Strategies

List Of Strategies
(Lori Lofman)

Plan: A Literature Circle

General Description
Students can meet in small groups to read and discuss books. Students may choose their own book at their reading levels, listen to the teacher read a book aloud, or participate in a shared reading activity. Literature circles can grow out of reading workshop, and children can come together to discuss different books. Children probably benefit from listening to a book read aloud two times or reading it several times before participating in the discussion.

Basic Procedure
1. Prereading: After the teacher gives a book talk, students choose books to read, form groups, and make schedules for reading and group meetings.
2. Reading: Students read the books they have selected independently or with a partner.
3. Responding: Students talk about the book during literature circle discussions. Students take responsibility to come to the discussion prepared to participate actively.
4. Exploring: Students study vocabulary, examine genre and elements of story structure, write summaries, or research a topic related to the book and share what they learn with their classmates during group meetings.
5. Applying: Sometimes students create projects after reading, and sometimes they give a brief presentation about the book to the class.
6. In preparation for literature circle, children often draw and write reading log entries to share with the group.
7. Students may choose to write a letter to their group telling about the book.
8. Students meet with their teacher for 30 minutes to talk about the book.

Process observation
Teachers have a variety of options for monitoring students’ work and assessing their learning during literature circles.
• Observing students
• Monitoring students’ progress
• Assessing students’ work
• Examining students’ reflections


Tompkins, Gail (2006). Literacy for the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Plan: Literature Focus

General Description
Teachers choose high-quality trade books as the featured selections for literature focus units. Sometimes the books have been identified as core books that must be taught at their grade level, or teachers choose other high-quality books that are appropriate for students at their grade level.

Basic Procedure
1. Students read the featured book independently, or the teacher reads it aloud or uses shared reading if the book is too difficult for students to read it themselves.
2. Teachers teach minilessons on phonics and often skills during the exploring stage of the reading process.
3. Teachers teach minilessons on comprehension strategies and model strategy use as they read aloud and participate in grand conversations.
4. Teachers post words on word walls and involve students in a variety of vocabulary activities during literature focus units.
5. Teachers guide students’ literal, inferential, and critical comprehension through activities at each stage of the reading process.
6. Teachers select high-quality, grade-appropriate literature, including multicultural literature, usually from district-approved lists for literature focus units.
7. Books of fiction are often selected for literature focus units, but informational books that connect with content-area units can also be used.
8. Students participate in grand conversations to talk about the featured book, and they often create projects involving oral language, such as puppet shows, dramatizations, and oral reports.
9. Students write in reading logs and often write use the writing process and they write reports, stories, poems, and other projects.
10. Spelling is not an important component in literature focus units.

Process Observations
Observe the following:
• Reading
• Phonics and other skills
• Strategies
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
• Literature
• Content-area study
• Oral language
• Writing
Tompkins, Gail (2006). Literacy for the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
PLAN: READING

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Before students can effectively summarize material, they should identify what they already know and what they do not know. Many of the important elements in reading and learning are: using background knowledge to predict the content and structure of text and to assess its potential for reading purposes, locating familiar and unfamiliar concepts, reading flexibly for information to add to what is already known and taking note of new learning and using it to accomplish a task.

BASIC PROCEDURE
1. Tell the students that you will be demonstrating a strategy that they can use as they study to learn content information. Use your own content area examples.
2. Identify a section in your social studies, science, or math text that contains a concept that you want students to learn.
3. Invite students to predict the content and structure of the text by previewing the title, subtitles, and highlighted words. Invite students to create a map or diagram using the headings. Students might add the subtitles in a different color pen and highlight important vocabulary words with a highlighter marker (These additions were suggested by Mrs. Carey of Carson School).
4. Students can review the text and add graphics, diagrams, and photographs to their maps in the places they appear in the text.
5. Students review the diagram and check their own knowledge of the materials by marking the map as follows:
a= familiar
? = unfamiliar
+ = seems interesting
6. As students read, they add information especially where there were questions marks.
7. Students may choose to revise their prediction map using a different pattern.
8. Finally, students should write a summary of the ideas.
9. This strategy functions very well with content area text.

PROCESS OBSERVATIONS
Teachers can collect the PLAN maps and observe the following:
• Evidence of students’ critical thinking.
• Comprehension of the material read.

(C.Katz. Notes, online)

Plan: Scaffolded Independent-Level
Reading Book Basket

General Description
On their own, readers choose and read books they enjoy and understand. This involves daily-sustained silent reading in school. The teacher carefully monitors the process.
Basic Procedure
• Arrange your desks so they form tables. Seat students at the tables in mixed groups.
• Create book baskets of 25 books to place on each table. Rotate baskets weekly. (Middle-Level students may have fewer books in their basket.)
• Choose books at each level in each genre or format.
• Students should keep books in their pocket folders until they are done. When they finish, they should return the book to its original basket.

Process Observations
Collect the following suggestions and grade appropriately.
• Write a letter to a character
• Rewrite the story changing the setting, ending, and/or action
• Visualization Strategy
• DRTA/DLTA
• Make a connection
• Wonderful Words
• Nonfiction response

(C Katz, public presentation, PowerPoint Presentation)
Plan: Vocabulary

General Description
The goal of vocabulary instruction is for students to learn how to learn new words.

Basic Procedure
1. Choose important words for vocabulary instruction from books students are reading and from thematic units.
2. Highlight important and interesting words on word walls.
3. Scaffold students as they develop full word knowledge by learning multiple meanings, how root words and affixes affect meaning, synonyms, antonyms, word histories, and figurative meanings.
4. Teach minilessons about the meanings of individual words, word maps, and word sorts, so students can explore words after reading.
5. Encourage students to check the meanings of words in a dictionary and to locate synonyms and antonyms in a thesaurus.
6. Teach students to use context clues to learn words in more effectively through independent reading.
7. Provide daily opportunities for students to read independently. At least 15-30 minutes in grades 1-3 and 30-60 minutes in grades 4-8.

Process Observations
Effective vocabulary instruction should exemplify these characteristics:
• Connections to background knowledge
• Repetition
• Higher-level word knowledge
• Strategy learning
• Meaningful use

Tompkins, Gail (2006). Literacy for the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.