Mrs. Thorp’s Third Grade Blog

This poster was produced by The Education Center Inc. in the magazine called The Mailbox, Primary Edition in October/November 2003. I highly recommend this magazine to anyone who teaches.

I found the bulleted points listed on the poster to be an excellent way to help readers with comprehension.  I had this poster on my classroom wall and referred to it daily.

I am going to elaborate on the bulleted points.

• Making predictions before and during reading is crucial for the reader.  It gets the child’s brain thinking and as your child reads, he can check to see if his predictions are correct.
• Ask questions before and during reading is also very important and gives the reader a reason to keep reading: finding the answer to the questions.
• Looking at the pictures if it a picture book is an excellent way to help with comprehension.  Remember a picture is worth a thousand words. Right?
• Making connections to one’s own life as a child reads help the child become more engaged in his reading. We all remember what we read much better if we can identify with some part of the story, whether it be a character or the setting or a certain problem in the story.
• Stopping to recap the story gives the reader a chance to see if he is remembering what he is reading and sort out the important main ideas from the details.
• Rereading the confusing parts is always good advice no matter what grade you are in.
• Making pictures in your mind as you read is like seeing a movie in your head as you read a book. When we see the movie running in our heads while we read, we  are more apt to remember what we read.