The Grand Finale: Part 1 

Well, the school year is over and I have to say it was an amazing journey for me and the students. Our work on comprehension strategies was a highlight for me. In the following blog entries I will share the work students did and the process we went through.  Mrs. Clark

I began with the text "Comprehension Strategies" by Tanny McGregor. This book provides so many practical ideas and teacher friendly lessons. I completed both the "Reading Salad" and the "Metacognition" lessons with students. We practiced "Real Reading" as an "I Do", "We Do" and "You Do" process. Students latched onto this and continued to demonstrate this skill during Daily 5 and independent reading.

The lesson on "Questioning" and subsequent anchor chart that resulted from it really demonstrated that my students were capable of the "deeper thinking" that this process required. 

Next Step was to introduce the book "Rain" by Linda Ashman. This really is an amazing wordless picture book with a universal message. The pictures are created with such detail and and thought. Each page evokes discussion, questions and the opportunity to make inferences. 

I modeled the questioning strategy for  students focusing on the front cover of the book; the title and the picture. After modeling several questions students were so eager to share their own that I began writing all of our questions onto a chart labeled "Before", "During", and "After".  The process of generating questions took a week! It was very difficult holding off on discussions or answers to each question but we wanted to focus on the creation of good questions. By the time we were finished we had 27 thoughtful questions and students who were very eager to answer them!

Part 2 coming soon!