Is COMPREHENSION Your Biggest CHALLENGE?

Is COMPREHENSION your biggest

CHALLENGE too? 

How do YOU teach COMPREHENSION?

I would like to share with you some strategies that have worked for me. 
I would also love to hear what has worked for you too!
You can find products at Silly Sam Productions to go with each strategy if you are interested. The following are examples and descriptions of programs and strategies to encourage reading and COMPREHENSION.



COMPREHENSION is the toughest reading concept to teach to our youngest readers. This has been my challenge and focus for years. Here is something that has brought great success for my young readers! I am excited about this series that I am currently working on. This will be a set of Beginner, Advanced and Challenge Book Shares all available in seasonal sets. That way, if you teach Main Idea in the Fall, you can choose that set. All will be bundled at the end! Hope you are excited too!

COMPREHENSION-Book-Shares-BEGINNER-FALL


Use these COMPREHENSION BOOK SHARES for engaging 
*Reader's Workshop Sessions
*Small or Whole Group Lessons
*Centers
*Partner Reading
*Homework
*Reading Incentive Programs

*Use Book Shares as a weekly Homework (the night before Library Books are due, are a reminder to put the Library Book in the backpack!:)  )

*Put Seasonal Book Shares in the CAUGHT YOU READING pack. (Keep reading to find description of Caught You Reading Incentive Program)

*Use Book Shares as a group lesson.

*Use Book Shares as a Literacy Center.

DIFFERENTIATED too!
Each Book Share tackles a specific COMPREHENSION SKILL and is offered in 
Basic: Yellow Name Box
Mid-Level: Green Name Box
Advanced: Blue Name Box

Use the levels to differentiate or to have the class advance through each level. Lots of options and choices.

JUST-RETELL-RINGS-Beginner-Advanced

These RETELL RINGS have been a huge success also! Kiddos LOVE them, especially for Partner Reading. They would read a book together, however they choose, taking turns each page, etc., then flip through the rings to retell the story. 

This set is Just Retell Rings: with the Beginner and Advanced retell prompts. Other sets include the Retell Rings and the Book Share templates for Beginner and Advanced sets.

More to come in this series, including a Challenge set and each set of Book Shares with Seasonal Themes and Monthly-Holiday Themed as well.

Use these RETELL RINGS for engaging 
*Reader's Workshop Sessions
*Small or Whole Group Lessons
*Centers
*Partner Reading
*Homework

RETELL-RINGS-Beginner-plus-BOOK-SHARE-TEMPLATES

RETELL-RINGS-Advanced-plus-BOOK-SHARE-TEMPLATES

Silly-Sam-Caught-You-Reading-At-Home-Reading-Incentive-Program

This is an AT-HOME READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
The main idea of this exciting and motivating program is to get students to...

1. NOTICE readers and reading at home.
2. NOTICE their own reading.
3. MOTIVATE them to engage in reading.
4. MOTIVATE them to discover and acknowledge the many purposes of reading.
5. REWARD them for their reading efforts and successes.
6. HELP them to discover the JOY OF READING!

The set includes templates and directions to put together a CAUGHT YOU READING! packet for students to bring home and back to school.

Suggestions include using a folder, gallon-sized plastic bag and leveled classroom readers.

Other suggestions included if these materials are not available.

Students fill out a ticket for each time they "CATCH" someone reading at home, and each time they are "CAUGHT" reading extra time or days other than their homework minutes.

There are reward incentives to be earned for each set of 20 tickets completed.

Young Readers enjoy the challenges and try to beat the previous records!

For teachers and parents that know how vital voracious reading is to success and improvement, anything that will help motivate them is a WIN!

Parents LOVE this program because it takes the pressure off them, to suggest and encourage their student to read. 

Choose and create your own incentives or use some of the suggestions provided.

• Buddy Lunches
• Stuffed Animal Reading Buddies
• Visiting the Principal

Whatever works for your students.

The competitive spirit has been monumentally successful for me. My little record breakers have been the most motivated of all.

So many students and parents have told me that during the course of the incentive program, students have actually discovered their favorite genres, authors or just a pure love of reading!!!

What more can we ask for?

SO, HOW DO YOU TEACH COMPREHENSION?

Comment below and share some ideas and tricks!

Links too! Let'share!

BLURT ALERT Classroom Management System

Blurting can be such a disruption in a classroom.  It is hard to encourage the deeper critical thinking and making connections to material and texts, while still containing the enthusiasm and excitement that can lead to BLURTING.

Blurting can be defined in my classroom as an INTERRUPTION in Learning.  It can happen in 3 ways. The 3 Behaviors we want to encourage are...

• RAISE HAND For a Turn to Speak: instead of Interrupting the Speaker, lesson, or shouting an answer before others have a chance to be chosen.

• LISTEN to Speaker or Lesson: instead of Talking to a friend and disturbing the Good Listeners and the Speaker.

