Teacher reference resource containing comprehension lessons for teachers of children in the early years of school.

Grades 3-6 "Active literacy is the means to deeper understanding and diverse, flexible thinking, and is the hallmark of our approach to teaching and learning. Reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating are the cornerstones of active literacy. The Toolkit captures the language of thinking we use to explicitly teach kids to comprehend the wide variety of informational text they encounter. Through the Toolkit lessons, we demonstrate how the kids adopt and adapt our teaching language as their learning language." - Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis In The Comprehension Toolkit, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis have created an intensive curricular resource designed to help students understand, respond to, and learn from nonfiction text. By actively engaging students in reading, talking, and writing about information and ideas, The Comprehension Toolkit provides a foundation for developing independent readers and learners across the curriculum and throughout the school year. Framed around the Gradual Release of Responsibility approach, The Comprehension Toolkit provides scaffolded comprehension strategy instruction. First through modeling and guided practice, then releasing responsibility to students through collaborative practice, independent practice, and application, the Toolkit's lessons teach students to use comprehension strategies flexibly in a variety of texts, topics, and subject areas. Professional Support A series of resources introduce, support, and extend the Toolkit's core lessons. The Teacher's Guide outlines the thinking behind the Toolkit and describes its components, instructional design, and assessment options. The Resources for The Comprehension Toolkit CD-ROM provides an array of print and video resources including a photographic overview of an Active Literacy Classroom, downloadable research articles, templates, assessment masters, and full-colour lesson text. Extend and Investigate helps you extend the Toolkit's comprehension strategies across the curriculum and throughout the year. It provides strategies for content area reading and research, textbook reading, test reading, and a variety of practical bibliographies. 6 Strategy Clusters The 26 strategy lessons in The Comprehension Toolkit are organized into six Strategy Cluster books. Informational Text A series of short, engaging, real-world informational texts provide an effective context for using and practising the Toolkit's comprehension strategies. The Source Book of Short Text provides two kinds of nonfiction text: Lesson Text, 24 articles from children's magazines; and Nonfiction Short Text, 43 short informational articles specially written for the Toolkit.

Created to follow the Toolkit lesson, the Comprehensive Intervention small-group sessions narrow the instructional focus, concentrating on critical aspects of the Toolkit's lesson strategy to reinforce kids' understanding, step by step. -- from back cover.

"Children are eager to find out what''s in the world and how it works. Kids are ready to work hard, not because we ''motivate'' them, but because they want to know stuff. As teachers we can draw on all the curiosity, energy, and comprehending experience that kids bring to school, and we systematically link it to the skills and strategies that more experienced learners use. People too often underestimate what primary kids can do. But in The Primary Comprehension Toolkit, we start high and go higher." -Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis Learn how to teach nonfiction strategies to primary readers and how Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis help students monitor their understanding as they respond to the words, pictures, and ideas in a text. Through 2 foundational books-The Primary Comprehension Toolkit Teacher''s Guide and Monitor Comprehension-and seven online video clips, Steph and Anne provide the lesson plans, teaching language, and tools you''ll need to teach students how to use nonfiction reading strategies flexibly across a variety of texts, topics, and subject areas. In the Teacher''s Guide, Steph and Anne explain the research and thinking behind The Primary Comprehension Toolkit. They include an overview of the Toolkit''s instructional design as well as guidelines for integrating the Toolkit into your literacy curriculum. In addition to describing how to foster an active literacy classroom, the Teacher''s Guide shows how to choose texts and apply the strategies in science and social studies. Monitor Comprehension models ways to help students keep track of their thinking as they read, listen, and view. They learn to notice when the text makes sense or when it doesn''t. Primary grade kids are always thinking about what they hear, see, and (if they can) read. They are noticing, wondering, making connections, and making judgments all the time. Readers, however, need to go beyond retelling and merge their thinking with the text to come up with big ideas and underlying themes. We focus on teaching young readers not just to retell, but to think about the words, the pictures, the features, and the ideas that spring from the text. The seven accompanying video clips include a video conversation with Dr. P. David Pearson; live from-the-classroom video footage; and slideshows of an active literacy classroom and strategy instruction in science and social studies. (Video clips are free for 6 months upon registration. You must register within 6 months of purchase.) Learn more about these resources and the Toolkit series at www.comprehensiontoolkit.com. This pack is part of firsthand''s Getting Started series. Bridging the gap between educational theory and practice, firsthand classroom materials model the carefully crafted techniques and language of master teachers in ways that help teachers refine their practice and reinvent their own teaching. The most comprehensive of these resources span more than a year of instruction. Firsthand''s Getting Started Packs were created for teachers in training and professional book study groups who want a compact, affordable way to study and tryout these transformative classroom materials. Each Getting Started Pack includes an overview book, a complete unit of study, online video clips provided free of charge for 6 months, and an accompanying study guide. Getting Started packs include: Launch a Primary Writing Workshop, Grades K-2; Launch an Intermediate Writing Workshop, Grades 3-5; Launch an Intermediate Reading Workshop, Grades 3-5; Introduce the Qualities of Writing, Grades 3-6; Monitor Comprehension with Primary Students, Grades K-2; Monitor Comprehension with Intermediate Students, Grades 3-6; Investigate the Number System, Grades K-3; Investigate Multiplication, Grades 3-5; Investigate Fractions, Grades 4-6.

The Teacher Pack for the Intermediate Comprehension Toolkit (second edition) provides all of the nonfiction reading strategies and resources you need for your upper elementary classroom -- at a great value. Includes: The Comprehension Toolkit - Second Edition The Comprehension Toolkit Trade Book Pack New: The Intermediate Trade Book Pack for Content Literacy Comprehension Intervention: Small Group Lessons for The Comprehension Toolkit Scaffolding The Comprehension Toolkit for English Language Learners Comprehension & Collaboration Revised Edition Connecting Comprehension & Technology Toolkit Texts: Grades 2¿3 Toolkit Texts: Grades 4¿5 Toolkit Texts: Grades 6¿7

NEW - Switching on comprehension skills in 5-8 year oldsAll the teaching tips you needLevels of thinkingWhat makes comprehension difficult?Supporting students to comprehend textsComprehension strategiesAll the rubrics and resources you needAll the text models and lesson plans you needAll the worksheets and task cards you needCovers the 8 main comprehension strategies:ConnectingPredictingInferringQuestioningVisualisingUnderstanding main ideaSynthesisingSelf-m

Revised ed. of: Comprehension & collaboration.