1. Welcome 5th Grade Parents ~ Using Comprehension Strategies at Home
My name is Mrs. Tavares. I am the 5th grade special education teacher, and co-teach reading and math.
This workshop is designed to give you some strategies to help your children with reading at home.
As I go through the powerpoint, I’ll be showing you strategies and giving you research to support them.
Mrs. Dempsey

2. “You can find magic wherever you look
“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book!” ~Dr. Seuss
Read research quote.
Explain that reading aloud is beneficial, regardless of the material. It allows students to hear a “good reader” read with fluency and expression, and use punctuation.
Examples: Books, stories, magazine articles, etc.

3. Parents often ask, “How do I support comprehension?”
Research suggests that time spent reading is highly correlated with achievement in learning to read.
(Stanovich & Cunningham, 1998)
Many parents are unsure of how they can help their children read independently at home.
How do I know my child understands what they’re reading?
Can I practice what my child is learning at school?
How can I help?
Research suggests that the more children read, the higher their achievement in reading will be.

4. There are many strategies that we teach in the classroom that you can easily teach at home.
I’ll mention each of the strategies, then teach you more specifically how to teach some of them at home.

5. Good readers use many strategies while they read:
Make Connections
Visualize
Question
Inference
Determine Important Ideas
Synthesize
Brief Descriptions:
Making Connections – connecting to what we read
Visualizing – picturing in your mind what you’re reading
Questioning – asking questions before, during, and after reading
Inferring – “reading between the lines”; making predictions; drawing conclusions
Determining Important Ideas – the big idea/author’s purpose
Synthesizing – retelling, summarizing, book reviews

6. On the next several slides I will show how to use the following strategies:
Making Connections
Visualizing
Questioning
Since you know your children best, these will be the most effective strategies for you to practice with your child at home.
As the parent, it is easier for you to know what your child already knows about different topics, what kind of experiences they’ve had, and what type of questions they may have.
Therefore these strategies will be the best strategies for you to teach at home.

7. Making Connections
Prior Knowledge – What does the student already know about a topic ?
• Text to Self – Can the student make a personal connection to the text?
• Text to Text – Can the student make a connection with another text?
• Text to World – Can the student connect what they’re reading to something happening in the world?
Good readers are able to make connections when they read.
When we talk about making connections we talk about:
Prior knowledge – things we already know about a topic
Text to self – connecting what you read to something in your own life
Text to text – connecting what you read to something else you’ve read
Text to world – connecting what you read to something that’s happening in the world
On the following slides I’ll give you examples of how to make these connections so you can try them at home with your child’s books.

8. Making Connections Example
Prior Knowledge
What do I already know?
Using the book Wings, by Christopher Myers, I will model for you how to activate prior knowledge.
Read prior knowledge description above.

9. Making Connections Example
Book Description The story of Ikarus, the new boy in school, and his wings is told by a shy, quiet young African American girl who knows all about isolation. At first, the oddity of Ikarus’ wings makes him a target of laughter from not only his peers, but by the teacher who does nothing to stop the taunts.
I know teachers are supposed to help students.
Isolation means to be alone.
African American – dark skin
We teach students what is called “Schema Strategy.”
First, I’m going to read the book description, usually found on the back of the book. Or, I can do a “picture walk.” A picture walk is when we flip through the book and see what’s happening in the illustrations.
Then, I’m going to ask myself “What do I already know?”
We usually ask students to write what they know in a web, but you could also discuss this orally.
When you taunt someone you’re teasing them.
Oddity means to be strange.

10. Text to Self Connection Can I make a personal connection to this text?
Making Connections Example
Text to Self Connection Can I make a personal connection to this text?
The book says :
“At recess the snicker grew
into a giggle and spread
across the playground.”
I can connect to this because I remember when I had to get braces and all of my classmates would laugh at me.

11. Making Connections Example
Text to Text Connection Can I connect this text to another text I’ve read?
The book says,
“Look at that strange boy!”
Everyone from the neighborhood is pointing fingers and watching the sky.
This connects to another book I’ve read. In Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erkstine, the main character, Caitlyn is living with Asberger’s Syndrome. She is different from other kids, and is sometimes teased and stared at.

12. Making Connections Example
Text to World Connection Can I connect this text to something that’s happening in the world?
After reading this book I am able to connect it to the world because I think everyone feels different sometimes.
People go to new schools everyday, and have to face finding new friends and dealing with bullies.

13. Suggestions for making connections at home:
Making Connections Example
Suggestions for making connections at home:
Ask your child if the character they’re reading about reminds them of characters from other books.
Have your child write connections on post-it notes and stick them in his/her book.
Model how to make connections by sharing your connections with your child.
Use the phrase “It reminds me of……”
Have your child use a “think mark.” It is a bookmark that he/she will record connections and page numbers on.
These suggestions also appear on your handout. Try these ideas at home when your child is reading.