• FOCUS during independent work time: instead of Interrupting Yourself and your opportunity to get your work done. Talking, daydreaming, wandering around to get a tissue or supply, can delay your work and lead to unfinished work or lost opportunities for all the great supplemental activities.

Each year in a classroom the population of students tend to have a personality or characteristic that flows throughout the group. If you have ever spent time in a classroom, you know exactly what I mean. A group in general may be louder, quieter, less independent, more independent, low on coping skills or they might be BLURTERS.

When you have a characteristic that shows up in 1 or 2 students every year, that seems to represent a large portion of the class, it is time to bump up your strategies for handling that issue.

One year, I had a group that really lacked coping skills. Slamming the desk when called out of a game, throwing a mini-tantrum because Library is cancelled that day, etc. (true story!).  That year I created the Let's Make Lemonade Program and have added Coping Skills into almost every lesson that I teach from then-on. (I will come back to talk about that one another time).

The BLURT ALERT! Classroom Management System was formalized and created to deal with a group that was struggling with Self-Control. Not just 1 or a few students, that can be handled with individual behavior management plans, but a large part of the whole group. It became our classroom goal.

Many pieces of the BLURT ALERT! program have been a part of my many years of teaching. All the pieces coming together as a formal program happened when the group I was with needed more direction in how to achieve a Kind & Caring Classroom.  

**I would also like to Thank the generous Pinners and Sharers on Pinterest for great suggestions and ideas that I was able to incorporate into my own version of this program!!

A great way to start your classroom transformation in the middle of the year, or even better, begin your classroom atmosphere is by reading the book, "

INTERRUPTING CHICKEN by David Ezra Stein. It is a hysterical exaggeration of how constant interrupting can affect anything that you are trying to do. The kids just love it if you give the characters a distinctive voice. It also gives your whole group an experience together that you can refer back to over the course of the year. Reminding students not to be an "Interrupting Chicken" is a sweet and gentle and comical way to give a reminder. Actually in other years, that is all that my group has required to remember their polite listening skills and to remember to raise their hand.

Set up the BLURT ALERT! Classroom Tracker to keep track of how many blurts occur in the room each hour. You may uncover a trend, like less blurting during math, or more blurting during story time. Have students choose some awards to work towards like, free time or going outside, playing a game or a class picnic. Track the group's good behaviors on the Compliment Corner section of the Classroom Tracker. 

Set up the 3 Strikes Tracker for individual Blurting. Using the 3 Strikes idea from other Pinterest Blurting Charts, students can move their Baseballs out of the "Stay in the Game" section and onto Strike 1, 2, 3 or "You're Out-Let's Try a Blurt Card" section of the chart.

On that 4th interruption BLURT, a student receives a card on their desk to stroke each and every interruption for the rest of the day. The card has a compliment side for following the rules and procedures and a reminder side for each time they forget and BLURT. There is also a parent/guardian letter to explain the behaviors that we are encouraging and to keep the conversation and encouragement going at home.

Although I have other individual Behavior Management systems for students that are learning to replace negative behaviors with more positive ones, this card is for ANY student that needs it and just for 1 day. The next day, their baseball goes right back up to "Stay in the Game" and if necessary they move through the tracker again. The letter only needs to go home once. If parents/guardians see it again, they know that Blurting was an issue for their child another time.

The hope is that the awareness, visuals, physical movement and parent communication involved in this program will help to extinguish those impulsive behaviors and help everyone in the room feel valued when they are speaking and have all the opportunities that they so deserve to share their thoughts.

Please feel free to add on any strategies that have worked for you in your experiences! I would love for this to be a great sharing opportunity.

**It was my intention to create this program as a FREEBIE to receive from this blog or my TpT store. However, the intensity that was needed involved several components and the program grew to large to be considered a FREE resource. Again thank you to the sharers that pinned different ideas about how to chart Blurts! I hope that this little system can be of help to another group that needs a little extra help, or to any classroom right from the start, to eliminate Blurting from ever becoming an issue!!

It is amazing though, no matter how many years you spend in a classroom with students...every year they can teach you something new and guide you to creating something new to focus on different issues!! :)

Please comment & share!

Here is a link if you would like to take a look at my Blurt Alert! System at TpT. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/BLURT-ALERT-Classroom-Management-System-1751785

Liberty Town, U.S.A.!

Liberty Town, U.S.A.!

Liberty Town, U.S.A. Build a City in Your Classroom!

Liberty Town, U.S.A. Build a City in Your Classroom! unit (grades K-4) covers several important social studies topics while incorporating math, health, science, and language arts as well.

Students brainstorm the important elements of a community and then choose a building to create for our town. They act as city planners to design roads, and they brainstorm names of buildings and streets. They delve into economics, community helpers, and American symbols as they create their ideal communities. They investigate health topics when figuring out what a good community needs, as well as the sciences when they consider farming and transporting foods, as well as every career and occupation. They use their language arts skills to write about their building and its importance along with the community helpers that would be found there. Then they consider the impact of good citizens in their community, and they write about their own contributions. We add lots of props and take tons of pictures.

