Let's face it, teaching children how to read isn't exactly as easy as the ABC's (although keyboard warriors would disagree.) In order to teach students how to read and comprehend the text, it involves quite a few steps. Throughout my journey of being a reading teacher in grades K, 2nd, and 5th I have learned that the common factor which helps students grasp the text, is simply by going back into it.
Don't get me wrong, finding text evidence is not the only way to increase the comprehension of a text. We should build reading fluency by the use of sight words & phonics, before/during/after reading we need to discuss the text, build vocabulary with unknown words, analyze characters / setting / plot, make text-to-self connections and so much more. But, what I have seen in every classroom is that once you get your students to dive into the text themselves and hunt for evidence, their comprehension increases tremendously.
Here are the steps I take in my own classroom to increase reading comprehension:
1. READ QUESTIONS FIRST:
We read our questions FIRST. By having students read their questions first, they automatically set purpose for reading. During reading, they pay closer attention because they want to "spot" the answer if they hear or see it. Students underline and/or highlight "keywords" within their questions. In my classroom, these would be words that stand out to us that the author most likely wouldn't use too many times within the text. We stick these words in our brains and if we hear them, we most likely found an answer or we might be close to finding it.
2. READ ALOUD:
I like to read the text aloud together during the first read and discuss important noticings. As a fifth grade teacher, we annotate the text as we read, but in younger grades you might have a graphic organizer that students add to when they come across important information. Students may also highlight important details during this time at all grade levels.
3. REVISIT THE QUESTIONS:
Next, after discussing the plot and any important information we noticed during our first read, we revisit our questions. Inside of the questions, you will notice sneaky keywords. We discuss these keywords once more before our "keyword hunt."
4. LOCATING TEXT EVIDENCE & CLOSE READ:
Depending on each students' needs is where this next part is KEY. If you know that you have a very low class, you will want to work on this next step TOGETHER. If you have super high students who do really well with partner work, this would be perfect for them. OR, if you have a mixed class you might consider doing a little bit of both and pulling over a small group for more individualized help. -- For the second read of the text, I have students reread the text and as they reread, they are on the "hunt" for their keywords within their questions. IF they find a keyword, they must reread the sentence and then revisit the question. If they have found the text evidence that supports their answer, they will underline their text evidence either with a pencil OR a crayon/marker/highlighter. I also encourage them to write the number of the question next to their text evidence within the text. By having students practice going back into the text independently, in a small group, or with a partner they not only begin to understand how to locate answers, but they are increasing their comprehension of the text they just read. Finding text evidence truly increases comprehension because it requires the students to close-read the text.
PRO TIP:
If you are using a worksheet that doesn't require colors, you can have your students grab out 5 of the same colors (every day) and box keywords within their questions using one color each question. For example, every time we work on a worksheet #1 will always be red. My second grade students got so used to this procedure, they knew if I asked for text evidence tools they would grab out "red, blue, green, purple, brown" and they had fun singing that little song as they did it, too. (For my fifth grade students, we primarily used a highlighter and pencil unless the worksheet called for specific colors.)
I hope you found these tips useful and that you can use one or all in your classroom tomorrow!
If you are looking for a differentiated reading comprehension resource that includes sight word and text evidence practice with each passage, please click the image below.
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Educationally yours,
Lisa Casella