tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61611667828948356942024-03-16T14:52:16.560-04:00All About Comprehension"Reading and writing. Talking and learning. It's ALL about comprehension." — Sharon TaberskiUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-27816895787714552512011-10-26T11:09:00.000-04:002011-10-26T11:09:50.085-04:00Technology in Schools—A Time and Place?<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com322tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-92085775047207214922011-08-29T07:59:00.000-04:002011-08-29T07:59:35.108-04:00Picture Walks, KWL, and DRTA…And the Winner Is...! (An Interview with Dr. Kay Stahl) <!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-36450614331289306372011-08-02T11:17:00.000-04:002011-08-02T11:17:00.014-04:00Matt Damon Speaks Out for Teachers<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-29394540058831269922011-07-26T13:32:00.000-04:002011-07-26T13:32:44.308-04:00Guest Blog: Blogging and Comprehension<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-32026318112024847962011-07-09T08:03:00.000-04:002011-07-09T08:03:27.871-04:00A Highly Recommended Book on Reading Comprehension<!--StartFragment-->
Just a brief post to recommend a professional book that I think every elementary-grade teacher should own. It’s called Teaching Reading Comprehension to Students with Learning Difficulties by Janette K. Klingner, Sharon Vaughn, and Alison Boardman. This short volume offers clear, practical, and research-based practices to improve students’ comprehension. And in this age ofUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-75169567861110645412011-06-29T08:46:00.000-04:002011-06-29T08:46:11.100-04:00"Retelling as Written Response" Ideas[This post is based on a question Lisa posed in the June 25th comment box.]
Dear Lisa,
I think you’re “right on” when you have your ELL first graders talk about the book you’ve read aloud before asking them to respond in writing. The types of guided responses you've asked them to make and the prompts you've provide seem varied and developmentally appropriate. And I totally get how this is so Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-18647684074680260022011-06-12T09:57:00.000-04:002011-06-12T09:57:08.005-04:00Daniel Willingham Podcast-Background Knowledge and Reading StrategiesI was going through some files preparing for an institute I'm doing this week in ohio and came across a link to a podcast given to me by a soul-mate teacher in Portland, Oregon. Well...I finally listened to all 15-minutes of it and am so glad I did! It's Daniel Willingham talking about background knowledge—how important background knowledge is and how comprehension strategy instruction Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-25197297475536676982011-06-06T17:05:00.000-04:002011-06-06T17:05:34.293-04:00Juggling Time for Reading and ResponseIn a May 30th comment box Mary raised the issue of there being a fine line between asking kids to respond in a thoughtful manner to texts they read and one that doesn’t take too much time away from their independent reading. She writes that her children often get caught up filling in their response sheets when perhaps time would be better spent reading.
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I understand her Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-80383960421171462662011-05-30T05:04:00.002-04:002011-05-30T06:02:08.243-04:00Branching Out—Our Nonfiction Collection Needs to Address More Than “Animals”My interest in informational texts and the importance of bringing them into classrooms and children’s hands has made me rethink a whole lot of things. In fact when I went into my basement to check out the nonfiction books I own, I was alarmed to find that so many are about animals. And when you consider all there is about the world for children to learn, it would seem that the books in our Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-71731493644223675482011-05-20T17:43:00.001-04:002011-05-20T17:46:27.247-04:00A Noteworthy Informational Text Strategy BookLet me tell you about a really cool book I found when preparing for some content area professional development I’ll be doing next week. It’s Barbara Moss and Virginia S. Loh’s 35 Strategies for Guiding Readers though Informational Texts. It’s a newly revised and expanded edition of Moss’s 25 Strategies for Guiding Readers…
I love the way the book’s organized. Lessons are chunked together under Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-84857823838429324872011-05-12T12:22:00.000-04:002011-05-13T16:52:52.245-04:00Yet Another Nod to Background KnowledgeI just returned from the International Reading Association Conference in Orlando, FL where I presented a session on "Re-Envisioning the Five Pillars of Reading." One pillar that I include in my re-envisioned paradigm is background knowledge since it's most essential in helping children comprehend what they read.
After the session, a teacher shared the title of this YouTube video that I'm now Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-10496408752101025812011-05-05T08:39:00.000-04:002011-05-05T08:39:49.625-04:00Book Selection for Independent Reading: Reading Conferences "Yes"—Book Shopping Days "No"Let me state right off that while I’m a huge fan of shopping—for clothes, shoes, cosmetics, etc.—I’m not a fan of book shopping days where young children go off to select books for independent reading from a basket of leveled texts. Quite often the results don’t match our expectations. Even though the books are “at their level,” children often have trouble reading them “cold” with the recommendedUnknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-59380598321722686472011-04-29T11:00:00.001-04:002011-04-29T11:02:02.261-04:00Diane Ratvich: Testing Undermines Teaching (Me: And Independent Reading as Well)I just had to post this National Public Radio's interview with Diane Ratvitch. She's, of course, right on. Our obsession with testing and preparing kids to take them precludes giving them opportunities to do other important reading work, such as reading on their own.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-62136333062460440412011-04-27T05:00:00.003-04:002011-04-27T05:00:01.583-04:00Okay...So I Lied!I said my next post would be on using reading conferences to match kids with books, but when preparing for my IRA presentation I happily stumbled upon an old favorite book that’s just perfect for teachers in grades 2-4 to read aloud to their kids and discuss. The book is The Goat Lady by Jane Bregoli. If you don’t know this book or don’t own it, you simply must purchase a copy for your class.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-22193125753626768872011-04-26T06:17:00.001-04:002011-04-26T06:17:51.753-04:00Independent Reading—Balancing Choice and Just-Right Reading MaterialsWe know that choice is an important component of independent reading. And so is having children read just-right materials. But how do we find the balance between the two, especially when we consider the challenges of children who are just learning to read?
