Fitting It All In: Reading Skills

Reading Skills. There are a LOT of them. Sometimes it seems like when you focus on one skill, your students forget about the other ones! A few years ago we were deep in the throes of MAIN IDEA and Supporting Details. A question popped up about THEME and my class looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language! This was so painful because we had spent weeks on THEME in a previous unit!

We need to spiral back to skills many times before they are truly going to understand and be able to apply them. There are ways that you can squeeze in little moments of review throughout the day, in order to help skills become part of a student’s muscle memory.

Review In Line

One way to do a quick review is to use your reading (and math) skills as a way to line kids up.

I always ask kids questions and if they can answer, they can line up. Today we were talking about THEME.

I asked,” who can tell me what the theme of a story is?” Hands went up and the first person I called on answered it. I said, “Great! Get in line.” Then I asked, “Who can tell me a theme that you have found in a story that you have read.” Hands started waving around. Suddenly most of my class had an answer.

“Treat people the way you want to be treated.”

“Even small people can make a big difference.”

“Be sure to tell the truth or people will not believe what you say,”

It took a total of about 2 minutes to call on everyone and get him in line.

You can also review with your students if you get anywhere early (haha) like lunch or a special. Just ask them questions while you wait.

Morning Work

Every morning my class has morning work to complete after they unpack. Mondays we do Maker’s Monday (check that out here), but the other 4 days, we do something more academic. About two years ago I started to use this time to squeeze in some independent reading and comprehension. This ensures that every student gets to read and respond independently every day of school…even the crazy days!

I started to use these Daily Reading Practice passages and it has been a GAME CHANGER! These passages include a spiral review of so many READING SKILLS! The students read a short reading passage and then answer 3 questions per day about the passage. Since there are 3 questions, it moves quickly and fits nicely in that morning work slot.

I always make sure that we correct it together daily, which offers students immediate feedback. It also allows me to model close reading skills. We talk about highlighting in the text, crossing off incorrect answers, going back to find supporting evidence, etc.

One of my favorite reasons to use these Daily Reading Practice passages is that they include so many GENRES! I wrote recently about how lopsided my reading selections used to be. Using these reading passages has helped me to expose my students to different types of texts on a very regular basis…without any work added to my plate! Just copy and go.