Stating the lesson objective – Often students wonder why they are learning specific information.  By stating the objective clearly, there is no doubt what the focus of the lesson will be.

Teaching testing strategies – Question-Answer Relationship or QAR is a great strategy to help students figure out how to go about answering questions based on a given text.  Teaching students the four basic question-answer relationships is valuable in helping them understand the different types of questions and how to effectively and efficiently approach the text based on the questions.

Using poetry to teach inference – There is not a more difficult reading skill to teach than inferring.  Poetry is the perfect genre for practicing this skill.  It’s generally shorter and always full of inferences.

Using graphic organizers – Providing a structure for students as simple as four blocks to write four questions – one in each block – can provide the structure that helps students get started and organize their thoughts and work.

Reinforcing for “genius” answers – Teachers should use a variety of reinforcers to engage students including telling them specifically when they are doing a good job.  Using something as FUN as having students blow their kazoos when the teacher hears a “genius” answer provides a little extra motivation when the context is especially challenging.

Rereading for depth – Good readers often have to read a piece of text more than once to fully comprehend it.  Rereading also helps prosody and fluency.

Modeling writing –We want students to apprentice themselves to great authors.  There is no more important author in a student’s life than his teacher.  When a teacher uses her own writing as a model she is showing students that she actually lives a writer’s life. In this classroom the teacher uses her own poetry as the text for a lesson giving the students easy access to the author to ask questions!

Using probing questions – As the teacher asks probing questions, she encourages the students to think.  Rather than telling students the answers, the teacher’s questions raise the level of thinking about and comprehending a complex text.

Incorporating technology – In this classroom PowerPoint slides include strong visual images giving the student words to read but also a visual representation of each idea.  Background music plays that is associated with the text as the students work on a written response, encouraging the students to connect the text and music.

Having high expectations – “Struggling readers are often convinced that they are also struggling thinkers.  If teachers can erase that misconception, struggling readers can really begin to blossom.”