Years ago, one of the ways I found the balance was by having two distinct independent reading times of day. During the first independent Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-75078991070250864362011-04-23T05:00:00.001-04:002011-04-23T08:07:27.451-04:00Turn the Tables and Put Independent Reading "First"All too often we try to fit independent reading into our schedule once all the other parts of our balanced literacy program are in place. We reason that since we're working with small groups of readers or conferring with students one-to-one, we'll simply let the other kids read and provide literacy centers to engage them and keep them busy. But we often don't buy into the important role that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-91686558160136478262011-04-19T08:24:00.002-04:002011-04-23T06:10:23.178-04:00Kids Have to Read a Lot to Get Better at ItAs the school year draws to a close, it’s time to consider which areas of instruction we want to reflect on over the summer months and refine for the coming year. If I were asked this question, improving the quality of children’s independent reading times of day would be at the top of my list. Whether my students were emergent and early readers just starting out or more proficient readers who Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-71013295175900741172011-04-18T07:11:00.000-04:002011-04-18T07:11:52.015-04:00I'm Back...Hi Everyone. Ted and I just returned from a long anticipated trip to Sicily and Barcelona. It was amazing and I hope that you all get the chance to experience both places someday soon—that is if you haven't already done so. (I'm leaving it up to you to infer my inclusion of this "grapes" clipart!)
Anyway...I fully intended to post to this blog while we were away but didn't anticipate the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-41573328514006954252011-04-11T04:51:00.001-04:002011-04-11T04:51:00.521-04:00Don't Forget Our ListsJust a reminder that we have several lists going in the right-hand column. They've been lying dormant lately and I'd like us to start thinking about books we might add. Here are the categories: Books That Give Kids Something to Think About, Short and Sweet Chapter Books, Picture Books to Help Kids Infer, and Books to Help Kids Visualize. Please send me your suggestions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-38981080534595774442011-04-09T04:27:00.003-04:002011-04-09T04:27:00.562-04:00Something to Talk About...In light of the fact that several of my recents posts have centered around oral language, I think it’s time to create a list of books that most definitely will give kids something to talk about.
This past weekend when I presented an in-depth session at the 21st Annual Literacy and Learning Institute in Melville, Long Island, I was lucky enough to hear Carmen Agra Deedy deliver the Saturday Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-26608759971050533492011-04-06T05:00:00.007-04:002011-04-06T05:00:01.011-04:00My Re-Envisioned Pillars and an Oral Language Development WebcastAs you may already know my new book Comprehension from the Ground Up centers upon re-envisioning the "Five Pillars of Reading" to make them more comprehensive and address our current tendency to focus too early and too much on comprehension strategy instruction. We've tended to equate comprehension with comprehension strategy instruction when there's so much more to it than that as my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-21654233336961965122011-04-03T09:01:00.002-04:002011-04-05T03:59:36.514-04:00A Change of Heart, Mind, and Genre—Nonfiction Writing from Day OneMy March 28th blog post about how we’re overdoing personal narratives and need to move kids to different writing genres early on in the school year rather than have them start the year with yet another personal narrative unit has left me to reconsider how I might proceed during the first two weeks of school before the first formal writing unit begins.
First I need to describe what I’ve done in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-83100478797355219342011-03-31T17:28:00.000-04:002011-03-31T17:28:08.979-04:00"Talking Twins" YouTube ClipYou may have already seen this YouTube video of the "Talking Twins" but had to share it anyway. Don't you just love the way these twins are "talking" or at least socializing? And doesn't it make you think of perhaps how natural and important it is to students' growth and learning? And doesn't it make you think of how we can encourage more of that in the classroom? Providing time for talk is an Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-5665200648603324222011-03-28T20:46:00.002-04:002011-03-31T07:40:00.317-04:00When Is Enough, Enough in Regards to Personal Narratives?I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the kinds of writing we ask kids to do. About how writing is both a tool for communication and a way to let learners experience the reading-writing process so that they can better understand texts they read.
As I reflect on this I think of David Coleman’s presentation (Coleman’s a co-author of the CCSS) on YouTube where he states that personal narratives (Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161166782894835694.post-66596548056832468652011-03-26T22:13:00.001-04:002011-03-27T19:44:06.402-04:00The Inside Scoop on the Writing ProcessI’m preparing a seminar and came across a list of books I often recommend to help children understand the writing process. Numbers 1-3 are autobiographical or biographical, 4 & 5 are fictional stories, and 6 & 7 are about finding your passion in life and beginning any artistic venture with what you know best.
Thought you might be interested in this list. (I’ll leave it up to you to clinkUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2