As a teacher, I am always looking for areas to improve. I always look at data and my students’ work to see where my teaching can serve them better. I’m also learning through conferences, professional books, webinars, etc. One area that I’ve focused on for years is reading comprehension, so I want to share what comprehension looks like in our classroom.
Reading Comprehension And The Science Of Reading
The science of reading is clear: comprehension is a must. It is a part of the reading rope. Without comprehension, we can’t understand what we’re reading.
Reading Comprehension With Read It Up
Years ago, our district purchased an IFL unit for us to use as an “exemplar” unit for teaching literacy. The unit was for two books: Brave Irene and Dr. DeSoto. These books are complex texts for kindergarten. The skills being taught within the unit were also challenging and complex. After reading through the unit and what was expected, I knew immediately that my students COULD be very successful with the skills IF they had the right tools, support, and scaffolding. Because I believe this, my students (and all students) will succeed with the proper support in place. And thus was born READ IT UP!
After the success of our IFL unit, I knew that providing READ IT UP creations for our text would improve our reading comprehension skills. And I was RIGHT! Plus, it gave me a better framework for teaching our read-alouds, supporting students, and making my job easier.
We use READ IT UP in our classroom to work on comprehension skills, and I have seen a drastic improvement. The great thing about our Read It Up! resources is that they work with any curriculum or they work on their own. We actually integrate these resources into our required knowledge-building curriculum.
Read It Up! is an all-inclusive resource. Everything is included to make planning and prepping easier. We generally spend one week on a text. However, these resources can be used for a day or more than a week. They are adaptable to meet the needs of your class and district. For example, we have a Creepy Carrots day and spend an entire day doing Creepy Carrots, and we do gingerbread stories for two weeks!
Reading Comprehension: Turn And Talk
Kids need to talk about texts. This helps the students build confidence in their learning and builds language capacity. As we’re reading the text, we talk. We turn and talk to share what we notice, make predictions, or answer text-dependent questions. We also do whole-group discussions using text-dependent questions. The key is to get the kids to talk about the story. Then they have ideas to share when it’s time. The turn-and-talk helps reduce some of the fear of sharing their thoughts and ideas!
Reading Comprehension: Graphic Organizers
As we read, we create our graphic organizers. We might fill in a story map, identifying character traits with text evidence. We might also use graphic organizers after we read the story, such as identifying the main idea and the problems and solutions.
Reading Comprehension: Writing, Drawing, Dictating
The research is detailed that when students write about a text, their comprehension improves, so they write, draw, and dictate. Of course, we don’t expect our students to be writing about text, especially early in the year, so we have them draw and talk. They have to share with me after they draw (or write when they’re ready). This allows me to see how they’re doing with comprehension.
The students’ work is scored using rubrics. This gives us a uniform assessment system so we can have data to guide our instruction. The rubrics work whether the student writes, draws pictures, or dictates their work to you. This was important for me because our students are all working at different levels, and it’s important to meet them where they are!
Grammar And Comprehension
We also build grammar instruction into our reading comprehension. The grammar skill is closely related to the story and allows for the whole group, explicit instruction of the skill, and independent practice. We might do nouns, singular/plural words, prepositions, etc.
Reading Comprehension: Graphing=Language Building
For each story, we also do a graphing activity. We’re not only working on math skills (counting, graphing, analyzing data, etc.), but also on language development. When students place their choice or vote on the graph, they must share their vote and provide reasons or details. This helps with higher-order thinking skills and persuasive writing. This sharing is done in turn and talk, but can also be done as a whole group!
Comprehension: STEM Activities
We try to incorporate some STEM activities into our comprehension lessons. Why? Because I am a HUGE believer in integrating lessons and standards across all subjects. It makes sense, makes our job a bit easier, and helps students with critical thinking, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking skills! Students can complete their STEM challenges alone or with a partner. They talk, discuss, and strategize. They solve problems and build language! Then, they write and draw about their challenge. The STEM challenges are an easy way to make that motivation for reading. The science is precise: if kids like reading, their comprehension improves. These STEM challenges bring the stories to life and increase the love of reading!
Comprehension: Bring It To Life
And finally, let’s be real. We’re out here competing with screens. YouTube, Roblox, Minecraft, TikTok. You name it. That means reading is something that kids might not want to do or enjoy. So we gotta bring it to life. Here’s my first tip (and ya’ll gonna be big mad, but that’s ok!) READ THE BOOK. Like the physical book. Don’t show a video of someone reading the book. STEP AWAY FROM THE SCREENS. Read the book. Do the voices. Act out the story. Move. Make it interactive. And then think of ways to bring the story to life.
Here are our favorite ways to bring a story to life:
Costumes! I love to dress up!
Art projects! When we do art projects related to the book, we’re discussing the story and building language and comprehension skills!
We also make snacks to go with our stories!
Here is a suggested Scope & Sequence based on when we use the texts in my classroom. Please note that we frequently add new Read It Up! creations to the collection, so this list may not be exhaustive of all the creations available at any given time.
WE also have a skills alignment document that lists each Read It Up and the comprehension skills included in that resource!
We also have a growing bundle of EVERY SINGLE READ IT UP RESOURCE (over 100 comprehension units) AND ACCESS TO ALL FUTURE RESOURCES! Each resource includes: lesson plans, suggested pacing, vocabulary, graphing organizers, graphing, writing, rubrics, student writing worksheets, and more! Many resources include STEM ideas and art projects!
AND CHECK THIS OUT! ALL OF OUR READ-IT-UP CREATIONS ARE ALWAYS BUY 1, GET 1 50% OFF! And you can get as many as you want!
USE CODE BOGO50 at CHECKOUT! VALID ONLY AT THE TKS STORE! CLICK THE IMAGE! AND REMEMBER TO ENTER THE CODE AT CHECKOUT!
Buy 1 Get 1 50% Off in the TKS Store using the code BOGO50. Buy as many as you’d like!
