3 Reading Tips to Help Children Infer Theme (Big Ideas)

Teaching children to infer theme is not always an easy task.  Many children finish a book and barely realize the book even had a theme.  When children don't go back and reflect on the text as a whole, they miss out on connecting the text to their lives on a deeper level.  They are also unable to take the ideas and lessons learned from the book and apply this insight to their own lives. In other words, when kids don't stop to think about the theme, they are missing out on one of the most valuable aspects of reading and their reading for meaning is compromised.

Here are three reading tips to help children infer the theme (big ideas) in books:

1. Use picture books as read alouds to teach theme.

Picture books today are amazing. Regardless of the age of the learner (yes, even Gr. 8's benefit greatly), picture books are an effective way to teach theme. When read aloud, learners have equal access to the text, they get the opportunity to stop and talk about their thinking and, the text is short enough to teach learners where important inferences have to be made.  All too often, teachers move too quickly into using novels as read alouds. This leaves many children struggling to understand and remember where and how inferences were made, preventing them from understanding the big ideas. Novels can simply be too long for many children and, because of their length, do not provide enough opportunities for children to practice the reading skills required to understand theme.

2. Revisit the same picture book (read aloud) for a few days in a row.

How many times have you left a staff meeting or a conversation where hours later you came up with a great idea that should have been shared but the chance was lost?  Teaching children to delve deeply into a text requires you to provide them the time and multiple opportunities to revisit similar conversations. Children need time to process their thinking.  They also require time to connect deeply with the text and come to new insights.  Providing wait time for children to answer questions about the text means more than allowing 30 seconds of thinking then responding.  Our learners require a substantial amount of wait time to absorb the text, take on new thinking, listen to their peers, re-think again and continue to connect the meaning of the text with their own lives.  To provide this opportunity for your learners, read the same picture book aloud for 3 - 5 days.  Also consider the idea that since the average child requires revisiting of a text, it is absolutely essential for your learners with special needs. You don't have to read the entire text each time.  Revisit important parts, ask children to add their thinking, comment and ask questions.  Ask different questions yourself, word your questions differently, pair children with new turn and talk partners.  Focus your questions on different big ideas in the text on separate days. Whatever you do, stop changing your read alouds daily and begin to stretch them out for a few days.

3. Cluster three or four picture books (read alouds) with similar themes.

When choosing your read alouds, choose three or four with similar themes and delve deeply into these themes over the course of a few weeks.  To make the best use out of instructional time, integrate themes with content. For example; If you are teaching about plants, habitats, saving energy or recycling for science then picture books such as:

(click on the covers to purchase the book)

are all wonderful stories, each with a different author's message, but with similar themes about caring for - and the consequences of not caring for - the world around us.  When you cluster such themes, you provide children the opportunity to experience similar, yet different big ideas.  This gives learners a wider perspective, improved vocabulary, and a reasonable wait time to develop a deeper understanding about the subject.

Lesson plans, for how you might incorporate read alouds of these books into your teaching, are available at:




https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/No-nonsense-Teaching

Great Kapok Tree Read Aloud, Curious Garden Read Aloud, Blackout Read Aloud, and Varmints Read Aloud.

Reading Comprehension: Share Your Thinking About This Quote

How to Stop Spending Valuable Time in front of the Photocopier

Oh that photocopier!  Between waiting in line to copy, paper jams, empty toners, handing out copies in class, limited paper budget, loose papers and time spent looking on the internet or through worksheet books, I realized that that darn photocopier was taking up valuable planning, teaching and learning time. Let's face it, I also had a life beyond school and wanted to make the best use of my time. 

So a few years ago, I vowed to re-think every single photocopy I wanted to make. Making the change from daily photocopying to one or two class sets per week has opened planning time for me and learning for children. It was one of the best changes I made in my teaching practice and I will never go back! 


Here's how and why I did it:

•   The only binders used in class were to organize homework and for music. Having no binders forced me to cut down on photocopies right away.

•  Children used notebooks. The odd photocopy was glued into their notebook (map or self-assessment). Notebooks allowed children to keep themselves more easily organized.

•  I realized that a worksheet being 'cute' was not a priority. There's nothing wrong with 'cute' but, I realized that children were much more proud of their work when they organized a blank page themselves.

•  I wanted to move children away from spending learning time on coloring the worksheet and on actual learning. Children are amazing to observe as the carefully plan out their own  blank page.

•  I did not want to take away worksheets to replace it with 'note taking' - yuck - but that 's another blog...

When making my decision to photocopy, I ask myself the following questions:


What EXACTLY do I want children to learn? 

Example:  When teaching inferring, I wanted children to demonstrate they had used evidence from the text to support their inference.

What does the worksheet look like?

Example: A three column graphic organizer with the headings: Background Knowledge/Evidence/Inference.

