Reading Strategies
Are your students buried in post-its? Oversharing with those text-to-self connections? Parroting back comprehension tips but rarely applying them when they are actually reading? Our contributors sort through what works with strategy instruction, and have wise advice for avoiding superficial approaches to developing comprehension skills.
Latest Content
Picture Books or Beginning Readers?
Many beloved characters from picture books are showing up in beginning readers, and in the process can lose a lot of their appeal. Shari Frost provides teachers with criteria for choosing between picture books or beginning readers.
Conferring About Characters in First Grade
Katie DiCesare confers with Vidhi about the main character in her independent reading book.
Inform, Inspire, Instruct: Essays as Mentor Texts in High School
Kim Campbell shares her favorite nonfiction short texts to use with adolescents.
Whole Class Partner Share Session in First Grade
Katie DiCesare leads her first graders in a reading share session during a character traits unit.
“Lift a Line” Boys Reading Group
Franki Sibberson gives a group of boys a “lift a line” assignment to build their close reading skills.
Using Close Reading to Analyze Propaganda
Propaganda, word clouds, and close reading engage students in Holly Mueller’s sixth-grade class.
Fluency and Comprehension Conference
Aimee Buckner confers with fourth grader Amanda about her reading comprehension and fluency, encouraging her to use a post-it note to track thinking around a focus question.
Second-Grade Reading Share
Sean Moore leads a second-grade whole-class reading share early in the year. This quick video shows that this instruction time is as much about establishing social norms as talking about reading.
Fourth-Grade Reading Conference: Focusing While Reading
Aimee Buckner helps fourth grader Isaiah focus his reading early in the year in this quick conference.
Sticky Notes Small Group
Sean Moore meets with a group of second graders to remind them how to use sticky notes strategically while they are reading.
Nonfiction Book Blitz
Justin Stygles finds a nonfiction book blitz is the perfect unit for closing out the school year.
Mental Images: Connecting Reading and Sketching
Sean Moore confers with second grader Teague, masterfully demonstrating how to move between instruction and celebration when conferring with a child who struggles with reading.
Conferring About Word Learning
Sean Moore teaches second grader Mikhail some strategies for learning words in a conference.
Bridge to Comprehension Minilesson
Deb Gaby uses a bridge metaphor in a comprehension minilesson for second graders.
Conferring About Lemony Snicket and Vocabulary
Aimee Buckner confers with fourth grader Samantha about reading a series and tackling challenging vocabulary at the same time in this brief video.
More Sophisticated Mysteries: Conferring with Yuki
Franki Sibberson confers with fourth grader Yuki to expand his reading options into more complex series and mysteries.
The Power of Mystery Series for Teens and Tweens
Ruth Shagoury shares her top picks of mystery series for teens and tweens.
Making Classics Relevant for Middle School Students
Jennifer Schwanke helps middle school students make connections between classics and their current reading.
Conferring with Sebastian
Katie DiCesare chats with first grader Sebastian in this one-minute conference, then shares her reflections on where Sebastian might go next in his reading.
Rereading and Retelling to Inferring: Part 2
Linda Karamatic uses texts her second graders already know to build their inferring skills as they construct a chart together.
The Shape of Stories
Mary Lee Hahn explores story structure with her fifth-grade students. This is a terrific activity for helping older students understand increasingly complex story structures as they move through the intermediate grades.
Act III: Exploring Subtext with A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)
Gretchen Schroeder concludes her Shakespeare in the Age of the Common Core Series with activities to explore subtext in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Exploring Inferring with Second Graders: Part 1
Linda Karamatic uses a read aloud to launch a group activity to build understanding of inferring.
Act II: Understanding Hamlet Through Close Reading (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)
Gretchen Schroeder continues her Shakespeare and the Common Core series on teaching the classics in high school, explaining how she uses Hamlet in creative ways to teach close reading strategies.
Tracking Characters: A Conferring Tip
Aimee Buckner teaches a fourth grader a strategy for using a sticky note to keep track of characters when there are multiple narrators in a novel.
Act I: Delving into Deep Questions with Macbeth (Shakespeare and the Common Core Series)
Gretchen Schroeder launches a three-part series on Shakespeare in the Age of the Common Core. This week’s installment is a fresh take on teaching Macbeth to high school students.
Mock Newbery Club
Katherine Sokolowski has suggestions for organizing and hosting a Mock Newbery Club in the weeks before the award is given in late January.
Partner Reading Conference in First Grade
Katie DiCesare confers with Jack and Praneel about their partner reading.
Research Book Clubs for Struggling Readers
Beth Lawson finds that a nonfiction research book club is just the grouping structure needed for a group of struggling readers in her fourth-grade classroom.
Holding Thinking Minilesson with Second Graders
Deb Gaby uses an analogy of animal tracks to introduce the concept of "holding thinking" in reading journals to second graders.
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