14. Visualizing Sight Hearing Taste Smell Touch
• Use your five senses to create a mental picture.
Sight
Hearing
Taste
Smell
Touch
• Visualize a movie in your mind when you read.
Good readers visualize as they read.
When we visualize we try to create a “mind movie.”
We try to “visualize” how what we read looks, sounds, smells, feels like, and even tastes like.

15. Visualizing Example
Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White Chapter 3 – “Escape” The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay… It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows… It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots and of new rope… It was full of all sorts of things that you find in barns: ladders, grindstones, pitch forks, monkey wrenches, scythes, lawn mowers, snow shovels, ax handles, milk pails, water buckets, empty grain sacks, and rusty rat traps. It was the kind of barn that swallows like to build their nests in. It was the kind of barn that children like to play in.
I’m going to read you paragraph from Chapter 3 of Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White. While I read the paragraph I want you to visualize what you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel.
Think about the words/phrases that help you use those senses.

16. Suggestions for visualizing at home:
Visualizing Example
Suggestions for visualizing at home:
Ask your child to draw what he/she visualizes.
Ask your child to list the words/descriptions that he/she is using to visualize (include the senses)!
You and your child can draw what you visualize then compare/contrast your drawings.
Here are just a few ideas to help your child practice the visualizing strategy at home. These also appear on your handout.

17. Questioning Good readers: • Ask questions before you read
• Ask questions as you read
• Ask questions after you read
Good readers create meaning by engaging a text before, during, and after reading.
(Levin & Pressley, 1981).
Good readers always ask questions before, during, and after reading to help them understand a text.
Sometimes our questions are answered, and sometimes they are not.
Questions usually include who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Questions are sometimes stated as “I wonder…..”

18. Questioning Example Before reading –
I wonder why all those people are in a boat.
Where are they going?
The back cover mentions soldiers. Is there a war going on?
Before reading good readers examine a book.
Front cover
Back cover
Picture walk
I am going to show you a book called How many Days to America? by Eve Bunting.
While examining we formulate questions before we read.

19. Questioning Example
During reading – As I read through a few pages I will “think aloud,” demonstrating how I ask questions while reading.
I’ll read a few selected pages in How Many Days to America?
As I read I will “think aloud.”
I will tell you the questions I’m asking myself while I read.

20. Questioning Example After reading –
I wonder how they felt when they finally got to America.
Were they still scared?
What will they do now?
When I’m finished reading I reflect on what I’ve read and come up with more questions.

21. Suggestions for questioning at home:
Questioning Example
Suggestions for questioning at home:
Model asking questions while you read aloud.
Ask your child to ask questions out loud.
Ask your child to write questions on post-it notes and stick them in the book.
Have your child create a “think mark.” This can be a bookmark that the student records questions and page number on while he/she reads.
Here are some suggestions for how you can monitor if your child is asking questions while he/she reads at home. These also appear on your handout.

22. Books for Teaching Strategies
Making Connections
Wings
Christopher Myers
Tar Beach
Faith Ringold
The Lotus Seed
Sherry Garland
Visualizing
Charlotte’s Web
E.B. White
Abuela
Arthur Dorros
Bad Day at Riverbend
Chris Van Allsburg
Questioning
How Many Days to America?
Eve Bunting
Ameilia’s Road
Linda Jacobs Altman
The Trumpet of the Swan
E.B. White
Here are several books that can be used to practice the strategies I’ve shown you. There are more on your handout.

23. References
Anderson, R.C., Hiebert, E.H., Scott, J.A., & Wilkinson, I.A.G. (1985). Becoming a nation of readers: a report of the commission on reading. Washington, DC: national Institute of Education.
Bunting, E. (1988). How many days to America? New York: Clarion.
Duke, N.K. & Pearson, D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In A.E. Farstrup & S.J. Samuels (Eds.). What research has to say about reading instruction (3rd ed., pp. 205 – 242). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Harvey, S., & Goudvis A. (2000). Strategies that work. Markham, Ontario: Stenhouse Publishers.
Levin, J.R., & Pressley, M. (1981). Improving children’s prose comprehension: selected strategies that seem to succeed. In C.M. Santa & B.L. Hayes (Eds.), Children’s prose comprehension: Research and practice (pp ). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Myers, C. (2000). Wings. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Pressley, M. (2000). What should comprehension instruction be the instruction of? In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (Vol. III, pp. 545 – 561). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Stanovich, K.E., & Cunningham, A.E. (1998). What reading does for the mind. American Educator, 22, 8-15.
White, E.B. (1952). Charlotte’s web. New York: Harper and Row.