Prereading is a very important step for a good reader. Every year when I get a new group of students and we begin the study of our first story, students are quick to point out that they know they should first take a “picture walk,” but I am quick to modify their thinking and tell them that not only should they be taking a picture walk, but also a “text walk.” That starts a great conversation about prereading a text.
Text Walks – Once the students are reminded of the importance of scanning text, all the different types of text are discussed: titles, subtitles, table of contents, headings, captions, bold words, words in italics, the use of different fonts and font sizes and colors.
Picture Walks – Discussing the various text features to consider also brings up the different types of pictures that can be displayed throughout a text: photographs, illustrations, maps, graphics, diagrams and charts.
Together, the two create an in-depth study of the book or story. This can lead to great discussions about what genre a book is and, of course, allows us to do other things good readers do like make predictions, ask questions, make connections and draw conclusions.
My students and I create a t-chart that contains these text and pictorial features. On one side are the text features and the other side are the pictorial. This quick graphic organizer, drawn in the shape of a t, is created multiple times throughout the year so that we are revisiting this prereading strategy again and again.
So much can happen just at the cracking open of a book whether it’s online or in hand. It’s important to get students into the habit of scanning both pictures and text before they settle in to start reading. Doing so is a great way to get young readers interested and invested in reading before they even begin.
What other picture and text features do you look at before reading?
While Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement
was written to assist teachers in the classroom,7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It!
is written in a fashion that guides parents as they teach their children comprehension strategies.
If children don’t understand what they read, they will never embrace reading. And that limits what they can learn while in school. 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! is the result of cutting-edge research. It gives parents practical, thoughtful advice about the seven simple thinking strategies that proficient readers use:
• Connecting reading to their background knowledge
• Creating sensory images
• Asking questions
• Drawing inferences
• Determining what’s important
• Synthesizing ideas
• Solving problems
Easily understood, easily applied, and proven successful, this essential educational tool helps parents to turn reading into a fun and rewarding experience.
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement is a book that was suggested to me early in my teaching career. I used it extensively in the classroom, and continue to use the resources and strategies within the book when I read to my own children. The goal is to create engaged, thoughtful, independent readers and this book helps!
Though Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement is meant as a resource for teachers, I feel that any parent who has an interest in explicitly teaching their children strategies when reading (especially parents who home school!), will find this book useful.
In this revised and expanded edition, Harvey and Goudvis have added twenty completely new comprehension lessons.
In this book, you will find:
- what comprehension is and how to teach it
- lessons and practices for teaching comprehension
- information on social studies and science reading, topic study research, textbook reading and the genre of test reading
- updated appendix section recommends a rich diet of fiction and nonfiction, short text, kid’s magazines, websites and journals
When kids are engaged in their reading they enhance their understanding, acquire knowledge, and learn from and remember what they read. And most importantly, they will want to read more!
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
