Monday, January 5, 2015

Comp Strats--Monday, January 5th, 2015

2nd Block:  Comprehension Strategies/ACT Prep

Day One--January 5th, 2015

When You Come In
1.      Find your seat (the one with an pink post-it note with your name on it), and drop off your stuff.
2.     Initial next to your name on my clipboard for attendance (on the table at the front of the room).
3. Drop your phone in the phone hostage center.  Put your phone BEHIND your name card, please.  


My Goals for Today
  1. Show you how we work on activities in class.
  2. Find out more about you.
  3. Start to show you how/why this class can be important, meaningful, and helpful to you.


Why We Study Vocabulary
  • What is the number one indicator of your reading comprehension?

  • ...your vocabulary!

  • So to understand and remember better, you have to learn, learn, learn more vocabulary.






Vocabulary refers to:

  • The words we must know to communicate effectively.
  • Oral vocabulary refers to words we use in speaking or recognize in listening.
  • Reading vocabulary refers to the meaning of words we recognize in print.

Vocabulary is important because:
  • Beginning readers use words they know to make sense of the words they see in print.
  • Readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading.

Vocabulary can be developed:

  • Indirectly--when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own.
  • Directly--when students are explicitly taught both individual words and learning strategies.
Source:  Family Readers


New Vocabulary
  • It’s the single biggest factor in comprehension/understanding.  
  • If you increase your vocabulary, you will increase your reading comprehension.


New Vocab Words
  • Novice
  • Adversity

Synonym for NOVICE         =                apprentice
Antonym for NOVICE          =         expert

Novice Examples
  • Make sure you have FOUR examples written down.  Steal from here, if needed:
    • amateur
    • rookie
    • newbie
    • trainee
SYNONYMS  FOR ADVERSITY
  1. distress
  2. difficulty
  3. hardship
  4. misfortune
  5. struggle
  6. obstacle
  7. trouble
  8. impediment
  9. hindrance
  10. crisis

Examples of Adversity
1.     Divorce
2.     Holocaust
3.     School
4.     Pregnancy
5.     Car accident
6.     Losing someone special
7.     Losing your job



Six-Way Paragraph—Understanding a Passage in Six Different Ways (20 minutes)
1.      “Crack Shot”
2.          Reading Strategy #1:  Read the questions first!  (Give yourself purpose.)
3.         Reading Strategy #2:  Consider the title, before, during and after reading.
4.         Reading Strategy #3:  Annotation (Talk to the text.)
We did this one together today, since it was our first time.

For full daily points today, you need three things on your paper:  name, date, correct score for this assignment.  (Remember, you get five full points for completing the assignment, checking it with me, and correcting it.)

Last Half-Hour of Class
  1. Get on schoology, and click on this class, and complete the assignment for today (survey).
  2. When you finish the survey, bag your computer, and check out the bookshelves for a book you might want to read.
  3. Take no more than five minutes to browse, then return to your desk and start reading--maybe this will be your first book for the term!



Read and Relax
  1. By the time people finished the survey, most people had twenty-five minutes or so to read.

End of Class
  1. Place your free reading book in the pink and white  cube, IF you don’t think you’ll read it outside of class.
  2. Grab your phones out of the hostage center.

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