Hello Friends! I'm Lauren and I am NOT "just" a teacher (and neither are any of you). While I was having "my easy peasy summer off", I came across this post from Colleen at Literacy Loving Gals asking who wanted to do a book study for The Reading Strategies book by Jennifer Serravallo. I ordered the book, which is a lil pricey, so I wanted to make sure that I was spending money wisely. It was TOTALLY worth it!
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| Order the Book by Clicking Here |
I feel like this book can be shared amongst teachers in my school at any grade. I teach fourth grade this year, but I already have ideas for my primary friends and my intermediate friends. I have a TON of ideas for my sweet English Language Learners too! I teach a Sheltered English classroom where my students struggle with comprehending simply because they spend a lot of time trying to understand the words that they are reading. Jennifer Serravallo uses research that says, "...if students are truly to understand what they read, they must be able to UNDERSTAND, not only decode, upward of 95 percent of the words." WHOA! Wow.... That sticks out to me sooooooo much! I know that the chances of my students understanding 95 percent of what they read is a very tough expectation for me to be able to reach. But, I will try my VERY best because that is what they deserve. That is why I was so excited to get to blog about Chapter 11: Improving Comprehension by Understanding Vocabulary and Figurative Language.
Another great part of this chapter is when they reiterate something that I have learned, seen firsthand, and been told, but many district curriculums don't always support.....
That most word learning occurs unconsciously and naturally through normal reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
Basically, we don't need fancy vocabulary programs to teach our kids vocabulary! We can guide and support them through the four domains of language acquisition and they will learn more words that way than studying vocabulary words in a structured program.
And this is what Chapter 11 is all about. Here is a list of the strategies you can reference and have access to if you purchase this book.
Here are 3 strategies that caught my attention and I wanted to share with you!
11.3 Insert a Synonym
Levels: H and Above
Genre/Text Types: ANY
Skills: prior knowledge, monitoring meaning
Often times, authors use vivid vocabulary in texts. With my classroom of English Language Learners, most of the time, my students struggle most with what these words mean and how to say them. If they don't know a word, they aren't able to comprehend deeply. With this strategy, you ask students to insert another word that would make sense in the sentence. The hardest part is when the students must read the sentence with the substituted word to see if the sentence still makes sense.
Here are some prompts to use when teaching this strategy:
What's going on so far?... So what might this word mean?
Try a word you know. Does that make sense?
Stick in a word that would make sense here.
What's another word the author might have used that would still make sense?
11.16 Be Word Conscious
Levels: M and Above
Genre/Text Types: ANY
Skills: monitoring meaning
I wish SOOOOOOOO badly that my students were taught this strategy much younger. This strategy asks 1 simple question of the students:
Do I know this word?
If the answer to that question is no, then they can apply strategies they know to try to figure it out. So many of my students read and read and read and read.... and then when I ask them what a word means, I get a blank stare. I wish they could see how this is affecting their ability to comprehend. My hope is my students will learn to recognize words that they don't know. That is the first step. From there, we can add more strategies to their toolbox to help them figure it out.
Here are some prompts to use when teaching this strategy:
Do you know all the words?
What strategy can you try here to figure out a word?
Do you think you are reading too fast to notice words that you don't know?
Great job! You realized that there is a word you don't know.
11.19 It's Right There in the Sentence
Levels: M and Above
Genre/Text Types: nonfiction (mostly)
Skills: synthesizing
Authors often stick the definition of a challenging word right into the sentence where the word is. Students need to learn key words and other clues to find these definitions. Help students to see key words such as: also, or, this is called, when reading nonfiction. Another clue is hidden in the punctuation. Commas and dashes are usually used to separate a challenging word from it definition. Students can find these clues very helpful, especially when reading science and social studies texts.
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| This was my social studies text today! It fits in PERFECTLY with this strategy. My students were like #mindblown |
Here are some prompts to use when teaching this strategy:
Do you see any key words that tell you the definition is in the sentence?
Does the author explain the word?
Look at the punctuation. I think I see something that clues me in to a definition.
You're right, there's no definition for this word. For this one, you'll need to use a different strategy.
Jennifer Serravallo discusses giving students the knowledge of what goal they are working on. I find that when my students know what they need to work on, and specific strategies to focus on, they are more motivated and likely to succeed. I created a handout for students to keep with their goals and strategies listed. I would like students to take this with them for individual conferences and guided reading so that I can help assess how they are doing. Click below to grab this chart to use!
Hope you enjoyed these strategies that help us become better learners and teachers. Make sure to follow along with the whole book study!
Next up is Matt at Digital: Divide and Conquer
