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=Comprehension= The following sites provide additional information, lesson plans, and videos to assist you in teaching the comprehension strategies @http://reading.ecb.org/index.html @http://www.readingresource.net/strategiesforreadingcomprehension.html

=**Monitor for Meaning**=
 * Book mark**

=Questioning= The following poster may be placed in your reading area to remind your students of the importance of questioning when reading

The following document suggests simple ideas and activities that help early learners as they begin to approach the questioning strategy.

The following document has pictures that can be used with the Who Am I activity, referred to in the previous document

The following activity may be used in place of the traditional Show & Tell. Initially the teacher will model this strategy and enforce the idea that questions help us think more deeply.

The following activity is done whole group. The end product is then hung up in the room as a reference to remind students about the importance of questioning

Idea for using Q 24/7 in the classroom

The following lesson helps our students to see how questions are used by others including song writers. We discuss what these questions make us think of and how the writer may or may not answer the questions he/she poses in the song

The following is a small collection of childrens' songs that have questions in them.













This lesson focuses on using questioning to gain understanding

The following photos are used with the previous lesson

The following document and organizer can be used when talking about questioning before during and after reading a book.

The following document introduces students to the idea that questions elicit thinking and often deeper thinking



The following documents refer to questions that the reader has when reading, in two categories, Thick and Thin Questions. When these types of questions have been introduced to your students and they are able to distinguish between the two with some help from you, you will be able to direct your students more specifically when they are questioning text.

The Question Answer Relationships (QAR's) Strategy allows the reader to look at how and where a reader may find answers to questions that they have when reading a book. This strategy is used with more mature readers but may be introduced and practiced whole class with teacher support and think aloud.

The following posters provide the teacher with a visual to share with their students as well as simple language that describes each piece of the strategy

Simple visual poster to be used with younger students and teacher support

In the Book

Think and Search

On My Own

Author and Me

Questioning Text is a strategy that can be used with fluent readers or modeled with early readers. It is very similar to the Tracks Strategy where students write thoughts on sticky notes and place them in the book where they occurred.

Wonder Boxes are used as a way of collecting and storing students questions and thoughts about the world around them. This box may be a 3x5 recipe card holder, and empty tissue box, a small brown lunch bag with the top cut off, or a box you have helped your students to create. The following link will provide directions for how to build an origami "wonder box" @http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-box.html

Electronic Non-Fiction/Informational/News Resources
The following link provides current informational articles involving the sciences. These articles lend themselves to great questioning @http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/articles/

The following link provides brief informational articles revolving around Utah history. They are full of great questions and engaging. @http://historyforkids.utah.gov/jump_in/index.html

The following link provides information on current events http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/scholasticNews.jsp?FromBrowseMod=true&Ns=Pub_Date_Sort|1&CurrPage=scholasticNews.jsp&TopicValue=Scholastic%20News

=Visualization and Sensory Images= The following lesson allows students to focus on specific items; thinking about where these items might be found in the real world and the sight, sounds, and smells that might accompany them.

The following document lists simple concrete ideas that can be used to help our students focus on their senses and feeling when they are reading.

The following podcast coincides with activity (a) listed in the previous document. Other podcasts can be downloaded for free from i-tunes. Click on podcasts, in the search window type in old time radio, and then make your selection.

The Lone Ranger: The Train Robbery media type="file" key="The Lone Ranger 67 Train Robbery.mp3" width="240" height="20"

The following sound effects coincide with activity (f) listed in the previous document

media type="file" key="bee hive.wmv" width="51" height="51" Bee Hive

media type="file" key="blowing nose.wmv" width="55" height="55" Blowing Nose

media type="file" key="brushing-teeth-1.wmv" width="53" height="53" Brushing Teeth

media type="file" key="dog drinks water.wmv" width="58" height="58" Dog Drinks

media type="file" key="frog croaking.wmv" width="61" height="61" Frog Croaking

media type="file" key="gargle.wmv" width="57" height="57" Gargle

media type="file" key="hiccups.wmv" width="57" height="57" Hiccups

media type="file" key="horse cloppinbg.wmv" width="58" height="58" Horse Clopping

media type="file" key="page turn.wmv" width="56" height="56" Page Turning

media type="file" key="pouring-soda-1.wmv" width="58" height="58" Pouring Soda

media type="file" key="rooster crow.wmv" width="58" height="58" Rooster Crowing

media type="file" key="shoveling-snow-1.wmv" width="67" height="67" Shoveling Snow

media type="file" key="sneeze.wmv" width="61" height="61" Sneeze

media type="file" key="snoring.wmv" width="62" height="62" Snoring

media type="file" key="sprinkler.wmv" width="62" height="62" Sprinkler

media type="file" key="steam engine.wmv" width="63" height="63" Steam Engine

media type="file" key="thunder.wmv" width="64" height="64" Thunder

media type="file" key="toilet-flush-1.wmv" width="61" height="61" Toilet Flush

media type="file" key="yawn.wmv" width="62" height="62" Yawn

The following link coincides with Sensory Exercises "e". It is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild and provides Read Alouds read by actors. @http://www.storylineonline.net/

The following document discusses the importance of using music to assist students in developing visualization and sensory skill development. In addition, brief instructions are given for how to implement this strategy into your classroom.

The following is a slide show of pictures and the song __Grandma's Feather Bed__. The song lyrics are full of wonderful images of family gatherings. It is not necessary to show the slide show. I just was unable to get the music by itself.

media type="file" key="Grandmas Feather Bed.flv" width="162" height="162"

The following documents include the lyrics for Grandma's Feather Bed. The first document includes the song lyrics for the entire song and the second document only includes a portion. Breaking the song into smaller parts may be more meaningful in helping students to see just a small part of the whole scene that is occurring. These lyrics can be placed on an overhead, written on chart paper, or pocket chart paper also, allowing us the opportunity to look closely at the lyrics as we discuss or thoughts and feelings.

Song: __What a Wonderful World__. Great for evoking images and feelings. media type="file" key="What_A_Wonderful_World.wmv" width="147" height="147"

Lyrics for __Wonderful World__. May be used on overhead, copied on chart paper, or pocket chart strips to be used when discussing sensory images.

Song: __Purple People Eater__. Great and fun song for focusing on sensory images. media type="file" key="PurplePeople Eater.wmv" width="147" height="147"

Lyrics for __Purple People Eater__. May be used on overhead, copied on chart paper, or pocket chart strips to be used when discussing sensory images.

Initially, some students may do better at creating images with instrumentals. Eric Chappelle writes music for creative dance that is fun, sometimes quirky, imaginative, amazing, and lends itself to great imagery.

Song Title: The Add On Machine media type="file" key="03 3.wma" width="300" height="45"

Song Title: Echo Lady Who media type="file" key="05 5.wma" width="300" height="45"

Song Title: Ski Reel media type="file" key="09 9.wma" width="300" height="45"

Song Title: TV Dinner media type="file" key="02 2.wma" width="300" height="45"

Song Title: Bee Beat media type="file" key="02 Bee Beat.wma" width="300" height="45"

This first document consist of a lesson plan that uses pictures to help students gain a greater understanding of visualizing and seeing beyond the pictures. The second document contains pictures of historical Utah with a brief caption below each picture.

The following __5 Senses__ organizers may be used with any well selected books to focus your students attention on their sensory images during reading. In the primary grades these documents can be recreated on a large sheet of butcher paper and done whole group. Symbols and pictures may be used to represent thoughts in each category. These are a support and should not be constantly used as a worksheet, but are rather used with discussion to deepen your students' understanding of a story.

The following lesson introduces students to frames and their purpose. Students learn that illustrators create the illustrations within a frame, but we the readers, can use what we know about the story to look beyond the frame.

The following strategies integrate the Arts into comprehension. These activities are done with explicit instruction and guidance from the teacher and are very useful in helping our students to slow down and see many parts of the whole story.

Poetry, like music provides a plethora of imagery. In childrens' poetry, the added bonus is the short length of most poems, which saves time in an already busy schedule. When selecting a poem consider the images evoked and whether or not a child might find deep meaning with the poem that you are interested in pursuing.

The following poem ties color to images, events, and things in a child's life.

The following poem evokes images that lead the reader to an understanding of what the poem is about. After or during reading, the reader draws a picture of what was described

The following document consists of three poems which ooze with imagery. You can read one with your students, reading all the way through on the initial reading to get a sense of the whole picture and then go back through and elicit responses from your students. What did it look like, smell like, feel like to you? Did anyone have a different picture (feeling, thought, sound, smell) in their head

=Determining Importance= The following link will provide samples of children's poems that go with __The Important Book__, by Margaret Wise Brown @http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/projects/ib_2003/index.html

=**Inferencing**=


 * Dear Santa letters**

Old Mr Chicken activity

@http://www.teacherweb.com/mi/centralelementaryschool/mrsbainbridge/poemsforinferencing.pdf
 * Here the link to the inference poems CIndy shared today:**