BLURT ALERT Classroom Management System

Blurting can be such a disruption in a classroom.  It is hard to encourage the deeper critical thinking and making connections to material and texts, while still containing the enthusiasm and excitement that can lead to BLURTING.

Blurting can be defined in my classroom as an INTERRUPTION in Learning.  It can happen in 3 ways. The 3 Behaviors we want to encourage are...

• RAISE HAND For a Turn to Speak: instead of Interrupting the Speaker, lesson, or shouting an answer before others have a chance to be chosen.

• LISTEN to Speaker or Lesson: instead of Talking to a friend and disturbing the Good Listeners and the Speaker.

• FOCUS during independent work time: instead of Interrupting Yourself and your opportunity to get your work done. Talking, daydreaming, wandering around to get a tissue or supply, can delay your work and lead to unfinished work or lost opportunities for all the great supplemental activities.

Each year in a classroom the population of students tend to have a personality or characteristic that flows throughout the group. If you have ever spent time in a classroom, you know exactly what I mean. A group in general may be louder, quieter, less independent, more independent, low on coping skills or they might be BLURTERS.

When you have a characteristic that shows up in 1 or 2 students every year, that seems to represent a large portion of the class, it is time to bump up your strategies for handling that issue.

One year, I had a group that really lacked coping skills. Slamming the desk when called out of a game, throwing a mini-tantrum because Library is cancelled that day, etc. (true story!).  That year I created the Let's Make Lemonade Program and have added Coping Skills into almost every lesson that I teach from then-on. (I will come back to talk about that one another time).

The BLURT ALERT! Classroom Management System was formalized and created to deal with a group that was struggling with Self-Control. Not just 1 or a few students, that can be handled with individual behavior management plans, but a large part of the whole group. It became our classroom goal.

Many pieces of the BLURT ALERT! program have been a part of my many years of teaching. All the pieces coming together as a formal program happened when the group I was with needed more direction in how to achieve a Kind & Caring Classroom.  

**I would also like to Thank the generous Pinners and Sharers on Pinterest for great suggestions and ideas that I was able to incorporate into my own version of this program!!

A great way to start your classroom transformation in the middle of the year, or even better, begin your classroom atmosphere is by reading the book, "

INTERRUPTING CHICKEN by David Ezra Stein. It is a hysterical exaggeration of how constant interrupting can affect anything that you are trying to do. The kids just love it if you give the characters a distinctive voice. It also gives your whole group an experience together that you can refer back to over the course of the year. Reminding students not to be an "Interrupting Chicken" is a sweet and gentle and comical way to give a reminder. Actually in other years, that is all that my group has required to remember their polite listening skills and to remember to raise their hand.

Set up the BLURT ALERT! Classroom Tracker to keep track of how many blurts occur in the room each hour. You may uncover a trend, like less blurting during math, or more blurting during story time. Have students choose some awards to work towards like, free time or going outside, playing a game or a class picnic. Track the group's good behaviors on the Compliment Corner section of the Classroom Tracker. 

Set up the 3 Strikes Tracker for individual Blurting. Using the 3 Strikes idea from other Pinterest Blurting Charts, students can move their Baseballs out of the "Stay in the Game" section and onto Strike 1, 2, 3 or "You're Out-Let's Try a Blurt Card" section of the chart.

On that 4th interruption BLURT, a student receives a card on their desk to stroke each and every interruption for the rest of the day. The card has a compliment side for following the rules and procedures and a reminder side for each time they forget and BLURT. There is also a parent/guardian letter to explain the behaviors that we are encouraging and to keep the conversation and encouragement going at home.

Although I have other individual Behavior Management systems for students that are learning to replace negative behaviors with more positive ones, this card is for ANY student that needs it and just for 1 day. The next day, their baseball goes right back up to "Stay in the Game" and if necessary they move through the tracker again. The letter only needs to go home once. If parents/guardians see it again, they know that Blurting was an issue for their child another time.

The hope is that the awareness, visuals, physical movement and parent communication involved in this program will help to extinguish those impulsive behaviors and help everyone in the room feel valued when they are speaking and have all the opportunities that they so deserve to share their thoughts.

Please feel free to add on any strategies that have worked for you in your experiences! I would love for this to be a great sharing opportunity.

**It was my intention to create this program as a FREEBIE to receive from this blog or my TpT store. However, the intensity that was needed involved several components and the program grew to large to be considered a FREE resource. Again thank you to the sharers that pinned different ideas about how to chart Blurts! I hope that this little system can be of help to another group that needs a little extra help, or to any classroom right from the start, to eliminate Blurting from ever becoming an issue!!

It is amazing though, no matter how many years you spend in a classroom with students...every year they can teach you something new and guide you to creating something new to focus on different issues!! :)

Please comment & share!