Elementary Reading Instruction Progression: Everything You Need To Know
Let’s chat reading instruction progression because I believe to truly nurture students’ literacy development, you need to understand where they are coming from and where they are going.
I am going to tell you this mind blowing concept that you may already know but when I heard it for the first time, everything clicked.
First students are learning to read, then they transition to reading to learn.
BOOM.
That made such a difference in my understanding of the progression of reading skills.
If your students are in the transition or are into reading to learn, this blog series training is perfect for you!
Here is a peek at all of the blog posts included in this series if you want to check out any others!
#1 Overview of all Comprehension Skills
#2 Three Steps to Scaffolding Lessons
#3 Interactive Think Alouds to Model Comprehension
#4 Using Picture Books to Practice Skills
#5 Comprehension Activities to Apply Reading Strategies
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What is reading comprehension?
This is students’ ability to:
✔️ process written text
✔️ interpret its meaning
✔️ integrate with what the reader already knows
That is A LOT. There are many steps to getting students to internalize what they are reading and reach true comprehension.
Throughout schooling, kids develop a reading strategy toolkit that helps them read and comprehend books of all kinds. As primary teachers, we are laying the foundation for these strategies.
Reading strategies are taught year after year in increasingly complex ways.
🍎 I like to think of our jobs as primary teachers as the ones who connect…
HOW the reading strategy HELPS a reader
After all, kids have more buy in when they realize how it benefits them right?
What strategies make up reading comprehension?
My first year teaching after college, I was literally googling the comprehension strategy names in my reading instruction curriculum guide. I didn’t remember what most of them meant, I guess by that age they are just ingrained in how you read! Have you ever done that before?
If this is you, I’ll break it down for you.
If not, I will provide help examples and sentence frames for each strategy and you can skip the definition part.
🌟 Inferencing– The reader zooms in on text and picture clues then connects them to things they already know to draw a conclusion. They can make inferences about characters’ feelings, thoughts, ideas, intentions, unknown words or phrases, and settings.
“I can tell… because…”
Example- “I can tell Henry likes the show because he is smiling as he watches.”
🌟 Questioning– The reader notices something in the text they do not understand or want to know more about then ask a question about that. They use question words to expand their thinking while reading.
“I wonder… (who, what, when, why, how, and where)…?”
Example- “I wonder where she is driving?”
🌟 Connecting– The reader thinks of other books they have read, things they have experiences with, and background knowledge to see if anything connects. These connections help readers form a deeper understanding of the text.
“This reminds me of… because…”
Example- “This reminds me of my cousin’s birthday party because he had a blue cake too.”
🌟 Predicting– The reader notices clues from the text and makes connections to their experiences to predict what will happen next.
“I think/predict … will happen next because…”
Example- “I predict that Sammie will cry next because she dropped her ice cream on the ground.”
The printables above are from my Comprehension Crew reading instruction resource which uses concrete representation and meaningful sentence starters to model implementing reading strategies.
🌟 Clarifying– The reader will monitor their understanding and stop when they encounter an unknown word or feel confused about the text. They will use strategies to solve misunderstandings to ensure a clear understanding of the text.
“I don’t get the (word, part, idea) so I …(strategy to clarify)”
Example- “I don’t get the part where he spills his milk on the floor on purpose so I will reread the page.”
🌟 Synthesizing– The reader will mix together their connections, opinions, thoughts, feelings, ideas, schema, inferences, questions, and evaluations. They will think through how all of these work together to influence their thinking and understanding as they read.
“I now think… because …”
Example- “I now think that Sasha is nervous because he did not volunteer to go first.”
🌟 Evaluating– The reader evaluates and forms opinions on the characters, their decisions, and feelings. They evaluate if they agree with the text’s ideas, plot events, and author’s choices.
“I agree/ disagree with … because…”
Example- “I disagree with the character telling his classmate she can’t play with them because that will make her feel upset.”
🌟 Visualizing– The reader notices little details in the text that paint a picture of what is happening. This helps the readers to imagine the text in their head and bring the story to life.
“I can see/ imagine … because…”
Example- “I can imagine a red sun rising over the tree because the author said it is a ball of fire.”
🌟 Summarizing– The reader determines the important events and characters that define the story and puts them in order to retell what happened. They identify the important moments that make the story.
“First … Then … Next… Last…” “Somebody… wanted… but… so… then…”
Example- “First, Gia goes to the supermarket. Then, she buys ingredients to make banana muffins. Next, she follows the recipe to mix together the ingredients. Lastly, she puts the muffins in the oven.”
🌟 Theme– The reader gathers the details of the story to find the overall theme of the story. They notice how the theme is shown through the problem, actions, and big idea of the story.
“I feel the theme is … because …”
Example- “I feel the theme is friendship because the lion shows the rabbit how much he cares about her by supporting her during her soccer game.”
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Nonfiction Text Focused Reading Strategies
The nonfiction Comprehension Crew are perfect for helping students to understand how to apply strategies to understand and learn from the informational text tehey are read
🌟 Text Structure– The reader identifies the text structure as the organizational tool for how the text was written. They use this to best navigate the information given in the text. Text structures are cause & effect, problem & solution, compare & contrast, sequence, and description.
“The text has a … structure because…”
Example- “The text has a problem and solution structure because it explains how an arctic fox’s fur keeps it safe from the cold.”
🌟 Text Features– The reader looks for special signs in the text that help them navigate and best understand the information. Some text features include title, photograph, caption, table of contents, etc.
“The … (text feature) shows me that …”
Example- “The diagram shows me the body parts of the cheetah.”
🌟 Main Idea– The reader picks out the topic, then sorts through the details to find the main idea of the text. They find the big picture and most important idea of the text.
“The topic is … The main idea is …”
Example- “The topic is dogs. The main idea is that dogs need exercise.”
🌟 Vocabulary– The reader searches to understand the meaning of words. They use clues in the text or resources such as dictionaries to define unknown words.
“I learned that … (unknown word) means …”
Example- “I learned that enthusiastic means very excited.”
🌟 Determining Importance– The reader figures out what details in a text are the most important versus interesting.
“I know… is (important/ not important) because…”
Example- “I know the year 1991 is important because it is mentioned many times.”
Do you teach all of these reading strategies in your grade level? You may not. I’d love to hear which ones you focus on so send me an email at [email protected] and let me know!
Now that you know the basics, next blog post we will dive into the good stuff: THE HOW!
Interested in where these sentence frames come from? Check out more about that reading instruction strategy here.
Next, I will be dropping in with the three lesson step progressions I use to get my students effectively using and enjoying their reading strategies. Jump to that blog post here.
Want all of this incredible info sent right to your inbox to use and save? Sign up for the email training here to gain access to all of the freebies associated with this blog series.
