This week, our main strategy lesson was "Follow Your Inner Conversation." While reading aloud a great book,
The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq, I modeled the inner conversation that I was having as an active reader. I was asking questions when I didn't understand things, making connections between my reading and what I already knew, making predictions, and reacting (Wow!, Huh?, "I can't believe...", etc.) to what I was reading. After seeing me and my thinking in action, the students started sharing their inner conversations too! All of the students kept "tracks of their thinking" by recording their inner conversation thoughts on a think-box page as I was reading.
The students also practiced this great thinking with their "Read to Self" as well!
Home Reading Connection
This strategy is essential to a meaningful reading experience! Just flipping pages or reading words on a page to get to the end of a book is just as beneficial as never opening the book at all! To encourage your child to get in tune with their "inner conversation" while reading at home, encourage them to read aloud to you, stopping when they have a question, thought, or idea to share. If you notice that your child isn't stopping on their own, you can ask them to stop and prompt them with a few questions: "What just happened?" and an important follow-up question, "What do you think about that?"
In this way, we're encouraging students to go beyond the basic level of comprehension (being able to retell what they read) so they can truly practice becoming thoughtful, active readers!
