She walked up to me, hands cupped and eyes bright, “Yes, please!”
“Here ya go,” I said, pouring in a handful of Goldfish.
“Thank you!” she chirped, and scampered off to recess.
The next student approached, hands cupped in a similar fashion. I repeated my action, giving him a dose of orange salty goodness.
“Thank you!” he smiled, as he sauntered off stuffing his mouth full of crackers.
One by one, all the students who wanted crackers at recess approached with the customary outstretched hands, and each one offered up a cheerful “Thank you!” as soon as I poured the crackers in.
It never got old. Day in and day out, I heard these two simple words of appreciation from dozens of children, and it never got old. Polite children are always refreshing. And, I’ve found, they are also more grateful. They exude a more positive attitude, and they grow to be more kind to others. Common courtesy is an essential skill that needs to be taught.
Whew! Summer is over, and with that comes the end of my summer series on Reading Strategies for Children! Yep, this is the last one in that series. Not gonna lie, I was ready to call it quits multiple times throughout the summer. Not only do these posts force me to dig into my brain and try to sound like I know what I’m talking about… but I also lost a lot of subscribers in the process :(. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t follow the bloggy rules and write about lots of different topics (like education AND parenting AND food AND marriage) rather than focusing on just one topic.
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me, even if you don’t have kids and/or aren’t interested in this series! It means a lot to me that you’re still here and you’re reading :D. This series is the kind of resource I would have loved to share with parents when I was still in the classroom, so at least I can do that now! Please let me know if you’ve found it helpful!
Now, onto the last reading strategy: summarizing and synthesizing!
Reading Strategy: Summarize
This may be the reading strategy that you feel most comfortable with. While you may not have heard about “text-to-text connections” much in your elementary school days, I’m fairly certain all of us are familiar with the idea of summaries from our own schooling. Whether it was reading a book and summarizing it for a book report, or reading summaries at the end of textbook chapters, summaries were and are a basic part of producing and consuming text. However, writing a good summary requires a lot more skill than we might think.
I used to think summaries were simple work… until I started teaching. Students would turn in summaries that were not really summaries at all. Sometimes, the summary felt longer than reading the actual text that they were supposed to summarize! Somewhere in their schooling, students picked up the idea that “the more you write, the better.” So I students would proudly hand in their 1.5 to 2 page “summaries” of a one page story we had just read. It would be filled with detail and sometimes even dialogue- excellent for story-writing, but not for a summary!
Other students would hand in something short that just listed a few random events that took place. It was as if they just pulled out details they remembered and threw them down into print. There was no distinction between key events and minor details– as long as they wrote down something they remembered from the text, they were happy to call it a summary.
Of course, neither of these reflected good thinking skills in terms of summarizing information. Here is one way you can try to help your child grow in the area of summarizing more effectively.
Hey Teachers! Back to school night and parent conferences are coming up, and wouldn’t it be GREAT if you could share some information with parents on how to help their children grow in their reading this year? I mean, if only there were some simple, ready-made resource online that could give parents a good overview of what you’re really doing in your classroom with reading, and offer them detailed and practical tips on how to support that learning at home… that would be just LOVELY. Right???
HERE YOU GOOOO!!
https://cuppacocoa.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-reading-time-with-your-child/
I made this for you!!! And I made it for all the parents of growing readers out there, so I really hope it gets some use. Parents, likewise please feel free to share with your classroom teachers. You know, something along the lines of, “I came across this really helpful website and learned about how to help my child develop their reading strategies! I thought other parents might appreciate this resource too, so I wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to pass it along!” :D.
Please feel free to link this on your classroom websites, in newsletters home, or just send ’em over to www.cuppacocoa.com for general awesome reads ;).
Although today’s post focuses on the specific reading strategy of determining importance, regular readers will know I’ve got a whole series going on that shares what the Reader’s Workshop, guided reading, and the reading strategies are all about. Please take a look-see and explore what’s available! Scroll to the bottom for more links.