Which part of this worksheet narrows into this learning?

Example: Evidence and the inference.

Can this part be easily and efficiently be reproduced by children?

Example: Yes, children of this age can quickly draw a two column note chart in their notebook or decide how to organize this themselves.

Is there another way to use this worksheet other than photocopying one for each child?

Example:  Yes, create an anchor chart with examples of inferring graphic organizers.

Can I use this worksheet as a teacher support rather than a student worksheet?

Example:  Yes, I can use it as my guide when drawing this graphic organizer on my anchor chart.

Will this new method improve teaching and learning?

Example: Yes, if I draw a few different inferring graphic organizers on this chart, children will learn to choose the best graphic organizer for their own needs.  If I always hand them the best graphic organizer, they will never learn to choose the best one for themselves.

Types of Worksheets I No Longer Use         What I Replaced the Worksheet With

-grammar and punctuation                          -content based morning message

-spelling                                                    -word wall activities/words from
                                                                  children's writing

-cloze worksheets                                       -shared reading

-graphic organizers                                    -anchor chart displaying types 
                                                                 organizers                                                               
                                                                                           

-reading comprehension passages               -shared reading and reading
 questions                                                   response




Photocopies I still make:

- letters home to parents
-maps
-music
-assessments
-explanation of homework assignments


It has been a few years since my near elimination of photocopying and I couldn't be happier with my decision.  Now that I have learned how to replace worksheets with more valuable learning opportunities, it  all just became part of my routine.  I no longer had to deal with photocopier and I have much more time to spend observing learning and planning!!!!





For No-Nonsense Teaching ideas:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/No-nonsense-Teaching

Reading Comprehension: How to Connect Success Criteria, Learning Goals and Anchor Charts

Reading comprehension in Grades 4 - 8 is supported in the classroom many ways.  One strategy is to use your classroom walls effectively by explicitly posting and linking success criteria, learning goals and anchor charts.  By posting and linking all of these supports, children understand what they are learning, why they are learning and how be successful at what they are learning.

1. Begin by conducting reading comprehension diagnostic assessments.  Share the results of the assessments (names hidden) with your class.  Discuss and decide as a class which reading comprehension strategy to incorporate into reading lessons (why we are learning).  Including children in decision making results in a higher level of overall engagement.

2. Based on the class decision and reading curriculum expectations, create a learning goal with your class.  Children will provide input into the wording of a learning goal based on diagnostic assessments and curriculum expectation (what/why we are learning).  Children will require support and guidance on how to merge the two into one learning goal.  The learning goal becomes meaningful to children as they created the wording together.  Post the learning goal on the wall.

3.  Create a success criteria with the class (what/how to be successful).  Again, the wording of the criteria should reflect the class' input.  Post criteria above or next to the learning goal.

4.  With children, create supporting anchor charts to describe what this comprehension strategy 'looks like' and 'sounds like' (how to be successful).  Anchor chart supports will include sentence starters, related vocabulary, meta tags, graphic organizers, helpful strategies to use while working independently etc. Post these supports around the learning goal and criteria.

5. The specific daily learning goal for comprehension should be taken straight from the success criteria. This will make an explicit connection between the lesson and the success criteria for learners.

By thinking carefully about the organization of wall charts, your learners will have many of the tools they need to achieve success.

Assessment for Learning Sample Matching:  Children compare the quality of their work with a sample continuum.  Sample Matching provides visual examples of what the Success Criteria 'looks like'.

Look for useful resources at my TpT store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/No-nonsense-Teaching

Inferring Comprehension Strategy: How Memory Affects the Ability of Children to Infer

Inferring requires a reader to use his/her background knowledge combined with clues from the text to draw conclusions not explicitly expressed in a text.  Inferring in Grades 4 -8 can be much more challenging as learners are reading much longer and more complex texts.  The length and complexity of text can become stumbling blocks for learners who have weak short-term memories.  Teachers need to be aware of how memory affects inferring for assessment purposes. It may not be that a child is unable to infer, it may be that their memory prevents them from remembering their inferences and the ability connect one inference with another.  When children struggle with inferring, teachers should first observe if a child's memory is affecting their learning.

Memory affects inferring as some children have difficulty holding multiple clues in their head in order to draw conclusions.  Longer and more complex texts require children to identify these clues and keep them in mind for long periods of time.  Children with memory issues (even slight ones) can easily miss important clues in the text as one clue builds upon another.These children are unable to connect and build upon these clues because they don't remember they made connecting inferences earlier in their reading.  Teachers need to identify this issue and teach these readers strategies for inferring success. Sticky notes left in the text is one great teaching strategy for these readers to hold onto and review their prior thinking before continuing to read.



To learn more about the No-Nonsense way of teaching, check out my store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/No-nonsense-Teaching