The Comprehension Toolkit is organized around 6 cluster books focused on fundamental comprehension strategies.

NEW! Review a comprehensive annotated table of contents.

  Strategy Cluster 1: Monitor Comprehension
Lesson 1 Follow Your Inner Conversation:
Listen to the voice in your head and leave tracks of your thinking
Lesson 2 Notice When You Lose Your Way:
Monitor your inner voice to focus your thinking
Lesson 3 Read, Write, and Talk:
Think your way through the text
  Strategy Cluster 2: Activate and Connect
Lesson 4 Follow the Text Signposts:
Use nonfiction features to guide learning
Lesson 5 Merge Your Thinking with New Learning:
Read and think about new information
Lesson 6 Connect the New to the Known:
Activate and build background knowledge
  Strategy Cluster 3: Ask Questions
Lesson 7 Question the Text:
Learn to ask questions as you read
Lesson 8 Read to Discover Answers:
Ask questions to gain information
Lesson 9 Ask Questions to Expand Thinking:
Wonder about the text to understand big ideas
  Strategy Cluster 4: Infer Meaning
Lesson 10 Infer the Meaning of Unfamilar Words:
Use context clues to unpack vocabulary
Lesson 11 Infer with Text Clues:
Draw conclusions from text evidence
Lesson 12 Tackle the Meaning of Language:
Infer beyond the literal meaning
Lesson 13 Crack Open Features:
Infer the meaning of subheads and titles
Lesson 14 Read With a Question in Mind:
Infer to answer your questions
Lesson 15 Wrap Your Mind Around the Big Ideas:
Use text evidence to infer themes
  Strategy Cluster 5: Determine Importance
Lesson 16 Spotlight New Thinking:
Learn to use a Fact/Question/Response chart
Lesson 17 Record Important Ideas
Create an FQR with historical fiction
Lesson 18 Target Key Information:
Code the text to hold thinking
Lesson 19 Determine What to Remember:
Separate interesting details from important ideas
Lesson 20 Distinguish Your Thinking From the Author's:
Contrast what you think with the author's perspective
Lesson 21 Construct Main Ideas From Supporting Details:
Create a Topic/Detail/Response chart
  Strategy Cluster 6: Summarize and Synthesize
Lesson 22 Read, Think, and React:
Paraphrase and respond to information
Lesson 23 Think Beyond the Text:
Move from facts to ideas
Lesson 24 Read to Get the Gist:
Synthesize your thinking as you go
Lesson 25 Reread and Rethink:
Rethink misconceptions and tie opinions to the text
Lesson 26 Read, Write, and Reflect:
Create a summary response to extend thinking
Home
About the Authors
Philosophy
Goals of a Thinking Classroom
Guiding Principles
Instructional Practices
Related Research
Contents
Features
Sample Lessons
FAQs
Toolkit Texts
New! The Primary Comprehension Toolkit
Buy it Now
Product Support
Join the authors for a
Lesson Walkthrough and then view an excerpt from The Active Literacy Classroom.
NEW! Toolkit Texts
Grades 2-3, 4-5, and 6-7
Learn more >>
Coming May 2008!
Primary Comprehension Toolkit
samples and information updated periodically
Maximize the Toolkit’s effect with an
on-site seminar.
Copyright© 2008 firsthand, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.