Open-Mind Portraits have an instructional focus on comprehension and are best used for Grade levels 3-5 and 6-8. It is a reading strategy used to build students reflection and analytical skills. This strategy requires students to deeply analyze the story’s events and characters by drawing an open-mind portrait of the character without seeing an image of them first. Open-mind portraits have two parts; the first is to draw the characters face on one page and the second is to draw several thinking pages that show the characters traits, thoughts and plot. Students use their comprehension skills to visualize the character and determine their characters attributes from the text in their own way. Open-mind portraits are an essential way to build students comprehension skills and promote engagement with the text through the analyzation and visualization of characters.
Double-Entry Journals
Are you a new teacher? If you are, here is an excellent reading strategy that you will want to put in your toolbox! Double-entry journals give students a way to interact personally with the text, by reflecting on and writing about their understanding of the material they are reading. Students can use the text to form an opinion and then use pieces of text to support their opinions. By writing about what they are thinking, students show their thinking process as they read, allowing teachers to redirect or encourage students to be more effective readers. If you are struggling with monitoring students’ thinking and reading process and want to give students the opportunity to express their thoughts and become actively involved with the material they read, I encourage you to watch the demonstration video to have a clear idea of how you could implement this strategy in your future classroom!
QtA: Questioning the Author
Hi everyone! Questioning the Author, (or QtA), is about getting students to think more critically. This reading strategy focuses on creating meaning in the text students read by asking questions about the author. These questions include:
- What is the author’s purpose with this text?
- Is there a link between what the author said here and what they said before
- What is the author really trying to say?
Essentially, open ended questions about the author and their purpose with sections of the text, or even the text as a whole, are asked and discussed as a class to gain a deeper meaning about the text. Additionally, and equally as important to fostering critical thinking, students also learn that authors can make mistakes with this method. With the help of critical thinking, they do not take the author’s text at face value and can acknowledge the fallibility of an author’s work. This is important because students can get discouraged if they do not understand a text and question their own intelligence, but it could be because the author made an error, such as structurally in the text, that causes the confusion. For more information on this fantastic strategy, have a look at my rundown video below!
Make Great Readers by Making Words!
The making words strategy allows for teachers to introduce a group of words in order for students to be able to recognize other words that use those same phonological sounds. This learning strategy teaches students about word and sound patterns to therefore make and connect words. Because this is a hands-on strategy, it allows the teacher to see if the students are identifying and understanding different phonological patterns.
Readers Theatre
Are you having a hard time keeping your students motivated? Are your students lacking in their love of reading? If you are looking for an exciting way to engage your students, look no further? Readers theatre is an exciting strategy to engage students in a fun reading activity. It involves a non-threatening environment, where students bring the text to life by using tone, expression, mood and attitude. Each character’s dialogue is performed by the students, through oral story-telling. The benefits for the students are increased confidence and fluency, intonation, gesture and tone.
Storyboards are FUN!
Storyboards are a fun and engaging way to get students thinking about important concepts such as identifying the theme of the text, characters, setting and illustrations. These concepts will help students identify the main elements of story structure. When there are only a few copies of picture books available, storyboards provide an excellent opportunity to teach reading comprehension skills. Storyboards also create an amazing learning opportunity for english language learners! Pictures will help strengthen students’ understanding and will also help them sequence main events in stories. Storyboards are a wonderful addition to the classroom and can be a great learning opportunity for the whole class or smaller groups of students. Find out how you can use storyboards as a fun and effective reading strategy in your own classroom in the video link below. Enjoy! 🙂
Anticipation Guides: Guide Your Readers to Greatness!
The reading strategy of “Anticipation Guides” is a comprehensive strategy that provides statements before students reading to get the children thinking about what they may be reading about, activating prior knowledge, and encourages the students to build curiosity about the new subject matter. Teachers prepare a list of statements, the students must than decided if they agree with the statement, or disagree with it. Students then move on to the reading. After the reading, students are given the list of statements again, and they can then decide to stick with their original statement answer or they can choose to agree or disagree with it. It is common that students change their opinions on some of the statements after the reading, and they often realize they have refined their understanding of the subject through this activity. This reading strategy is beneficial because it allows for students to use prior knowledge to relate to the text, and it also can be a lesson taught to encourage discussion based off of more complex issues.
Reading Logs For All!
Reading logs are a great way for students to think about the books that they are reading. Students are able to treat a reading log like a journal, where they write their reactions and opinions about the books they are reading or listening to. Reading logs also act as a great guide for teachers and parents to track their child’s reading and to see what reading level they sit at. The options of reading logs are endless! Teachers can create reading logs in a variety of ways to help their students gain better reading comprehension and understanding of what they are reading. For example, they can illustrate pictures, write favourite quotes, or talk about the plot. Reading logs give students the opportunity to be creative and explore their understanding of text and writing fluency. Reading logs can also come with some great incentives! Pairing reading with rewards in the classroom or at home can encourage longer periods of reading. By practicing reading at home, students can continue their reading practice which will make them more confident readers and writers in the future. Reading logs can be used for all ages of students, as well as being modified depending on the age and reading level of the students. Finally, there are many new reading log materials and strategies out there that can be introduced in the classroom to promote long term reading and having students meet their reading goals! Here is our video link. Enjoy!
Venn Diagrams: Help Students Think About and Analyze Books
Venn diagrams are a great teaching strategy to develop reading comprehension. They can help promote intentional thinking by providing a way for students to organize and visualize their thoughts about a reading. In this workshop video, our lego friends Pete and Jill will help explain what Venn diagrams are, describe how they can help improve reading comprehension, and list steps to utilize them in reading instruction.
Wild and Wacky Word Sorts
Word Sorts is an effective strategy that is fun for students, fun for the teacher and can be a collaborative small group activity! This versatile strategy helps students decompose words to better learn phonemic awareness, vocabulary, spelling, and pattern recognition. Students group words based on their similarities to other words, and there are many ways you as the teacher can differentiate this activity for your students. Come watch the video to learn more about how you can implement this activity in your classroom, in only 5 easy steps!