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Overview

In this lesson students will strive to become better readers by paying attention to clues given in the text. By using the “monitoring/repairing” strategy, students will observe and practice using other parts of a story to help them figure out unfamiliar words or ideas, and discover how they can put information together to help them get a better understanding of what they read. They will practice the strategy with an online interactive activity that reinforces the thinking process of the monitoring/repairing strategy.

Content Objectives

1. Students will identify words that are not known to them and decode or replace them in a variety of contexts.
2. Students will observe the teacher modeling the monitoring and repairing strategy.
3. Students will read short stories and/or articles and discuss in pairs and as a group information and vocabulary that is new to them.

Grade Level: K-5

Multimedia Resources

1. Blue Ribbon Readers: Fridge Magnet Game Interactive

Materials

• A challenging non-fiction text or realistic fiction text based on facts.

Procedures

• Pass out books or articles to students and explain that there will be words they don’t understand, as well as more than one important idea or purpose in their reading. Read aloud and demonstrate the monitoring/repairing strategy, which involves stopping when new words are encountered attempting to determine their meaning. Once the teacher has modeled the strategy using the shared text, students may work alone or in pairs with another text. When the group comes back together, students will take turns sharing what they don’t understand, or what they learned. This should be repeated with new or continuing text over several class days.
• Students will use the “Fridge Magnet” interactive activity to highlight unknown vocabulary, and determine what they believe will make sense.
• Students will also work in pairs or small groups reading short stories or articles and marking with sticky notes what they don’t understand or what has been discovered that is new information.