A great way for students to think about and organize what they are reading is to make a bubble map showing the main topics of the chapter and then listing linking information that belongs to each category as they find it in the text. I like to have kids use either Inspiration or my favorite, [...]

In our diverse culture, students bring their own culture to the reading experience. We can help students better understand the characters in the fiction they are reading by asking them to consider the perspectives a character might have rather than looking at the issues or problems from their own background or cultural perspective. Some questions [...]

One of the characteristics that separates  good readers from poor readers is what the reader does when s/he realizes that the text has stopped being meaningful. Good readers have “fix-up” strategies that they use to help reconnect with text and regain meaning. Poor readers, on the other hand, more often than not, become overwhelmed and [...]

Students can better understand the characters in a story by creating a character web. In the center of the web, write the story title then write the names of all of the main characters as spokes from the story title bubble. Once the main characters have been identified, then have students place at least 3 [...]

Teachers from all content areas continue to struggle with how to help students comprehend more of what they read in their content area textbooks.  These simple 8 tips can help content teachers better prepare students to comprehend more of what they read on a daily basis: Help students activate their prior knowledge on a topic [...]