Making Comprehension Easier Through Familiar Text {Freebie}

Hello, everyone!  Andrea here from Reading Toward the Stars with an easy way to help students learn new comprehension strategies.



One of the things I learned in my many classes for my Master's was to use familiar text to help with learning new comprehension strategies.  It makes total sense!  If the student is learning a new comprehension strategy, we as teachers don't want them to be bogged down in decoding the words of a story and then trying to show what they know.

Instead, we can introduce the comprehension strategy by having the students read or listen to a familiar story.   I like to use fairy tales because students have heard them many times before.  One of my favorites to use is "The Three Little Pigs".  Students know the story and understand what is happening because they have heard it so many times.  And, even though there are different versions, most of them follow the same ideas.

Here is how I use it to help with sequencing.  After reading or listening to the story, we talk about the story and tell the events.  With younger students, I even use these sequencing cards to help out a little.  {You can grab them for free by clicking on the picture below.}

After using "The Three Little Pigs" to help students with sequencing and learning a new way to show it, I would move on to another narrative story that would be interesting to the students.

This scaffolding will helps students gain a better understanding of retelling and sequencing a story.  As students read less familiar topics, they will still hold the idea of how to show the sequence of the story.

How do you help students learn new comprehension strategies and skills?