Comprehension

__Comprehension __

(Erika Johnson)

**Page Purpose:** //This page will serve as a reference for comprehension building skills that both parents and teachers can reference to assist their struggling readers so that they may become more capable readers.//

Teacher Links:

[|Easy CBM] This is a literacy assessment website. I use this sie on a bi-weekly basis. You will need to sign up for an account to play with the site, but it is free! My main focus from this site are the word probes. My district uses these as a progress monitor. I love that it is quick and convienient to use. My favorite part is that you can enter your own students in online and then click reports and an spreadsheet opens automatically with the results. You can compare one student to another or see the trend over time for one specific student. I hope you find it useful!

[|Intervention Central] This is a VERY resourceful stie with intervention strategies and RTI information. I have found the strategies and assessments easy to implement. One aspect of this site that I find very valuable is that you are able to create you own assessments within seconds. There are many different categories such as reading, math, and even behavior strategies. Best of all it's free!

[|Internet 4 Classrooms] This is a site that another teacher shared with me. There is an overwhelming amount of information and links here. However, It is very easy to cut down the amount of information by clicking on the main category you are interested in. Then you are able to look through the links are resources more carefully. Among the links you will find comprehension passages, dolch word lists, phonics, novel guides, etc. This is a site to check out when you have a lot of time to explore.

[|Choice Literacy] This is a very cool site! It is coordinated by literacy coaches, teachers, and school leaders. The purpose of this site is to present tools, guides, literacy lessons and advice from teachers with several years of experience. This site again you can receive some information and resourcecs without paying for a membership, but if you have a memebership you are granted access to over 1,000 online resources. I think this site would be good for a new reading teacher (such as myself) to learn some tricks of the trade right off the bat, as well as find some more useful resources. One of my favorite parts of this site is the quote on the main page, "Come for the resources, stay for the inspiration." This leads me to believe that the teachers that put this site together actually care about what they are doing.

[|Carol Hurst] This site is a great resource for teachers and students to explore new books and their short summaries. There is also a section just for teachers to make classroom connections to the curriculum and the texts with these great stories. The way this site is organized is amazing. Each book review is composed of many parts. The first part is the review, then there is a "Things to notice and talk about section.". That is followed by an activities section for teachers to incorporate into their classrooms, then they even have a section that is devoted to "related books." Then as if that's not enough, there is one more section that is about other areas of the site that maybe related to the book or topic you are reviewing.

[|Read Write Think] This website has a lot of valuable information for teachers. There are lesson plans, classroom resources, professional development links, information for parents and after school resources. On this site you will find there is a wide variety of content. Students will be able to access interactive links to better enhance their reading and writing through fun skill practice. When I have my own classroom I will definitely use this site as a reference.

[|MacMillan-McGraw-Hill Reading] I find this site to be useful with my students I have for reading intervention. The publisher has fun activities and skill games to reinforce what I work on in class. There are also teacher resources available, which is always a plus to find quickly online! I would recommend this site if you use Treasures- intervention reader or just the class series by Macmillan-McGraw-Hill.

[|Star Fall] "Starfall.com opened in September of 2002 as a free public service to teach children to read with phonics. Our systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice, is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development (ELD, ELL, ESL). Starfall is an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children. In May of 2009, we released the [|**Starfall Kindergarten Reading and Language Arts Curriculum**]. Our method of instruction motivates children in an atmosphere of imagination and enthusiasm, provides opportunities for child-directed instruction, and supports English language learners and struggling readers learning alongside their peers. Please visit **[|The Starfall Store]** for other low-cost phonics journals and books paralleling this website." (Taken from starfall.com)

[|Graphic Organizers] This link I got from Elissa's Delicious annotations. I feel that using these graphic organizers to sort out story elements can really help build comprehension.

[|PBS Kids--SMART Board Games] This is another link that I got from Elissa. I really like that there is a variety of activities for students to play. Many different aspects of language are presented here for students to work on.

Teacher & Parent Links:

[|Succeed to Read] This is a very interesting site full of many topics and useful links for parents and teachers. The layout of the site is very easy to navigate, and the resources are laid out in a very helpful way. The focus if this site is reading and how to teach reading. Some examples of the possible categories you can choose to learn more about are: Auditory skills, rhyming, phonics, good books for kids, etc. The list goes on and on.

[|Reading Rockets] This site is a good resource for parents, teachers, principals, and librarians. There are many links for each of the audiences listed above. The information that is found on this site is very read friendly and can easily be incorporated into "at-home" reading. On the left hand side you can find any topic related to reading, click on it, and then read through the resources and information that comes up.

[|Digital Book Talks] This is a site I took from Lisa's Delicious annotations. I really like how parents and teachers could use this site to summarize a story for students who are having a hard time finding the important parts. I just watched a little of "To Kill a Mockingbird" but I like how it was done and the sound is very clear. I also enjoyed this site because I don't have that much experience with teaching adolescent literature AND this site provides teachers with a fun way to make connections between a movie and a book, which might interest the older students more.