Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Reading Comprehension (5 ideas)

Welcome Pinterest friends!
This is one of my hottest posts and has 17,000+ pins!  I hope you enjoy these tips for helping your child or student develop better reading comprehension!


As an update to the original post, my son is now in 3rd grade and doing FANTASTIC with reading.  My number one tip?  Provide lots and lots of praise and lots and lots of books!



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In honor of my going back to school, let's do an education related post!

I've been looking for ways to help my 2nd grader develop better reading comprehension. Thank goodness for the internet, Pinterest, and teacher blogs!



1. ReallyGoodStuff has this Book Mission Kit for sale (about ten bucks on Amazon). You could make your own though if you wanted. Having a "mission" seems like an enticing way to engage my son in some discussion about what he's read.




2.Don't you love this story map board? I found it on Pinterest and immediately added it to my Learning Time board. Originally it is from mrsrojasteaches.blogspot.com
Link
I love that it is reusable! Just use sticky notes to fill in the blanks after reading a book. When you read a new book and want to map it, pull off the sticky notes and start over!



3.This cool spinner game was made by Mrs. Williamson.
You can head over to her site and download it. Love that it is a game and not a work sheet!

4. Bloom's cards. I will be printing them and keeping them in the car. My son will read to me while we go places and then pick one of each color to answer. 

2015 UPDATE: Unfortunately the blog with the Bloom's cards is no longer online.
You can download a Google Doc of the cards here. There is also a similar free download 
on TeachersPayTeachers here.
The cards cover:

  • Evaluation (Was the character in the story good or bad? Support your opinion with words from the text.)
  • Synthesis (What changes would you make to the story?)
  • Analysis (What part of the story was the funniest and why?
  • Application (What part of the story could not happen in real life?)
  • Comprehension (What was the main idea of the story? Retell it in your own words.)
  • Knowledge (When and Where does the story take place?)
5. Finally, I saw a genius idea on another blog. A bookworm incentive chart! GoodGirlGoneGlad made this for her kids.
book worm chart, reading comprehension, reading tracker, reading incentives


I am copycatting her and making one for my son. Each time he finishes reading a book he can add a link to the bookworm! Ours will be 20 links long. When he gets to the 5 mark, he will get a prize.
There will be another prize at about the 12 mark. 
Finally, when all 20 bookworm segments are done, he will get an extra $5 to spend at the school's book fair.


1200+ more teaching ideas on my Pinterest board here:





Linking at Teach Preschool's A to Z linky list. You can easily use the above ideas for the preschool crowd instead of grade school. :)  Also sharing at: A Little Knick Knack, Show and Share, Serenity Now

6 comments:

  1. Those are some really great finds! As a former teacher, I can agree that reading comprehension is so important. Just getting them reading and asking questions to make them recall information and think about the story is great, but all those little games will certainly help, too. I used cards similar to those color-coded bookmarks in my classroom that had all types of different questions. Such a quick and easy tool!

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  2. Thank you for sharing your link today on our ABC's!

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  3. LOVE these ideas!!! So perfect since mine are starting kindergarten and preschool this year. Thanks for sharing, and thanks so much for joining my Weekend Bloggy Reading party. :)

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  4. Found you via pinterest today. I'll have to take some time to look through your archives. Started following your boards, too. Keep up the great work!

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  5. Sadly, the Mrs Saylor's Log blog has been removed and I cannot get the download. Any chance you could post copies of the cards on here

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Happy to have you here at the Zucchini Summer Blog! :)