First Graders are Strategic Readers

First Graders are employing a variety of strategies to think deeply about their fiction books. As they listen to the story read aloud in the beginning of reading workshop, they practice utilizing comprehension strategies as they share their ideas with a partner and with the class.

Sadiq and the Pet Problem caused all of the students to take a deep breath when they realized that the problem they thought had been solved in the story had instead deepened. As they shared what happened in the book and what the characters could have done differently to avert the problem, they realized that sometimes problems change in books. During this discussion about the characters in the book, they read words from the character feelings chart that applied to Sadiq and then added the word discouraged. Students then applied the various comprehension strategies which included: making connections from their lives to the text, thinking deeply about character's feelings and traits, describing setting, thinking about the big ideas in the beginning, middle and end of the book and describing the problem and the solution of the story, to their own books and to books they are reading with partners or in small groups.