Reading in the Morning

I love to watch my first graders read. The first opportunity to read at school in the morning is in the hallway. Patrols help monitor STudents Are Reading Silently (STARS).

Today, during the mini-lesson, we explored "What Good Readers Do To Figure Out New Words." The students then helped me list some strategies:

• s-t-r-e-t-c-h the word
• look at the picture for clues
• skip it and come back
• re-read
• ask "Does it make sense?"
• think about the story
• ask a friend or an adult - we agreed this should not be our first option

Then, I re-read aloud the story Possum Magic, by Mem Fox. We discussed interesting language in the story such the use of the word bush. The term bush as we know it (hedges, small leafy tree) didn’t seem to match the picture. As we continued to read, we noticed the term bush was used again but this time there were more animals on the page.

Then, John raised his hand and shared that he thought it might be a tree that has many animals. What a great example of a child truly thinking about the story and being actively involved in the group discussion. A bush is a place where animals live in the wilderness of Australia. We finished the story discussing along the way vocabulary words and new words that seem to refer to some Australian cuisine.

During the work period, students were asked to monitor themselves during their independent reading time and see what strategies they used when they came across a word they needed to figure out. They went straight to it. Check them out:

For our closing, students were invited to bring to the circle on the floor with one book in which they had a word they needed to figure out. Matthew said he had to stretch the word to know that it said perch but he still wasn't sure what it meant. So he re-read the sentence, "When I talk to my bird on his perch, I say peep, peep to him." He said he still wasn't sure if he knew exactly what the word meant. So he then looked at the picture. He saw a boy and a bird standing on something. "I wondered what that was. I think that's his perch because it says the bird was sitting on his perch and when I looked at the picture, I see a bird sitting on that thing. So, that must be his perch." Yee Haw! Matthew was truly thinking about the text he was reading.

What do you do to figure out a new word?