Reading Strategies Book - Goals 5 &6

This week I'm linking up with Teaching Little Miracles again for the summer book study, The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo.

I have so been looking forward to this part of the study. Goals 5 and 6 begin to focus on comprehension. As a middle-to-upper elementary teacher, comprehension strategies are what I NEED. So, let's begin!

Goal 5: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction - Understanding Plot and Setting

I loved so many strategies from this goal that I cannot include them all in my blog post ( I don't have the time and you don't want to read a novel). So here are a few that I really took note of.

I love the visual included with Strategy 5.4 Uh-oh...Phew and will definitely be replicating it for my classroom.

I think it would be great to have this as an anchor chart that stays up on the wall. Then we can use sticky notes to jot down parts from the read aloud we are doing and stick them on to the Plot map.

Another great strategy from this goal is 5.14 Chapter-End Stop Signs. Having students stop and jot at the end of a chapter is a great way to help them focus on the main events of that chapter and see how they tie into the bigger story.

I think this would be great for students to keep in a reading notebook. Then they could refer back to it in book club to guide their discussion.

Goal 6: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction - Thinking about Characters

There were really two strategies that jumped out at me from this goal. The first one was 6.5 Ready, Set, Action! I know she says this strategy was for lower levels of reading (F-M) but I can see it being helpful (and so much fun!) at any reading level. I love the idea of having students taking turns being the "director" that guides the student reading aloud to read with the right tone/ inflection/ emotion.

The other strategy that stood out in this goal was 6.18 Complex Characters. I think I will have a list of character traits displayed in my room this year for students to refer to, or have a smaller handout that students can paste into their readers notebooks like this free download from Mrs. R. This is another great strategy that can be used with read alouds, as Serravallo suggests "Consider creating a wall in your classroom where you hang photocopied covers of past read alouds with character webs or a list of traits below." I can see me reading aloud to the class, and us stopping to discuss and add to our character traits web as we do. I can't wait to get started with this strategy!

Y'all, I get so excited every time I stop and think about how I'm going to use these strategies in my classroom! I am especially looking forward to being in a regular class this year, where I can do daily read alouds with my littles! These two goals seemed to bring up read-alouds a lot as I was thinking through them, so tell me: what are your favorite read alouds for third or fourth grade?