Comprehension: Strategic Instruction for K-3 Children

Foster children's passion for literature early on.
Sustain that passion with strategies that ensure listening and reading comprehension.
Find out how in this essential guidebook for primary grade teachers.

An expert in the ways young children develop literacy, Gretchen Owocki offers primary teachers just what they need for effective reading comprehension instruction-research-based strategies that enable children to meaningfully connect with text.

Owocki bases her book on comprehension strategies that are known to be used by proficient readers:

• predicting
• inferring
• purpose setting
• retelling
• questioning
• monitoring
• visualizing
• connecting
• deciding what is important
• evaluating.

She then puts the strategies into context by providing a framework for comprehension instruction that has proven to be successful in a range of instructional settings. Here you will find practical ideas for supporting comprehension through whole-class and small-group instruction, literature circles, partner reading, and independent reading. For further help, Owocki includes graphic organizers, evaluation tools, instructional charts, and plentiful examples of the kinds of language that effective teachers use to engage students in talk about books.

Read Owocki and feel freshly equipped to provide thoughtful comprehension instruction. And see how these practices greatly enrich not only children's literacy learning but also their experiences in and outside school.