Comprehension Corner

The purpose of this page is to provide strategies and activities to enhance the development of reading comprehension. As a participant in endless conferences, seminars, and university courses, I have always come away with lots of new ideas and generated some of my own. The need to internalize all of the information led me to develop extensive notes in handout format to share with others. I call it The Literarium: A Teacher’s Bag of Tricks (a Compendium of Strategies and Activities to Enhance Literacy.) It’s one of those “never ending stories.” I’ll always be a teacher researcher, looking for the better fix! Enjoy!

Now that I have retired from my job as a Language Arts Specialist, I have the time to go through things that I developed and used in the classroom as a regular education teacher. What a goldmine! I had forgotten that I worked on this as a personal literacy project while working on my masters degree. I’m really excited about finding the documents that support this page! If you see something that is not underlined and would like to move it to the front of the line for completion, let me know by sending me an e-mail at carl1404@msn.com and I’ll get to it right away.

Some of these files are apparently too large to open as Word documents so I’m in the process of converting them to pdf files, while still trying to add new stuff!! If you can’t open something, e-mail me and I’ll convert it immediately (same day). Some things are not linked yet, and so they are not underlined. They are here as a reminder to myself to finish them ASAP.

The Literarium: A Teacher's Bag of Tricks Literacy: From A to Z

A is for acceleration of learning for all.
B is for books for the tall and the small.
C is for clusters, commercials and change.
D for designing a delightful exchange.
E is for evaluate and edit (sincere).
F is for fluent young readers to cheer.
G is for genre and group gallery walk.
H is for hot seat for questions and talk.
I is for interaction that never seems dull.
J is for jigsaws and journals so full.
K is for knowing how to read and to write.
L is for listening to others recite.
M is for marvelous mysteries and more.
N is for needing to think and explore.
O is for awesome oral productions.
P is for paragraphs, poems, predictions.
Q is for quietly reading each day.
R for responding to what others say.
S is for songs and stories and skits.
T is for themes. Tea parties are hits!
U is for unconditional respect.
V is for videotaping the text.
W is for taking a “walk through the mind.”
X is for extending all you’ve designed.
Y is for yearning to spread literacy.
Z is for zooming toward proficiency.

Effective Teachers and Effective Schools

ABC Brainstorm

Abra-Ca-Dabra
or Hocus Pocus

Anticipation
Reaction Guide

Anticipation Guide Sample:
Arthur’s Family Vacation

Authors’ Circle

Carousel
Brainstorm

Chunking

Clustering
Brainstorm

Comic Capers

Comprehension
Questions

Conferences

Constructivist Teaching

Double Entry
Journal Variation

English Language
Learner Strategies

Expository Instruction

Five W’s Chart

Use this chart for summarizing and retelling and/or for organizing thoughts before writing.

Flap Books

(for Guided Reading Extensions)

Flap Books

Please note that all of the flap book patterns and samples need to be saved to your computer and then opened. Not sure why, but that’s the way it works! Maybe it’s the original graphics. Sorry for the inconvenience!

T-Rex Flap Book Sample

Penguin Flap Book Pattern
Sports Biography Flap Book Patterns
Pilgrim Flap Book Patterns
Native American Flap Book Patterns
Uncle Sam Flap Book Pattern
Ladybug Flap Book Sample