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In 2004 I began attending a 3-year Literacy Coaching Class at our
local educational collaborative that offered the opportunity to work
collaboratively
with my colleagues to become part of a statewide initiative sharing
best practices teaching comprehension strategies in a lab classroom
setting.
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1.We have extended the
repertoire of strategies for district colleagues,
preservice teacher candidates and enable others to view and
glean
current best teaching practices and strategies that in turn
impacts our
student’s ability to earn and develop comprehension
strategies.
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2. Through integrating content
areas, we help to infect all involved educators
in more effective, child-relevant curriculum design
while finding ways to
include rigorous science instruction in this time of
mandated time schedules
to meet the criteria of No Child Left Behind.
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3. Having visitors has
helped because the positive feedbacks at post
observations have authenticated many of our choices
and/or given
us ideas for fine-tuning this approach. |
Student achievement is impacted
in several ways
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1. The hands on science
activities are both motivating and stimulating for children
as they read and write about gardening and respond to other
literature.
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2. We drive instruction with
the use of hands-on developmentally appropriate
tools that include all learners because we combine “tools”,
sunglasses (for visualizing),
seeds (relate to prior knowledge/schema), plastic shovels (to
model digging for meaning),
rakes (for questioning), hoes (help us determine importance),
watering cans
(are the synthesizing agent), and a picture of the sun
(shines light on inferring),
with the acknowledgement of the student’s prior knowledge of
gardening.
Students can’t wait to get their hands dirty, use real tools,
and produce/nurture
the real-life garden.
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3. We invite parents as
partners into the classroom to model effective literacy practices so
they can continue to model
the same language at home. |
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This teaching theme is a developmentally appropriate hands-on
learning sequence, designed for teachers in the early primary grades
(K-2)
who want to
incorporate comprehension strategies into their literacy curriculum.
To better understand the comprehension strategies used to enhance
your
literacy curriculum, begin by reading these books as reference.
Click to buy these books:
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Mosaic Of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene.
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Strategies That Work
by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis
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Starting With Comprehension by Andie Cunningham and Ruth Shagoury.
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Seven Keys to Comprehension by Susan Zimmermann and Chryse Hutchins
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Kid Writing Strategies
developed by Feldgus and Cardonic.
Before beginning each lesson, teach your students this song
to help
them remember the strategies.
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Make this book for your students before you begin your
journey toward
developing comprehension strategies with your primary students. All
these files were created
with Microsoft Word. They are designed mainly for Kindergarten age
students,
but you can tweak them to
fit your age level.
Save them on your hard drive and print from there.
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PLANT A LITTLE STORY Use this poem to help students
make connections between
the comprehension strategies
and gardening! |
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(Page 1, Literacy Garden Grid),
Using this grid, students will color each section to show
which page they have completed. |
(Page
2, My Favorite Book),
After reading many selections, have students choose their
favorite book to illustrate and write about. |
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(Page 3, Fairy
Tales)
After reading several fairy tales, have
students choose a favorite one to illustrate and write about. |
(Page 4, My
Favorite Author),
After reading books by several authors, have students
choose their favorite author and draw a picture of
their favorite authors book. |
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(Page 5, My
Favorite Poem) After reading several poems, have
students choose their favorite poem to illustrate and write about.
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(Page 6, Inferring) Have
students write about an idea that an author wants them to know that was not
presented literally in the text.
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(Page
7, Questioning)Have students write one lingering
question about the read aloud. |
(Page 8, Synthesizing)
Have students write about a new idea they have conceived
after a read aloud or reading alone.
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(Page 9, Visualizing)
 
To help your students visualize words while
reading aloud, have them wear a pair of child's sun glasses.
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Page 10, Determining
Importance Have students look at maps, charts
and graphs
to help determine the importance of the text. |
Page 11, Making
Connections/SchemaHave students make a
connection to their past as you read aloud. |
(Page 12, Biography)
Have students write about their lives.
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(Page 13, Auto Biography)
Have students write about one favorite person in their life. |
 
Page 14. My Memoir
Have students remember one moment of time in their lives
and capture that in a
picture and a short paragraph.
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Click here on the
Strategies page to help you understand
what guiding relevant factors you should
consider when teaching.
For a word document to print of the
Strategies, click here
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To help students understand the strategies, give each child their own tool belt.
I bought individual tool belts
at Home Depot for 99 cents a piece. Inside the tool belts I neatly placed
various plastic gardening tools. Each
tool is a tactile representation of the strategies. On each shovel (digging for meaning) I taped twenty-five every
day functional sight words that
students can use when they Kid Write. As students "dig for the meaning of
the story" they use the words on the shovel to create their sentences.
View the twenty five sight words here.
I bought little boxes shaped like flowers and inside the boxes I placed words
for students to
student when writing their stories. Each box contains words based on
a particular strategy .
Click on the word list below to print out a copy of the words to place in your
flower boxes.
Words for Questioning
As rakes push dirt aside and leave gaps in the ground,
unanswered questions leave gaps in our understanding.
These gaps in one's understanding can be filled by asking questions. Words
students use
to ask questions can be found in the Questioning Box.
Back to top
Words for Inferring
As students dig for meaning and ask questions, they can make inferences
that leads them to
understanding an idea the author wants the reader to know without writing it in
the text. Words
that help students to infer are in the Inference box.
Back to top
Words for Visualizing
As they listen to a read aloud, or as they read
text they wear sunglasses.
The importance of visualizing and seeing the picture that is
playing in their mind is heightened and brought to life with the glasses.
Use these Rubrics on the left developed by Ellin O. Keene to help you
assess your students literacy development
while teaching comprehension strategies. I have created Rubrics for
Kindergarten levels on the right.
Back to Top
Rubric for
Visualizing
Kindergarten Rubric for
Visualizing
Rubric for
Questioning Kindergarten
Rubric for Questioning
Rubric for Inferring
Kindergarten Rubric for Inferring
Rubric for
Determining Importance
Kindergarten Rubric for Determining Importance
Rubric for Retelling
Kindergarten Rubric for Retelling
Rubric for
Synthesizing
Kindergarten Rubric for Synthesizing
Rubric
for Monitoring Comprehension
Kindergarten Rubric for Monitoring Comprehension
Rubric for
Think Alouds Kindergarten
Rubric for Think Alouds
Rubric for Using
Schema
Kindergarten Rubric for Using Schema
After I created Planting A Literacy
Garden, I created a website that uses Eric Carle's books. If you are interested in integrating technology into your
literacy curriculum
while studying Eric Carle as an author, click on
Carleworks below. Lessons were created that integrate technology based on
building five literacy skills of Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary,
Fluency and Comprehension. The website contains a Power Point to help
develop the skills.
Carleworks
Please feel free to use any of my work and email me and
let me know if this has made an impact on your students learning. Thanks for visiting!
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