The C in The CAFE
Building Reading Comprehension by Teaching Effective Strategies (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Ages:
5-9
Grade Range:
1st 2nd 3rdFood Groups:
Primary: Reading Comprehension Strategies Secondary: Motivation for Literacy, Classroom Tips
Transcript
The comprehension strategies that I use in the first grade are I start with "Check for understanding". That is very important because it's a way to make my students understand that even though I know how to decode, know how to read something. If I am not understanding what I'm reading, I'm not really reading. It doesn't make any sense to continue. The way I do it is I am reading a book, and then all of a sudden I stop, and start to ask questions. I pretend that I'm confused. "Oh, wait a minute, but I thought that this was different". Then the students tell me "no, this is what's happening". "Oh, okay, so you're understanding what I was reading". "Okay, perfect, so you think we should continue?" "Yes, okay," so we'll continue. If I understand, I should continue. If not, I should stop and do something about. "Make connections" is a strategy that I decided that should be there even though it's not part of the strategies in the book. But it's something that I use and I realize this is helping students understand what they are reading. They are always making connections with something that they already knew. Previous knowledge, something they read in another book, or something that they already knew for some reason. If they are able to make connections, it means they understand what they are reading. "Back up and reread". That's one of the strategies that my students will use when they're checking for understanding and they realize "oh, wait a minute, there's something wrong here. This doesn't make sense. Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I misread something. Maybe I skipped something that was important. Let's go back and review." Usually what they do is they go back one paragraph or two or one page, read it again, and then they continue. "Predict what will happen next and use text to confirm" is a very important strategy for me. My students, we were reading a book, or I am reading a book and then at some point I stop. Then, they have to tell me what they think might happen. We actually have to prove it, to find evidence in the book. The three things that we talk about is going back to the book or making an inference. Something that I saw in the book, there's a clue there that tells me that this is what's going on. Even though the author didn't say that, but I figured that out by looking at the picture or something that the author said that made me think this is what's happening or this is what's going to happen next. The next one is "Retell the story". "Retell the story" is very commonly used in the primary grades and in any grade too. Basically, we read a book or the students read a book and then they have the opportunity to tell me the book from the beginning until the end. Obviously, if they're able to do that, that's a sign that they understood what they were reading.
Related References
Additional Links:
The Daily Cafe www.thedailycafe.com
Activity Objective
The goal of The C in The CAFE: Building Reading Comprehension by Teaching Effective Strategies (Virtual Tour) is to provide students with various strategies that they can use as they read to ensure that they understand what is happening in a story. This teacher emphasizes that even though students might be able to read the words in a passage, they might not actually understand what is going on. Students learn to improve their comprehension by making connections (text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world), backing up and rereading when necessary, making predictions as they read, and retelling the story after they finish reading.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Remind students to look at the bulletin board to check that they are using all of the comprehension strategies. - Model using the strategies during read alouds. Read to the class but make some decoding errors, read dysfluently, or confuse meanings of words and pretend that you don't understand what is going on. Encourage your students to suggest strategies from the list that you can use to make sense of what you are reading.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
What are We Doing in Class Today?: Motivating Beginning Readers with a Daily Schedule (Virtual Tour)
K - 6th
Literacy CAFE in First Grade: Fostering Independence using a Menu of Strategies (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
The Daily 5 in First Grade: Engaging Students with a Balanced Literacy Approach (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Predicting and Inferring: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies using an Explicit Framework (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Revising and Editing in First Grade: Using Success Criteria to Focus the Writing Process (Virtual Tour)
K - 6th