Reading Strategy: Determine Importance
Onto today’s topic. Determining importance means the reader should be able to filter through text and find the important information to determine key ideas or themes. A lot of times, this is applied to informational text, like a textbook. Readers use all of their reading strategies together to try to figure out what the author is trying to communicate, key in on what they have learned, and hone in on the main points. In stories and other fiction texts, it’s more about figuring out the main points in the story and letting go of mere details. Here’s one way to teach it.
Today’s reading lesson: Making Inferences! This is the art of reading between the lines and figuring out something that is probably true. As this unit study explains, “The author doesn’t tell us everything. We can take evidence from the text and combine it with what we already know and say, ‘This is probably true.’ That is an inference.”
You make inferences all the time when you read: You infer that Charlie is a responsible child because he looks around to see if he can return the money. You infer that the story takes place a hundred years ago based on the type of cars they’re driving. Good readers are constantly making inferences to make sense of the text we read, and it’s important to teach your child to make and then notice those inferences when they are reading.
Update, 2/24/2020: I had previously titled this post, “How to lead a Bible study.” Then one day, I randomly thought about how this is not how I would lead a Bible study, but how I would lead a small group–maybe a book study, or follow-up discussion after a message. Very different. Bible study requires a lot of different skills and tools that I do not even begin to cover here! Please replace “Bible study” with “small group” in the rest of this post. Thanks!
This summer, my group at church decided to split into men’s and women’s small groups, and I happen to be leading a couple of the meetings for the women. I’m leading one this Thursday, actually. And here’s
the surprising thing: I’m feeling pretty relaxed about it. This definitely has not always been the case. It used to be that when it was my turn to lead the group, I’d dread it from the very moment I signed up to lead. The feeling of dread and regret (for signing up) would grow as the date neared and, being the procrastinator I am, I’d put off the awful, burdensome task of preparing until the night before. It was no fun, and I just couldn’t wait to get the whole thing over with.
I worried. What if people didn’t talk? What if nobody read the material? What if no one showed up? What if nobody answered my questions? What if I had nothing insightful to share? What if no one got anything out of it? What if we ran out of things to talk about? What if it was… silent?! Oh, the dreaded awkward silence. I over-prepared and set up activities and tried to think of back-up questions and exercises to take up time to ensure that we could fill up the long two hours that I was supposed to be in charge. Ugh. How could two hours feel so long?
This is Hanna. She is one of my favorite people! We had the pleasure of teaching at the same school, and my only regret is that we never got to work on the same grade level team. That didn’t keep us from becoming fast friends, as we soon found that we shared common interests for baking, books, and teaching! I felt so blessed to work with someone so passionate, fun, competent, and selfless. She has since made a career change to be an educational consultant, and I’ve been dying to pick her brain on the recent nationwide transition to the Common Core State Standards– something you’ve probably heard a lot about and something you definitely want to know more about!
It turns out we are very much on the same page about the Common Core transition! Since she is such an expert in the area, I asked her to write a guest post to share with you, dear readers! Now you can learn what all the fuss is about, why we’re doing it, and things you can do to help your own child transition well to the new standards. Please give a warm welcome to my dear friend…. Hannnnaaaa!!!
Hi! I’m thrilled to be writing a guest post for Cuppacocoa! JoEllen is a great friend and I love her blog as much as you do! I had the privilege being her colleague for 4 of my 8 years in the classroom (teaching 2nd and 3rd grades). I implemented the Common Core State Standards in my last 2 years of teaching. Now, I’m working as an educational consultant for a nonprofit organization in San Jose, CA, coaching teachers and principals through the transition to Common Core and helping them ensure high-quality education and strong results for kids through it all. JoEllen asked me to share some of what I’ve learned about the Common Core with you all, so here we go!
What are the Common Core State Standards? Why Change?
The Common Core State Standards…I’m sure you’ve heard of them. Do they intrigue you? Confuse you? Make you want to run screaming down the street or cower under your desk? These new(ish) standards have gotten a lot of press in the last few years, not all of it favorable. And if the Common Core Standards leave you befuddled, you’re in good company!
