Combining the Puzzle Pieces

We've started working on synthesizing while reading, which is always interesting to teach.

I've talked before about how I've taught it here and here.

This year I did things a little differently, and I feel much more comfortable with the kids command of this skill so far!

We started by do a chart and talking about what we thought it was.

I talked about how it was monitoring your thinking while you were reading, and tracking how it changed throughout your reading.

I did add the sentence stems while the kids were working.

After we created our chart, I modeled the skill using one of my readers about Pluto.

I showed them how to write down what they know, and then when their thinking changed, to write down how it changed, and to write the section of the text that helped it change.

After I modeled it, it was their turn!

I spread out a bunch of my NatGeo Readers for them to choose from (and we talked about how they were getting 'easier' books to read because I wanted them to focus on practicing the skill-just like there would be times that they would get harder, more complex reads)

As the kids returned their books, one of my cuties lined them all up! When she saw there wasn't enough for an 'equal' top row, she did the in between thing-too cute!

I set them free to choose their own and to synthesize while they read. We did it as a reader response in our notebooks.

From what I saw, they were doing a great job! We talked about how you write while you read-it's the only way to track you changing thinking effectively!

We'll continue with this for the next few days-and I'll introduce them to how to do it with fiction text-which is a whole 'nother beast!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn