Teacher's Guide

In the Teacher’s Guide Steph and Anne explain the research and thinking behind The Comprehension Toolkit. They include an overview of the Toolkit’s components and instructional design as well as guidelines for assessing student work. Click here for the Teacher's Guide table of contents.

Contents
What Is Comprehension and How Do We Teach It?

Definition

• How the six Strategy Clusters form the foundation of comprehension instruction

The Principles That Guide Our Work

• Foster passion and curiosity
• Create an environment that values collaborative learning and thinking
• Build instruction around real-world reading
• Teach using the Gradual Release of Responsibility framework
• Create a common language for literacy
• Make thinking visible
• Differentiate instruction and text, paying special attention to the needs of developing readers and English Language Learners
• Model our own thinking and learning process and demonstrate how to co-construct meaning
• Rely on the teaching–assessing loop to inform instruction
• Understand that text matters

How Do We Create an Active Literacy Classroom?

• Think Alouds
• Text Coding
• Text Lifting for Shared Reading
• Anchor Charts
• Interactive Read Alouds
• Purposeful Talk
• Guided Discussion/Developing a Line of Thinking
• Thinksheets: Scaffolds and Forms

What’s Inside The Comprehension Toolkit?
Understanding the Toolkit

• Teacher’s Guide
• Resources for The Comprehension Toolkit CD-ROM

Launching the Toolkit

• Six Strategy Clusters
• Strategy Cluster 1: Monitor Comprehension
• Strategy Cluster 2: Activate and Connect
• Strategy Cluster 3: Ask Questions
• Strategy Cluster 4: Infer Meaning
• Strategy Cluster 5: Determine ImportanceStrategy Cluster 6: Summarize and Synthesize
• The Source Book of Short Text
• Trade Book Pack
• Toolkit Lesson Title and Lesson Text Lis
t
• Toolkit Lesson Walkthrough: Overview
• Toolkit Lesson Walkthrough: In Action
• Toolkit Lesson Walkthrough: Reflection & Assessment
• Toolkit Lesson Walkthrough: Guide

Extending the Toolkit

• Extend and Investigate
• Content Literacy: Social Studies and Science Reading
• The Genre of Textbook Reading
• The Genre of Test Reading
• Strategy Extensions
• Extend and Investigate Bibliographies

How Do We Plan and Assess With The Comprehension Toolkit?

How Does the Toolkit Fit into the School Day?

• Using the Toolkit as a Resource Schedules

A Note About Materials

• What’s Up With All the Post-its?
• Baskets of Books!
• Finding Additional Text

How Do We Choose and Use Text?

• Think Through the Text Ahead of Time
• Consider Authenticity
• Encourage Flexibility
• What About Grade Level?

What Do We Do About Assessment?

• Assessment Happens 24/7
• From Assessment to Evaluation: What About Grades?
• Rubrics to Support Evaluation
• Additional Assessment Strategies
• Master Trackers