- What skills do these two need in order to tackle more complex texts?
- What are these readers doing already that we can build upon?
- How can I use what I know about text complexity in our small group lessons?
Strategy Group Focus: Building Comprehension Skills to push through
level Q
Student A Goal:
Comprehension (understanding unknown words and inferential understanding)
Student B Goal:
Comprehension (monitoring- slowing down and elaborating on inferential understanding)
Next, I brushed up the kinds of work that is called for when reading a level Q text. As I reviewed this information, I had in mind the students' goals. Here is what I figured I should cover to help push them to be independent at a level Q:
· Identifying central problem in the
story.
· Synthesis: Asking ourselves, “What now does this text seem to be mostly
about?”
· It is okay to let go of our initial or
first expectation as we read and fashion one that is more grounded in the text
as it actually unrolls.
· Think about why characters do what
they do (“Another reason is…” / “Another part of this is…”)
· Identify cause and effect – linking
earlier parts to later parts
· Keeping track and monitoring complex
characters and their characteristics (ie: “Oh, there he goes again, acting…)
· Monitoring our reading – (What we do
when we stop and say, “huh?”
· Figures of speech/metaphors/puns
Next, I read the book we had selected: Fourth Grade Rats by Jerry Spinelli. As I read, I marked places that inspired thought and offered examples of level Q characteristics. I hope to teach these readers how to effectively "stop and jot" so it isn't painful. I plan on doing this through modeling and showing that when we jot an idea we can carry this idea throughout the text to see if questions are answered or links are made (between character reactions, character change, characters being impacted by the central idea or problem, finding evidence to support theories...)
I have a "loose" plan that I can use with these readers. I created this plan (the teaching points) based on the above level Q characteristic list. Though I will offer tips and lessons from the below plan, I will also be flexible and expect that I may not follow this "plan" precisely because the group's needs and reading behaviors will be what is driving my instruction. This is why I am calling it my "loose" plan. Because I know these students, I was able to anticipate their needs. Here are a few of the lessons that I could uses with this small group:
- Lesson 1: First chapters are usually jam-packed with information. Readers absorb as much information as they can and pay close attention to some key features. Readers make notes of these features:
- The problems
- Which ones are the most important?
- Keep an eye out for evidence and problems that are reoccurring
- Characters
- How do they talk and interact … what does that say about their personality or the type of person he/she is?
- Reactions to situations
- Both main and supporting characters
- Realizations (main) characters have
- Identify and note parts that are confusing
- Lesson 2: Readers keep track and monitor complex characters and their characteristics
- Noticing how the two characters contrast
- Realizations and worries of characters (this links to problems/central ideas)
-
Lesson 3: Readers
think about the problems in the story to help determine a central idea. They hang on tight to this idea and see where
it shows up in the story, how characters react to the problem, and how it
changes characters.
-
Lesson 4: Readers
monitor while they read and know when to stop and say, huh... Readers reread and think about what is going on in the story
to make sense of confusing parts. (figures of speech, puns, metaphors)
-
Lesson 5: Readers
are constantly thinking about why characters are doing what they are
doing. How does this link to the central
idea or problem in this story?
- Lesson 6: Readers
analyze cause and effect in stories.
They link earlier parts of the text to later parts.
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