[00:00:20] Brittany: Welcome to another wonderful episode of The Teaching Toolbox podcast today as my delightful co-host, Ellie

[00:00:28] Ellie: Hello.

[00:00:29] Brittany: And I Brittany, bring a special guest to you to talk about reading comprehension with reading strategies. Please help me in welcoming Tina from Teach With Tina.

[00:00:42] Tina: Hi, Ellie and Brittany, thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:45] Ellie: Hi, Tina. It is so nice to have you here. I'm so glad you could join us. Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background, where you're from?

[00:00:55] Tina: So my name is Tina Cauley and I am the Tina Behind Teach With Tina. I actually took the scenic route to teaching but I truly believe that every step I took led me to where I am meant to be. So I had wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a kid. But when I started college, I actually fell in love with psychology. So I ended up earning both my BA and my Master's in psychology. And after graduation, I jumped at an opportunity to move to Australia for a few

[00:01:23] years.

[00:01:24] Such a learning experience. And to support myself through all that I turned to accounting, which was a skill that actually helped me get through college.

[00:01:33] So I stayed in accounting for a while. I have to admit it paid well and I moved up.

[00:01:38] Ellie: Okay.

[00:01:39] Tina: But by the time I was in my thirties, I was bored and I was really ready for something more fulfilling. So I followed my heart and I went back to school and I got my elementary teaching credential and a math supplemental, and I stepped into that classroom and I never looked back.

[00:01:56] Ellie: Nice.

[00:01:57] Tina: I started in kindergarten,

[00:01:59] Ellie: wow.

[00:02:00] Tina: which was one of those like, oh, okay. But I actually loved it. And then I went to third grade, and when I finally got to fifth grade, I found my home. I spent over 10 years teaching fifth grade, and I loved every minute of it. I love the students. I love their little snarkiness. I love the curriculum. I had an amazing team. But after about a decade, I really started to get the itch that I wanted something else. A lot of people, my husband call me flighty.

[00:02:31] Ellie: Not naming any names.

[00:02:33] Tina: No names here. Um, but I just love to learn. I really love to learn and grow. I love a good challenge, so I was ready. Um, so I started focusing on teachers pay teachers. Uh, I started uploading resources I was using in my classroom. I started making new ones and I realized how much I really enjoyed getting to know and helping other teachers. And I love learning the new skills, the computer, I mean, doing this podcast, something I would never have

[00:03:02] dreamt of. So it got me hooked, and a few years later, my district offered a retirement buyout.

[00:03:09] I hit 55 and I left. And honestly, for the past six, seven years I have been happily creating curriculum supporting teachers semi full-time. And I love it. I love connecting with teachers. I love, the feedback I get, and I've even started working now with some homeschool groups near me

[00:03:30] and parents. Yeah. So I've been really, really lucky. It's just such an amazing journey and I am so grateful that I get to keep doing what I love and learn a little bit.

[00:03:40] Ellie: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:41] Brittany: That sounds incredible.

[00:03:42] Ellie: It really does..

[00:03:44] Brittany: Wow. Um, at what point did you come back to America?

[00:03:50] Tina: You know, I got married, I met somebody in Australia, got married, had my first baby, and realized I wanna go home. I wanna see my family. So we moved here and, uh, moved back to California,

[00:04:03] which was where I was from at the time. I.

[00:04:05] Brittany: So we were looking around for great reading and ELA strategies and came across your reading strategies for any novel, and we thought our listeners might like to learn about some of your strategies. So you mentioned that you always start with activation. What do you mean by that?

[00:04:27] Tina: So like activation, especially in reading, but really in any subject, it's like a mental warmup before reading. It's just a quick and intentional exercise that I use to prepare my students for what they're about to read. I like to activate their prior knowledge. I like to set a purpose. I like to be able to help students come to the table with just a small little foothold into what the story or the text might be about.

[00:04:52] I believe it helps 'em to build confidence. I believe it helps 'em to come to the table with a willingness to engage in the reading. For example, when introducing a fiction or a novel, I like to guide my students through the discussion, like a book

[00:05:06] walk is what we do. We explore questions like, you know, what, what is this story gonna be about?

[00:05:11] Looking at the illustrations, reading the back of the novel, have you ever read anything else by this author? Draw a picture, you know, especially for your English language learners, to predict what do you think this story's about? Because I have found many, many times it's way different than what I thought they would think.

[00:05:30] Ellie: Oh, okay.

