Checking for Understanding

 

Teachers ask the following types of prompts to check for understanding.  A teacher might join a triad or triangle knees group during Guided Reading the Four Blocks Way or a Shared Reading lesson and ask a specific prompt for setting purpose. 

-Who can read the part that tells us where this story takes place?

-Ask a student to “read the part where —– ” to a buddy or to their triad (triangle knees) partners.

E.R.T…find out or figure out

I believe in setting purpose for reading (and all lessons).  Reading for a purpose is necessary in classrooms and during at home reading.  Children are motivated to read carefully to figure out the answer in order to participate in the class discussion.  By setting purpose, students are experiencing gentle, relentless pressure to reread for the answer and to read carefully.  Students are asked to read materials chosen by the teacher.  By asking students to turn and talk to each other for the set purpose, it helps to have the students refer to the text when proving their answers to their friends.  Setting purpose motivates and engages students.

Two authors help to assure that students read for a set purpose. 

 Pat Cunningham writes about E.R.T. (Everyone Read To…find out or figure out) in her book, Guided Reading the 4 Blocks Way.     

Connie Hebert  author of ,Catch a Falling Reader,   made a list of setting purpose prompts that I use frequently.

Reading Strategies Song

Reading Strategies Song

(to the tune of “I’m a Little Tea Pot)

Look at the pictures, still no clue?
Read it again all the way through.
When you get to the place where you are stuck,
Get your mouth ready and the word pops up!

(AND NOW… let’s check it)

Think about the word you’re trying to say.
Does it make good sense? Does it sound okay?
Do all the letters look right to you?
These are the things good readers do!

(STILL CAN’T GET IT?)

Read it again all the way through.
When you come to the tricky part, don’t get blue.
Get your mouth ready but go on by.
Read to the end then give it a try.

(AND NOW…let’s check it again)

Think about the word you’re trying to say
Does it make good sense? Does it sound okay?
Do all the letters look right to you?
These are the things good readers do!

Bulletin Board: Sentence concept

http://mssinclair.blogspot.com/2010/10/anchor-chart-for-retelling.html

This is an awesome bulletin board for first grade (and kindergarten) to remind children about a sentence

Reading Logs … why or why not?

What is the purpose of a reading log?  Are you for or against?  Do they work?  Here is a thoughtful post…

http://coachingchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-logs.html

The Gingerbread Boy sites with ideas

The Gingerbread Man 

The gingerbread man ran through the town,

through the town, through the town.

The gingerbread man ran through the town,

singing, “Catch me if you can!”

He ran away from a /c/ /ow/*

a /c/ /ow/, a /c/ /ow/

He ran away from a COW,

singing, “Catch me if you can!”

*replace cow with sheep, dog, etc.

Then he came to a /f/ /ox/,

/f/ /ox/, /f/ /ox/,

The fox sat on a box and said…

“You can trust me”

Then he ate him up

(tune of “Wheels on the Bus”)

YES SIR-EE!

Traditional Gingerbread Boy Story on-line:  
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/stories/gingerbread.htm

Eat, Eat, Your Gingerbread Boy 
(To the tune of “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat)
Eat, eat, your Gingerbread Boy, 
Before he runs away. 
Faster, faster, faster please, 
Don’t let him get away! 
Catch, catch the Gingerbread Boy, 
Catch him, yes, today. 
Faster, faster, faster still, 
For he has run away. 
Say bye-bye to the 
Gingerbread Boy. 
Say good-bye today. 
Say so long for he is gone. 
The fox ate him today. 

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/GingerbreadColorWord-ackEmergentReader.htm
 

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/Gingerbread-ColorWord-ackClassroomReader.htm

http://www.marcias-lesson-links.com/MyGingerbread%20Man.pdf

Where is my Gingerbread Man?
(tune of “Oh where has my little dog gone?”)
Oh where, oh where is my Gingerbread Man?
Oh where, oh where can he be?
He popped out of the oven and ran out the door.
Oh where, oh where can he be?

http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/seasonal_related.html#Gingerbreas
 

http://www.janbrett.com/mural_gf/gf_main_page.htm

Gingerbread Man tour with little poems along the way: 
http://www.kinderkorner.com/gingerbread.html

For example, this is the poem gingerbread boy leaves in the classroom upon his return. 

Dear Boys and Girls,
I’ve run and run
I need some rest
I think this room is the best!
Love, The Gingerbread Man

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/books/body/gingerbreadclothes/
 

Gingerbread Man Song 
(tune: The Muffin Man) 
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man, 
The Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man? 
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man, 
Who ran and ran and ran? 
He said, “Catch me if you can, 
If you can, if you can.”
He said, “Catch me if you can,” 
Then ran and ran and ran. 
I can run like the Gingerbread Man. 
The Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man. 
I can run like the Gingerbread Man, 
Now catch me if you can.

 

 

Links for The Mystery of Harris Burdick

Chris Van Allsburg encourages students/writers/people to write their stories re:  the pictures

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/harrisburdick/introduction.html
 

Vocabulary for Mystery writing:

alibi     abandoned      accuse      accusation     apprehend     bubbling     bitter     breakthrough

clue     cobwebs     cold     corpse     crime     criminal     creaky     creepy     culprit

dangerous      damp     dark      deduction     detective      disappearing      dusty     detest

echo     eerie     evidence     felon     frightening     foggy     foghorn     footprints     fugitive     full moon

ghosts     glowing     gooey     greed     grisly     haunting music         heartbeat     howling     hunch

innocent     investigate     invincible     invisible     interrogate

malice     missing    motive     musty     mysterious     obvious      perplexing     piercing     pungent     rattling

salty air     secretive     sewer     shadows     sharp      shivering      shocked      sleuth     slimy     smoky       spooky

spite     squeaking     sticks     suspect     suspicious     terrifying    thumping     ticking     unpredictable

vengeful     vanish     victim     whisper      witness

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/harrisburdick/inspired_by_burdick.html

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/davidc/6c_files/documents/mysteries/divmysteries.htm

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LACreativeWritingWithMysteriesOfHarrisBurdick5.htm
   

http://www.gmbservices.ca/Jr/HarrisBurdickMysteryStories.htm
 

https://picturebooksforolderreaders.pbworks.com/w/page/16738042/The-Mysteries-of-Harris-Burdick

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

If you want to write a story for The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, the pictures are posted here: 

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/davidc/6c_files/documents/mysteries/divmysteries.htm

It is ALL ABOUT the P.I.E. (persuade, inform, entertain) Author’s Purpose

      

I need more information to know what is under the crust.  I cannot make an informed decision if I don’t know the type of pie is under the crust.  The author will teach us or provide us with information so that I can make an informed decision. 

The author is entertaining us (cartoons, something funny).

           

 I will persuade you to eat pie with whip cream or ice cream instead of plain pie.  …

The teacher makes the difference: Classroom Procedures that help with discipline

Cooperative Behaviors wanted.  This post gives specific ideas for reaching children.  We want all students in class learning. 

http://tooteeter.blogspot.com/2009/09/quick-diagnosis.html