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Readers are Thinkers: Strategies to Support Purposeful Reading and Notebook Work

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What’s the purpose of this notebook anyway?

Provides insight into your child’s thinking about the texts they are reading.

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What should my child be working on?

  • Strategies that have been modeled during Small Group and Read Aloud

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  • Although notebook work will vary from classroom to classroom, each book should follow the same routine and procedures.

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    • Blurb Work/ Writing about Reading Goal- Jotting /Page Goal/ Summary

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It all starts with the BLURB!

Students will use the blurb to get an understanding of the text before they start to read. This will help them to acclimate themselves with the main character, the problem(s), and often the setting. This is an important step at setting their notebook up and thinking (predicting) how the plot may unfold and how the story may go.

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Give it a try!

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Check In! What is your Writing about Reading Goal??

CHARACTER

Main character traits and feelings

Secondary character effect on main

Character Change

PLOT and SETTING

Cause and Effect

Determining Importance

Retelling

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THEMES and IDEAS

Lesson Learned

Message/Central Idea

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VOCABULARY and FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Unfamiliar Words

Identifying forms of figurative language in a text

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Check In! What are you reading tonight?

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Calendars/Page Goals

On the calendar students write the page numbers they will be reading for the day.

We encourage a page per minute. In class page goals are set. Be sure your reader is setting appropriate goals before they begin. the reader to stay focused and want to keep reading to get to the page goal. This helps to promote students in taking ownership of stamina and volume.

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Try this strategy!

Think about the events/actions that have occurred so far that help/hurt the main character from solving his/her problem or getting what he/she wants

Helpful Events (+)

Hurtful Events (-)

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Materials

Brandi, a new students walks into Amber’s classroom

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Amber called out in class and said there was a seat near her desk

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Hannah Burton tattled on Amber when she called out.

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Tips for “I don’t know” responses.

While looking through their notebook, have a short discussion with your child about what their current focus is. Look to see what structure they have been using when responding in their notebook.

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ASK;

“What did you work on in small group?”

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“Let’s look back in your notebook to see what you last worked on?”

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Ways to engage in reading conversations with your child.

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How can I engage in conversations with my child about their reading?

  • Prompts to use with your child after their reading to facilitate conversation and deepen comprehension
    • As you read today, what did you learn?
    • At first what were you thinking? What has changed and caused you to change your thinking? Why did this change your thinking?
    • What are you wondering?
    • What was the most important event that occurred while you were reading?
    • What is the main problem of the story and the causes of this problem?