Strategies:
Predict, Inference, Monitor/Clarify, Visualize, Question, Summarize, Connect, Evaluate/Comment, Story Structure, Knew, New, Q
Text Structure:
Cause/Effect, Problem/Solution, Question/Answer, Description, Sequence or Time Order, Compare/Contrast
Multistrategy Graphic Organizers included:
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Knew, New, Q, Monitor and Clarify, Predict and Summarize with somebody, wanted,
but, so, Reciprocal Teaching, Summarize and Comment, Summarize and Infer, Summarize and Predict, Summarize and Question, Summarize, Predict, and Question, Summarize, Comment, and Predict, Summarize, Comment, and Question
Comprehension Strategies
Strategies that we use to understand text are done primarily during reading. They occur in our heads as we read. Good readers are able to use strategies. Novice readers, on the other hand, often need to be taught how, when, and why we use strategies. The best way to ensure that a reader learns to use a strategy is first, one at a time and then, combining strategies into multiple strategy lessons. All of these variations of strategy lesson need to follow the Gradual Release model; I do with teacher modeling and think-aloud, We do, You do together, and You do alone.
Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are exactly what they say, they are graphic representations that organize our thinking and keep track of information found within the text. Graphic organizers are best when they match the text they are being used with. These editable graphic organizers are meant to be used with the comprehension strategies you choose for the texts you are teaching. The best way to determine what strategy to use in a text you are teaching is to read the text and think about what strategy you are using (be metacognitive, after all isn’t that what we want our students to be able to do?!). That is always a good place to start.
The benefits of using graphic organizers or concept mapping has been seen in a wide range of practices. The use of graphic organizers during comprehension instruction is first, a good way to teach students how to use strategies as they see you writing and talking about your own thinking, but they are also a good way to assess their strategy use. You can use what they have written on their own organizer as a part of assessing their strategy use.
Planning a Comprehension Lesson
When planning a comprehension strategy lesson, it is important that you completely read and fill in a graphic organizer during your lesson creation so when you turn the kids out for the You do together and You do alone portion of the lesson you already have your thinking down on your own graphic organizer. Having this done allows you to engage in conversation, discussion, and generate elaborative responses from your students as another means of assessing their comprehension of the text. After all, discussion is still one of the very best assessments of comprehension we can use. The graphic organizer is not the focus of the comprehension strategy lesson, but is the keeper of our thoughts until we can get to the time for discussion.