The Common Core State Standards (or CCSS, for short), have been adopted by 45 states. Before the creation and adoption of the CCSS each state had its own standards, which led to widely different measures of student proficiency across the nation. Comparing student achievement in, for example, California and New York would have been like comparing apples and hamburgers. Why is this important, you wisely ask? Because if we can’t compare how students from different states are performing, how can we possibly know if we are giving each of our nation’s children a fair shot? How can we ensure that every child, regardless of his or her zip code, graduates high school ready to enter college or the work force? We couldn’t. The CCSS and their aligned assessments allow us to finally, effectively assess student proficiency no matter where that student is from. We can finally tell if we, as a nation, are adequately preparing our children to enter the workforce and the world as competent 21st century citizens. (As a bonus, if your family has to move across state lines in the course of your child’s schooling, you can rest assured that, if you move to another state that’s adopted the CCSS, your child will be prepared to enter school without losing any ground.)
What does this mean for us?
So that’s the “why” behind the CCSS (according to me, at least). But now I’m sure you’re wondering – what does this mean for me? How are the CCSS different from what my child was expected to learn before? Why are people so up in arms about the CCSS? How can I help my child if she brings home one of those notorious enigmas of a math problem for homework?
Back to school sales have been happening which can only mean one thing: IT’S ALMOST TIME TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!! For some, that is great reason to celebrate, and for others, it’s a little too soon to be thinking about it (What?! Didn’t school just let out a couple weeks ago??). Either way, it’s almost always a good time to clock in some extra minutes of parent-child reading time together!
As you probably know, I’ve been in the middle of a series on how to read well with your child. Yes, straight-up reading out loud to your child is great, and is already more quality and productive time than a lot of other things you or your child could be doing. But if your child happens to be struggling at all with reading, there are a few simple things you can do to make the reading time together even more effective! If you’re hoping to get more bang for the minutes you are spending reading with your child, bookmark this parent page and try some of these simple strategies to help your child grow as a reader.
Today, I’m going to go more in depth on teaching your child the reading strategy of asking questions while reading. I have spent weeks teaching this strategy alone in the classroom. There are so many ways to talk about asking questions that I was tempted to break this post into two parts, but the OCD part of me wants to link just one “Asking Questions” link everywhere, so… here goes!
A couple months ago, a handyman came by to give us an estimate on some jobs. Somewhere in the middle of that, I learned that he had a daughter in fourth grade so I mentioned that I had taught fourth grade for several years. I asked him how she was liking it, since well, I loved it… and then I heard it all. His frustrations with the grade level. His frustrations with his child’s teacher and the new Common Core standards. How upsetting it was to suddenly hear that his daughter– who was doing just fine last year– was suddenly performing and reading below grade level. The teacher blamed it on the new Common Core standards, and he didn’t know who to blame it on. He was just frustrated.
This is a common thing I’ve heard from parents– “What do you mean my child is behind? He was doing just fine last year! His state test scores were just fine!” Maybe they don’t phrase it quite like that, but I can hear the alarm and disbelief in their voices. If their child performed decently on state tests, that must mean they’re getting it, right?
I’m afraid not. It’s not that simple. Reading fluency and comprehension doesn’t boil down to answering a few multiple choice questions about a passage. Good readers are engaging in a number of reading strategies all the time when they’re reading, considering questions far beyond Who is the main character? and Who won the race? Good readers don’t just answer questions while reading– they ask them. They consider their existing knowledge on the subject, and they are aware when they aren’t understanding the text well. In my current series, I am sharing reading strategies that we teach at school in the Reader’s Workshop to help students deepen their reading comprehension skills.
Today, I will share one of the most accessible strategies: making connections. This is the one nearly universal strategy that nearly every reader is already doing in some way, so it’s one of the easiest to teach. This is also one of the most effective in helping readers remember what they read, because when you can connect new material to existing knowledge, you are much more apt to remember it, as I described in this post. Making connections is exactly what it sounds like: you read something, and consider how it is connected to something else you know about.
The goal of making connections is to help kids attach new text they read to things they already know about. They can use that pre-existing knowledge to help them remember the new material they come across. This strategy makes texts more meaningful to readers, and it also makes texts easier to understand. This is usually an easy and enjoyable strategy for children to practice and use. When we talk with students about the reading strategy of making connections, we usually break it down into three types of connections: text-to-self connections, text-to-text connections, and text-to-world connections.
