To meet our goals and put these principles into practice, we design instruction based on the following instructional practices.

Modeling thinking
We model how we read ourselves; to share our struggles as well as our victories. We peel back the layers and show how we approach text and in that way demonstrate for kids how understanding happens.

Coding the text
We leave tracks of our thinking directly on the text or on a Post-it, in a notebook, etc. We might record our questions, confusions, thoughts, or highlight and underline important information, circle unfamiliar words, or star something we want to remember.

Text lifting for shared reading
We place a copy of the text on an overhead projector or post it on a chart as students work from their own copy. We think through and code the text together to understand and process the information.

Observing, noticing and sharing language and reading behaviors
While modeling, we ask kids to observe and notice our responses and reading behaviors. When we stop, the class discusses what they noticed, writes about what they observed or creates an anchor chart of behaviors they observed.

Anchor charting
We construct anchor charts to record kids' thinking about a text, lesson, or strategy so that we can return to it to remember the process. Anchor charts connect past teaching and learning to future teaching and learning. Everyone weighs in to construct meaning and hold thinking.

Reading, writing, and talking
Kids read, code, and respond to the text individually and then talk to each other and share out the process and the content.

Interactive reading aloud
As the teacher reads aloud, kids respond in writing. The teacher stops occasionally to provide time for them to turn to each other and talk.

Purposeful talk
We provide opportunities for kids to talk purposefully in a variety of structures including turning to each other and sharing during whole group instruction, jig-sawing the text in small groups, small group reading and responding, paired reading for discussion, and conferring.

Scaffolds and forms
We provide a range of response options including graphic organizers, double and triple column forms and response starters to support kids to leave tracks of their thinking so they can better understand it.

Using our own literature and reading experience to model reading
We bring in text we are actually reading to illustrate how we use comprehension strategies to make sense of and understand our own reading. In this way, students come to view us as readers and observe our authentic process.

Rereading to clarify meaning and expand understanding
Going back over a piece of text to show how we clarify confusion as well as demonstrate how thinking changes when we reread.