27. Reading is Elementary

28. The Rungs of Reading

Deep Comprehension and Freebie

Teaching For Deep Comprehension, by Linda Dorn and Carla Soffos would be a great addition to your professional library. 

Linda Dorn and Carla Soffos describe the process of comprehension as a reflection of the mind—a window into the reader's thoughts. In Teaching for Deep Comprehension, they discuss comprehension from a socio-cognitive perspective — specifically, how teachers can use the social context of reading workshop to promote deep comprehension. The book is framed around three guiding questions:

• Can comprehension be taught?
• How does a model become a barrier to comprehension?
• When does a tool become the reason for reading?

Linda and Carla mesh complex theories of comprehension with everyday practical examples in such a way as to help teachers develop a better understanding of what it means to comprehend while reading.

Using the ideas in the book, I created 7 Comprehension Task Cards to use in reading workshop.  These activites help students to use deeper comprehension skills.

Download HERE!

Prompts to Support Meaning/Comprehension

I am in charge of RTI for my district, as well as coaching literacy and working with special education!  Thank goodness we only have 4 schools!  It is still an undertaking each and every day.  Small group instruction is vital to RTI.  I am working on interventions and will have lots of things to share in the near future.  Today, I thought about teacher-language in small groups.  We often tell students to "sound it out" but that isn't enough to promote meaning. Students who struggle with decoding are often robbed of meaning.  As their decoding improves, we need to prompt using the "right" prompts.  This appears simple, but when I am in a small group, I revert back to old habits!  So, I copied the prompts in Teaching for Comprehension in Reading, Grades K-2 by Pinnell and Scharer. 
You can print and have them ready for when you need to prompt for meaning in small group.  Click here!

Reading Strategies

Strategy, a word that is military in origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.  What is the goal for your students this year in reading?  Do you have a plan to help all of them become good readers?     

Strategies for You!
Reading Rockets has a classroom strategy section designed to share with teachers what research suggests are the most effective ways to build fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing skills. 
Each strategy in the library includes:

• Instructions on how to use the strategy
• Downloadable templates
• Examples
• Recommended children's books to use with the strategy
• Differentiation for second language learners, students of varying reading skill, students with learning disabilities, and younger learners
• Supporting research

Strategies for Students!
We need to understand the strategies used by good readers.  Here, you will find a list of comprehension strategies to share with your students.  Mini-lessons could be built around the concepts listed, with the teacher modeling the process.

Improving Reading Comprehension

I am always looking for reading comprehension strategies that will help our students, especially those with autism.  Have you ever had a student that could decode beautifully, but lacked necessary comprehension skills?  Researchers, O’Conner and Klein studied 20 high-functioning students with autism and found that the effects of anaphoric cuing were statistically significant and medium in size. (O’Connor and Klein, 2004)
Anaphora is a linguistic unit, such as a pronoun, that refers back to another unit.  Students with poor reading comprehension and students with autism do not consistently relate pronouns to antecedent nouns.  Anaphoric cuing involves teaching the student to pause and refer back to the noun for understanding.  Check here for more information!
Using a graphic organizer to identify the pronoun might be helpful to the student.  A visual representation adds depth to learning.  The Frayer Model is a four-square model that prompts students to think about a word.   Examining the “he” in a story might be a worthwhile activity for students who characteristically read over the pronouns.