Asking Questions

The first video is a whole group mini-lesson led by one of our lead teachers, Libbi Swanson. It is an extension of previous teaching. Here the teacher is demonstrating how good readers use the comprehension strategy "Asking Questions" to gain a deeper understanding of character motive and behavior. This helps the reader synthesize the information, therefore leading to higher levels of comprehension.

Thinking about Characters

The second video shows two students of Rodette Doreza, another lead teacher, and their thinking about the characters in their books. They are discussing the ideas they generated and recorded during independent reading time. This is the Teaching-Share part of Reading Workshop. David focuses on his character's actions and shares his opinion on whether the character did the right thing, while Melody shares her insight about her character's feelings. Both students ask each other questions to dig deeper into each others' thinking about characters.