When we teach students to synthesize, we let them know that they are combining what they already know with new information they learn from the text. As we do this, our thinking changes and grows! It’s important to teach students not to just repeat back what they’re learning. Instead, we want our students to realize […]

Teaching students to visualize while they read helps them to connect and comprehend the stories they hear and read in the classroom. I wanted to share some activities to help students visualize in first and second grade. Our Feelings: I like using this activity to show students that our visualizations are often very personal. Based […]

I love teaching students to make inferences in first grade. They feel like detectives as the search for what the author hasn’t said in the text. I thought I would take some time to share with you some of my favorite activities for teaching students how to infer. Using Photographs: When we begin making inferences, […]

How do you teach character change within a story? By this time of the year, my first graders are easily able to identify the main character. They are also able to give a few character traits (with text evidence) to describe that main character. Now, is when I really want students to focus on how […]

Cause & Effect! Students have been unknowingly learning about causes and effects their entire lives. “Eat your veggies and you will get dessert.” “Put those toys back and you can play with something else.” They learn that their actions have effects. When put into a story context, we are teaching students to focus on two […]

Comprehension! It is the most important part of reading, isn’t it? I am always looking for ways to help my students with their comprehension and providing stopping points to think aloud has helped tremendously. The conscious act of checking in it a strategy many students use to help them determine when they might need to […]

Asking questions while reading is such an important skill for students to learn. There are many activities to help students practice questioning, but I find the best way is to through reading and modeling.   “Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions.” (Paul & Elder 2000)   When teaching students to ask questions […]