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Big Ideas in Beginning Reading

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Comprehension

Instruction

Teaching Strategies and Examples: Before Reading

1. Set Comprehension Objectives

Refer to instructional priorities on grade-level curricular maps Examples: Accurately answer literal and inferential questions about Stuart Little (See References) Identify the main character and setting in Stuart Little

2. Preteach difficult to read words

• Identify words that will be barriers to students' independent reading.
• Use familiar procedures to teach or review difficult-to-decode words:
  • Sounding Out
  • Structural Analysis

	Story Words Ping-pong Stuart Irregular Words weight sofas whole meant Multisyllabic Words radiator perspiration
Stuart Little by E. B. White (1973, see References)

3. Preview Text and Prime Background Knowledge

• Teach students to preview the text and predict what the text is going to be about before reading a passage.
• After previewing, teach students to think about what they already know and what they'd like to learn about the story or topic.

Use Conspicuous Strategies

Teacher actions should model how we preview a story or informational text using a "think aloud" procedure.
• Example: Look at the title, look at the pictures or diagrams, survey headings.
• Teacher actions should model how to predict what the story or informational text is going to be about
  • Example: "I think this story is going to be about a mouse named Stuart Little and his life."

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K-W-L Procedure

K-W-L Procedure Example Text: The Birds of Iceland

Ogle (1986, see References)

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Mediated Scaffolding

• Begin with passages that are read aloud by the teacher accompanied by pictures to help students preview the passage.
• Once children are reading independently, use passages with pictures closely related to the content and progress to passages that have fewer pictures.
• Once students learn to preview and predict, use passages with content that is familiar to students and progress to more complex and unfamiliar content.

4. Chunk the Text into Manageable Segments

It is important to determine how to divide the passage into manageable segments before reading. Considerations in chunking the text include:

• Appropriate stopping points for asking questions
• Specific vocabulary that might need to be reviewed
• Appropriate points for identifying text structure elements
• Opportunities to summarize the main ideas in the passage