Check for Understanding part 2


A few weeks ago I posted about Checking for Understanding {you can read about it here} with the first graders I work with. 

Since starting at a new school with new kids (I am still at the other school with my kinders and firsties) I wanted to start at the beginning with my 4th and 5th graders, Checking for Understanding.

Many of them, well actually all of them had never heard of this strategy (I am sure they have, but they probably just didn't remember. I am thinking this because for the past 6 days that I have had them, I would ask them every day what strategy we were working on and most could not remember- it's on a poster, it's in their notebook, and I have been talking and modeling it E.V.E.R.Y D.A.Y...ugh!). That's okay, we keep at it, and I tell them one day they will surprise me by telling me exactly what it is without me having to ask questions about it...I will be a happy girl when this happens!

We first talked about what this might mean. We came up with this. 
I modeled this with the book Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. I was surprised that probably 98% of my kids had never heard this story, what teacher does not read this story?!?!!? Even though I was sad that they had not had this story read to them, it was good for me because it meant that my modeling of checking for understanding was more authentic.

As I read I retold what was happening on each page, sometimes leaving out important info, sometimes covering it all.  They had a hard time catching when I left something important out. I would question myself saying "I think I am forgetting something, let me go back and re-read." As soon as I started to re-read, they immediately picked up on the important event that I forgot to include in my retell.

Once this was done I gave them their own nonfiction comprehension page. I told them I didn't care about the questions at the end, I cared more about them practicing their checking for understanding. So we decided since we were practicing that we would stop at each paragraph to check our understanding. I also explained that because it was a nonfiction text and a topic that they did not have a lot of knowledge of that it is better to stop sooner than later, re-reading a paragraph here and there is a lot easier than reading the whole thing over.

We did the first paragraph together. We read it, then again, I did a retell of the information so they could see how to do it. I wanted them to record in their notes the important info. Once this was done they were off. 

This. Took. Forever! They did not know how to do this on their own. So, we did paragraph 2 together. We read it, and I had them pull out what they thought was important and I wrote it on the board. This helped. They were able to finish after this.

Once done, I passed out highlighters. I first gave a highlighter lesson (it's not coloring, it is not highlighting EVERYTHING, you know the lesson!). We went paragraph by paragraph highlighting only words and phrases. After highlighting each paragraph they checked their notes and compared the highlighted info to the info they had in their notes. They had to see if they had too much information, not enough or if they were able to get all the important info. They then added or crossed off when necessary.
 I was blown away by this 5th grader! He was spot on with his understanding, organization, and thinking! The rest...not so much! I think more practice is in order!

As I tell them, the more we practice the more automatic it will become and then they won't have to think about checking, their brain will automatically do it.

After one more practice we will move onto main idea, I think it segue's nicely, don't you?

Happy Reading!


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