Our Teacher Resource Center has a great workshop called "Comprehension Connections." It is based on the text,
Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement.
The book has great lessons to teach comprehension strategies in the beginning of the year and it really is awesome. A metacognition salad? Genius! Also, it fit right into my Daily Five self-motivated kiddos. Check out the text and enjoy!
The metacognition lesson is fun because you read aloud for the kiddos and have them evaluate you. Of course they tell you how lovely you read, and then...DUM DUM DUMMMMMMM! You reveal that you were not reading for meaning...you were simply reading to sound good, and you don't remember anything you read! Then, you move into a comprehension salad of reading for meaning and sounding good, because you need both!
We use the teacher bag lesson here. Bring in a ginormous bag and tell the kiddos you're going to the gym after school, but you have too much in your bag! They decide the 5 most important items for the gym. A few days later, I review by bringing in a pot of spaghetti and straining the spaghetti and water, showing them that the important part stays in the strainer and the stuff you don't need going down the drain. Your brain is a giant strainer!
I make mini versions of these anchor charts and kiddos glue them into their Reader Response Journal to reference without having to hang these all year long.
The Questioning lessons are fun because you get to use wordless picture books you love, like Flotsom, Tuesday, and more!
To review, we fold regular computer paper, staple, and glue these headers to each flip section. Kiddos write what these strategies mean underneath the flap and explain how it helps their comprehension.
