L. B. Clarke Literacy Letter
Practical Tips for Literacy at Home
Greetings!
Dear L. B. Clarke families,
We hope that you were able to find some practical tips for establishing your student's reading routine at home in our last letter. Once the routine is set, your student will hopefully begin following the routine naturally, and thus, read more! Now, you may be wondering, "What next?" In this letter, we would like to give some information on what strategies readers use when they read, and how you can support your student's reading understanding through conversations that focus on these strategies.
The Six Essential Reading Strategies
All reading is thinking. When we read, we take in information. In order to understand this information, we need to think about it. In this way, the information becomes knowledge. This may be knowledge related to an interesting topic, the steps in how to perform a new skill, or the motivation our main character has for confronting his nemeses!
This thinking, however, doesn't come easy. Oftentimes readers simply go through the motions of reading. They read the words on the page believing this is enough. In order to promote the thinking reading requires, strong readers use six essential strategies:
- Monitoring Comprehension - While reading, strong readers pay attention to their understanding. They track their thinking using an inner conversation going on in their heads. They notice when this understanding breaks down and respond by using "fix-up" strategies.
- Activating and Connecting to Background Knowledge - While reading, strong readers make connections with the text. Perhaps the characters remind them of friends they have, or the setting seems like a place they've been to before. In addition, they might think about what they already know about the topic of the text.
- Asking Questions - While reading, strong readers wonder about the text. These questions help to guide them forward as they look for answers to their questions.
- Inferring and Visualizing - While reading, strong readers make inferences and visualize what is going on in the text. Inferring is the process of using author clues to "read between the lines". Visualizing could be thought of as the movie a reader imagines in their mind while reading.
- Determining Importance - While reading, strong readers try to sort out the most important information. Readers can't remember everything they read, so it is important for them to determine what they should remember.
- Summarizing - While reading, strong readers focus on the main ideas the text is trying to get across. When they finish reading, they are able to retell these main ideas to another, synthesizing all of the information into a few sentences that best express the entirety of the piece.
Discussing the Strategies
Now that you have an understanding of these strategies, you'll be able to have conversations with your student about them! Conversations are critical to building understanding in all aspects of learning. They help learners develop their ideas further, check their own understanding, and recognize when they need to seek out more information. Here are some questions that you could ask your student to help begin conversations:
- What confused you while you were reading today?
- Was there a part of your book that was really difficult to understand?
- If you could be friends with any character in your book, who would you choose? Why?
- Who does your main character remind you of?
- What do you already know about the topic you're reading about?
- What did your book make you wonder about?
- If you could ask the author a question, what would it be?
- Describe what you imagined while you were reading today.
- What was your favorite part in the story? Can you describe it to me?
- Why do you think the character is acting that way? Would you act the same?
- What was the most important thing that you read about?
- Can you summarize what you read?
- What was the main event that you read?
These conversations can happen at any time - after dinner, during a car ride, on a walk, etc. Hopefully you have thought of some practical ways to have these conversations with your reader!
Upcoming Events
L. B. Clarke Book Drive
Monday, Mar 4, 2019, 07:45 AM
L. B. Clarke Middle School, 4608 Bellevue Place, Two Rivers, WI 54220
Community Read Week
Monday, Mar 18, 2019, 08:00 AM
L. B. Clarke Middle School, 4608 Bellevue Place, Two Rivers, WI 54241
L. B. Clarke Night at the Lester Public Library
Tuesday, Mar 26, 2019, 06:00 PM
Lester Public Library, Adams Street, Two Rivers, WI, USA
Brats for Books
Thursday, Apr 11, 2019, 03:30 PM
L. B. Clarke Middle School, 4608 Bellevue Place, Two Rivers, WI 54241
References
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension to enhance understanding. York, Me.: Stenhouse.
Ketch, Ann. “Conversation: The Comprehension Connection.” Reading Teacher 59.1 (2005): 8–13. Web.