I’m pretty sure my little bear went through a Wonder Week recently. Yes, I’m still keeping track of those things. She came out of it pronouncing words more clearly and starting to put together longer phrases! Woohoo!
But I was not woohoo-ing during those few weeks. I wanted to cry. Mostly because she would not stop crying. She was super clingy, and would not pause even when I was mere inches away (or even touching her) across a baby gate. I had to be interacting with her on her side of the gate or she’d throw a fit. So naturally, when hubby came home, I was tempted to throw a fit, in my own quieter grown-up way. This wasn’t really working out for any of us, so I decided it was time to look into something new to snatch her attention, in case this “Wonder Week” lasted for more than a week. Which it did.
I have been wary of caving into TV time (though truth be told, I’m thisclose to giving in), so I started looking for other solutions online. Toddler activities, including “busy boxes” and “quiet bags” filled my screen. Many boxes were labeled by day of the week, filled with craft doodads like feathers and pom poms and pipe cleaners which I had not touched since my own elementary school days. I can’t say I was the best about doing crafts as a teacher, so this is not my forte. So it’s time for busy boxes and quiet bags, huh? I thought to myself. I had always seen them on Pinterest, but I guess when you have an infant, those things seem way too advanced. But I no longer have an infant. I have a full blown toddler, and God knows this age group is not my area of expertise. Especially from 4-6pm.
So I skimmed a few blogs, pinned a few ideas, and started shopping away on Amazon. Here are some themes I’m finding for the 1-2 year old set:
- Putting things into containers is a thing. Like pushing pom pom balls through holes into a yogurt tub, or pushing pipe cleaners through holes into a cylinder (Which, btw, was a HIT with my little girl this past weekend).
- Things that stick and unstick are fun. Like velcro.
- Sorting stuff is fun.
- Color matching is fun.
So I picked up plastic shoe bins
+
All I really had to do was punch some holes into the top of an old oatmeal cylinder and twist some pipe cleaners together. Little girl took to her new toy immediately and was pushing away for at least half an hour the first day, and about twenty minutes the next day when we brought it to church to occupy her since we had to keep her with us during service that Sunday. A friend of hers, who is about a year older, also enjoyed the activity, and was able to match the pipe cleaners with the colors of the holes as well! It occupied him a good twenty minutes before he lost interest, which gives me hope that this will keep her occupied decently well in the next year!
Here are the basic instructions to make it yourself!
What do you remember about reading as a child? Do you recall doing whole-class reading, with one child reading out loud while everybody else followed along in the thick anthology reader? Did your teacher read aloud to you after lunch, letting you rest your recess-sweaty head on the cool desk while watching Ashley make faces at you? Did your whole class do units on a book together, working through packets and making book jackets at the end?
We all have memories of what it was like to be taught to read in school, and even though the format may be different, reading continues to be just as vital of a skill as it ever was. You already know a lot about what it’s like to learn to read, and that information will help you as you learn to teach your child to read!
…See what I did there? 🙂 Before jumping into my lesson, I activated your background knowledge. CLEVER HUH? 😀 (Yes, I am really feeling quite pleased with myself right now :D).
What does it mean to activate background knowledge?
When you activate background knowledge, you are basically helping a child unearth information she already knows and pulling it to the forefront of their mind. If you’re reading a story about dogs, then you’re asking the child what experiences she’s had with dogs before. If you’re starting a unit on the planets, you can ask them what things they’ve seen in the sky before. If it’s a unit on the Gold Rush, then you ask children to think about ideas they’ve had to make money (selling lemonade, doing chores, etc.). Activating background knowledge will help your child make sense of new information and also help them remember new information that they read. And what’s the point of reading unless you are going to remember what you read?
I think the reason this is such an effective strategy has something to do with brain theory. I remember learning in college that new information sticks better when it is connected with old information. Sometimes, I even draw my students this diagram and tell them, “You already know a TON of stuff. If you can connect the new stuff you learn to the old stuff you already know, chances are you will remember it much better. If you just learn new stuff without connecting it to something you already knew before, it will be harder to remember.”
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