First Grade Strategic Readers

First grade students are employing reading strategies while listening to books at the beginning of reading workshop. These strategies are then applied to their independent and partner reading. While listening to the mystery book, Key Hunters: The Mysterious Moonstone by Eric Luper, read aloud, students have been envisioning aspects of the story in their mind. A new strategy was added using a "Post -it parking lot" to jot notes and sketches to clarify their thinking about important and often tricky parts in the book. 

At four different intervals during the chapter, the students had the opportunity to hear a specific section repeated and to listen very closely and then jot down pictures and/or words to show their thinking. They were totally engaged and motivated to utilize this strategy. This will be a strategy that students will use periodically during the course of this novel. Other strategies include, making and sharing connections about the book and their own lives or other books they have read, thinking and sharing ideas with a partner about the character and envisioning the setting and plot in their minds. When the author Eric Luper visits on November 16, first graders will be able to share their "Post -it parking lots"with him and also use their responses to think of questions that they would like to ask him based on their understanding of his book.