Be a Reading Detective Summer Camp - Reading Comprehension Strategies

Reading opens up a world of adventure, exploration, knowledge, and fun.  Good readers use strategies to help them navigate text and to experience it at a deeper level.  Without good comprehension, reading can become a frustrating and  a pointless exercise in word calling, especially as the text becomes more complex.   The focus of reading comprehension instruction is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and experiences they require in order to become competent and enthusiastic readers.  In this interactive and engaging class, students will practice reading with a purpose.  Predicting, inferring, questioning, retelling, visualizing, connecting, activating schema, and monitoring comprehension will be explicitly taught  through teacher modelling and guided practice.  Students will be introduced, and  learners will use the “It says, I say, and So” model.  This model will help guide students through the process of asking questions, making predictions, drawing inferences, and it will provide them with an opportunity to synthesize information with their prior knowledge.  Learners will examine various fiction and non fiction texts, poetry, photographs, posters, and other text forms in order to learn about and apply these skills.  Learners will play games to introduce and reinforce new concepts and terms.  Students will use think aloud strategies and record their thoughts, questions, and learnings on post it notes and in various graphic organizers.  This class is for readers of all levels.  Some of the texts used in the course are: the poetry of Shel Silverstein, “It Could Have Been Worse” by A.H Benjamin and Tim Warner,  “Pancakes for Breakfast” by Tomie DePaola, and “The Apple Pie Tree” by Zoe Hall.