60 Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension in Grades K-8

Use these fun, easy-to-use activities to tackle the most challenging aspect of reading! "Finally, someone has written a practical book filled with easy-to-read comprehension strategies. I will definitely use this book with teachers in my district to teach about and review comprehension strategies. The section on 'How Can We Learn More' is also fantastic. Thank you, Kathleen Jonson." --Hazel Brauer, Literacy Coordinator Jefferson Elementary School District, Daly City, CA "This book is a comprehensive, well-organized guide to teaching reading comprehension. The clear, consistent layout of the lesson plans makes it easy for the teacher to locate and implement appropriate lessons quickly. The examples are very helpful and the templates allow a teacher to begin lessons immediately. The wide variety of lesson plans makes this guide truly useful for all grade levels." --Myra Gamble, Reading Specialist Spring Valley School, Millbrae, CA Comprehension is the final goal of reading, but because it involves several cognitive processes, it remains the most difficult facet of reading development to teach. Based on the recommendations of the National Reading Panel Report, 60 Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension in Grades K-8 provides teachers with a ready-to-use toolkit of tried-and-true learning strategies designed to actively engage students in cognitive processes, including predicting, visualizing, making inferences, monitoring, synthesizing, and summarizing. Developed as specific instructional procedures with clearly delineated steps for implementation, these entertaining activities are effective in all types of classrooms. Each of the 60 strategies in the book includes: Grade-level recommendations Goals for each strategy Step-by-step instructions Graphics and examples of student work Directions for modifying strategies for different grade levels Literary expert Kathleen Feeney Jonson has created an exciting resource to help educators teach the most difficult piece of the reading process: comprehension. Offering a rare combination of fun and function, these strategies are sure to get students to listen, laugh, and most important, to learn.

Table of Contents:
Preface About the Author Strategy 1: ABC Book Strategy 2: Anticipation Guide Strategy 3: Bio Poem Strategy 4: Book Box Strategy 5: Brainstorming Strategy 6: Bumper Stickers Strategy 7: Central Story Problem Strategy 8: Character Bag Strategy 9: Character Mapping Strategy 10: Creating Chapter Titles Strategy 11: Crossword Puzzle Strategy 12: Cubing Strategy 13: Directed Reading Thinking Activity Strategy 14: Double-Entry Journal Strategy 15: Exclusion Brainstorming Strategy 16: Fishbowl Strategy 17: Found Poem Strategy 18: Four-Corners Debate Strategy 19: Gallery Walk Strategy 20: Grand Conversation Strategy 21: Guided Imagery Strategy 22: Hot Seat Strategy 23: Interior Monologue Strategy 24: Jigsaw Strategy 25: K-W-L Chart Strategy 26: Learning Logs Strategy 27: Life Experience Strategy 28: Literacy Quilt Strategy 29: Literacy Sociogram Strategy 30: Literature Circles Strategy 31: Mind Mapping Strategy 32: Open Mind Character Analysis Strategy 33: Paired Retellings Strategy 34: Pick-A-Pal Strategy 35: Plot Profile Strategy 36: P-M-I Evaluation (Pluses-Minuses-Interesting Aspects) Strategy 37: Quaker Reading Strategy 38: Question-Answer Relationships Strategy 39: Questioning the Author Strategy 40: Quickwriting Strategy 41: Readers′ Theater Strategy 42: Read-Pair-Share Strategy 43: Reciprocal Questioning (ReQuest) Strategy 44: Response Log Strategy 45: Semantic Mapping Strategy 46: Sketch-to-Stretch Strategy 47: SQ3R (Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review) Strategy 48: Stop-and-React Strategy 49: Storyboard Strategy 50: Story Frame Strategy 51: Story Mapping Strategy 52: Story Prediction Guide Strategy 53: Story Pyramid Strategy 54: Summary Hand Strategy 55: Tableau Strategy 56: Tea Party Strategy 57: Think-Aloud Protocol Strategy 58: Think-of-Three Strategy 59: Venn Diagram Strategy 60: Yellow Stickies Resource I: Strategies Recommended by Grade Level Resource II: Elements Addressed Through Strategies Resource III: Strategies Used Before, During, and After Reading Resource IV: Meta-Strategies Addressed Index