Comprehension can be such a difficult task to teach, but these Comprehension Notebooks have been a life-saver over the past couple of years. They allow me to give a quick daily dose of comprehension, and we can really dig deep into each story. I personally use these in small groups, but they can also be used in a whole group setting. I prefer to use them in small groups because I can use a variety of grade levels in order to differentiate for my students.
Daily Comprehension Practice
These Comprehension Notebooks are set up on a 5-day schedule using the same story each day. In all honesty, I usually do these over a 2-3 day time frame. My schedule does not allow me to meet with each small reading group every day, so I usually do Day 1 and Day 2 together. Then, the next time, we reread and do Days 3-5. You can use these however you feel works best in your own classroom.
Differentiating with Comprehension Notebooks
I have 4 different grade levels of Comprehension Notebooks available (Kindergarten-3rd grade). I personally like to use each of the grade levels in my classroom depending on each student’s reading level. While the majority of my students do well with the Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd grade notebooks, I definitely have students that are capable of using the 3rd grade notebooks as well.
What does each Comprehension Notebook include?
Each notebook includes 30 weeks worth of comprehension practice using both fiction and nonfiction text. The comprehension skills are appropriate for each grade level and include a variety of skills. (cause and effect, main idea and details, compare and contrast, visualizing, theme, inferences, etc.) Every week includes a Write About It section that allows students to respond to the text and make text-to-self connections. In order to help you with differentiation, I also have two different bundles available for you. My K-2nd grade bundle is a great way to differentiate for a 1st grade classroom. I also have a K-3rd grade bundle that includes ALL of my Comprehension Notebooks.
What are teacher’s saying about Comprehension Notebooks?
“True brilliance…that is all I can say about this resource. I am going into my first year of teaching and have viewed thousands of resources and this is by far my favorite. The excitement I have for this is a little silly, I must say! (I even called my mom). I always struggled with comprehension as a child so seeing a clever way to implement reading comprehension activities aside from curriculum is brilliant!” -In the Shade
“This book is probably one of the best purchases I have made on TPT. I have used it daily. It is used as a must do for my students during centers. It took about six weeks of working with the students , but now they are working in a group of about 5 students and getting a lot out of the daily practice pieces. It goes along well with Journeys. I just have to tell the students what page to work on to match up with the comprehension skill of the week. Often they will ask if they can finish the page which is exciting to hearing. I sent it away to be bound into a book as shown and the students know to pull out their books when we have centers. If you are wondering if it is worth it… It is!” -Primary at Heart
“Absolutely a GAME CHANGER in teaching comprehension! Thank you for making a product full of practicality for my kiddos! Your hard work is beyond appreciated! Thank you for making my job easier!” -Krystina
Check out all of my Comprehension Notebooks.
Kindergarten Comprehension Notebook
1st Grade Comprehension Notebook
2nd Grade Comprehension Notebook
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The ability to comprehend a text can make or break a student’s reading success. These are strategies that we need to work on over and over again throughout the school day. We really need to make sure that we are not overlooking the power of building listening comprehension with our students. I hope you continue to join me as I discuss more comprehension strategies and skills in the next couple of weeks. Feel free to pin the image below or any of the images above to remember this blog post for future reference.
I have way too many Candy Land games in my classroom, maybe more than I care to admit. However, I love using this game for reviewing many different skills. To create a sight word version of Candy Land, just write a sight word on each colored square. Before the player can move to that color, he/she has to read the sight word. I have also created math fact Candy Land where the player has to tell the answer to the problem before moving to their color. Other ideas for transforming Candy Land include: letter sounds, blends and digraphs, synonyms and antonyms, rhyming words, etc.
Connect Four is another game that lends itself to academics. I just write on the chips, and the students are ready to play. In the first picture, I wrote addition math facts on each piece. The player had to say the answer before putting in their chip. The second picture has beginning blends and digraphs on each chip. The players had to say a word that began with that blend or digraph before putting their piece into the game.
Another idea is to use Jenga. For the game above, I wrote ending punctuation on each block. Before pulling out the block, the player had to say a sentence that ended with that punctuation mark.
We also use Chutes and Ladders to review words with particular vowel sounds. In the picture above, I wrote a vowel on each section of the spinner. Before moving their piece, the student had to say a word that contained that vowel sound. You could use this with short or long vowel sounds. Another idea is to have the student say a math fact that equals the number they landed on before moving their game piece. For the Sorry games above, I wrote letters on each square. As the students move around the board, they have to say the letter sound. For the one on the bottom, I just wrote tasks on each card. For example, “Say a word with 2 syllables.”
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