Constructing Meaning Written by Nancy Boyles Southern Connecticut State University - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ConstructingMeaningWritten by Nancy BoylesSouthern Connecticut State University

Created for Parkview Elementary School Teachers

Mary Cooper, Literacy Specialist

“If our students are to become good readers, if they are to improve as readers, we must teach them to think about how they think while they read.”

Found on pg. ix

Goals for this presentation:

• Find out what kids say about these strategies
• Have an understanding of the kid-friendly comprehension strategies in Nancy Boyles’ book, Constructing Meaning
• Understand the importance of teaching all the comprehension strategies in an integrated fashion
• Recognize the ways our integration of these strategies will help all teachers and students

• “I like it when we use these strategies.” 2nd grader
• “I’m going to tell you how I combined three of these strategies all at once!” 3rd grader
• “I never knew what I was supposed to be thinking about when I read. Now I really get it.” 3rd grader
• “These strategies really charge my brain.” 4th grader

The next six slides will define each of Nancy Boyles’ kid-friendly comprehension strategies

Finding something that is connected:

• To my life
• To another book
• To things in the world

If I close my eyes,

• I can see. . . .
• I can hear. . . .
• I can feel. . . .
• I can smell. . . .
• I can taste. . . .

What questions pop into my mind, such as:

• What might happen next?
• How will [the story] end?
• Why did the author write this?
• What else do I want to know?

• What might happen next?
• How will [the story] end?
• What is the author trying
• to tell me?

• What are the important clues?
• Have I guessed right or wrong?
• Is there something I don’t understand?
• Has the author done something crafty?

• How do all the clues fit together?
• When did that “little light bulb” go on in my head?
• What do I understand better after this reading?

• “Real readers don’t read by isolating a single strategy”
• “Real readers don’t use just one strategy while reading to construct meaning from everything they read for six or seven weeks.”
• “Competent readers have a repertoire of reading strategies available, strategies that they mix and match while they read.”

Found on pg. xii and xiii

• Enhance student participation and engagement
• Improve student reading comprehension
• Teachers and students will share a common language
• The language won’t change year to year—learning picks up where it left off the year before

“Teaching reading comprehension strategies should not be something you “add on” to your regular curriculum.”

Rather, teaching these strategies can and should be an important part of what happens every day in your classroom during:

• Shared reading
• Guided reading
• Independent reading
• Whether reading fiction or nonfiction

Found on pg. xiv

If you’d like to email Nancy Boyles with your questions or comments, you can email her at boylesn1@southernct.edu