[00:05:31] Tina: Um, and then I like to ask 'em, you know. Why, why do you think we're reading this? Because a lot of students often think, I don't wanna read this. Why do I have to read this? And how are you feeling about reading this? Is this a scary story? Does it look like it has a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary?

[00:05:47] Are you worried about this? Are you worried you're gonna have to write an essay afterwards? I like to gauge my students' comfort level, their confidence, and I want them to understand that there's always a purpose behind everything we read,

[00:06:02] because I think when they know why they're doing something, I'll get a little more buy-in.

[00:06:07] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. You do need that buy-in. They need to know that there's some kind of purpose, and these are all wonderful questions to get students ready to read and get them thinking rather than just saying, okay, let's go to page one.

[00:06:21] Tina: exactly.

[00:06:22] Ellie: And so we could use activation and some of the other strategies we're gonna talk about with nonfiction reading as well.

[00:06:28] Yeah?

[00:06:29] Tina: Absolutely. I always feel like good reading strategies, like good teaching can be used with every subject and every

[00:06:35] learner. Um, when it comes to reading nonfiction, though, I think activation is absolutely essential. We forget, our kids' backgrounds are so varied and so

[00:06:45] diverse, and with non-fiction texts, especially subjects like science, social studies, they can be pretty abstract, especially for upper elementary and middle school students. Fifth grade science our students are introduced to complex, concepts like property of matter, atoms, molecules. They can't see those things. They're not easy to visualize, they are hard to connect to. So I always begin with that text walkthrough. Preview the headings, looking at the illustrations, look at the diagrams, explain the diagrams, activate any knowledge they may have about

[00:07:22] this. Bring in a video or blow something up in my classroom. Just, you know, to get them excited about what we're gonna do.

[00:07:30] I just find it's about giving the students the tools they need to understand and really engage with the text right from the start.

[00:07:38] Ellie: Thanks for sharing all those ideas. That's fantastic to think about. So what are some of the other strategies that you have found that have been beneficial for students?

[00:07:47] Tina: You know, most of the reading strategies I use and that, I think are important are really ones that teachers are familiar

[00:07:53] with. Identify the main idea, determine the theme, summarize what you read, asking and answering questions. I think the tried and true have always been the backbone of a good reading program or any comprehension program. I like to take it a step further. I like to integrate cross-curricular elements whenever possible. Middle school and especially upper elementary if you are not embedding social science and reading, you're not gonna get through the standards.

[00:08:20] So have them practice summarizing, complete a graphic organizer, turn all those ideas into a well-written paragraph. When we explore theme I try to make them support their thinking with text evidence.

[00:08:34] I really wanna dive into the plot, the main idea. Use the vocabulary author's craft, rising action, conflict, and resolution. I wanna deepen their understanding on both sides of, I guess, the, curriculum that we're doing.

[00:08:51] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:08:52] Yeah, it was really nice in middle school when I taught language arts, but I also taught other subjects as well, so it was nice to be able to do that. And I taught fifth grade for six or seven years, I think, when I first started in fourth grade. And it was nice when I taught social studies and I taught science, I taught language arts, and you could really be the one who knows what's going on in all of those subject areas to tie that all together.

[00:09:13] Tina: Exactly. Exactly.

[00:09:15] Ellie: But I love, you mentioned graphic organizers and the text evidence. You know, I love the graphic organizers. That visual aspect can really make the analysis and comprehension a little bit easier for students. And then searching for text evidence really helps them practice just justifying their thinking and that's a key skill in life and other subject areas, you know, as well.

[00:09:36] But to be able to point at that and say, well, this is right here why I think this, this is why, this is my support.

[00:09:43] Brittany: Vocabulary's always been really important to me. I've always started all of my units with vocabulary. So do you have a specific vocabulary strategy you use for teaching that, or do you use many different strategies? I'd love to hear how you approach front loading vocabulary.

[00:10:03] Tina: So complete honesty vocabulary I think is a huge challenge. If I have the kids look up the definitions in the dictionary,

[00:10:13] it doesn't always work,

[00:10:14] Especially when the dictionary explanations seem to, you know, use unfamiliar words. So I do a lot of sketching, visuals, . graphic organizers, things like that, especially with the front loading.

[00:10:30] Brittany: Oh yeah. Or when definitions are just cyclical, like organization is the act of being organized that doesn't help a student understand anything and they don't understand that, then you have to go look up organized.

[00:10:45] Tina: Yes. Yes.

[00:10:47] So basically over the years, I've leaned on a lot of the strategies that I learned while taking courses on teaching, English language learners. I honestly think that that's. Again, good teaching. It doesn't matter who you're teaching.

[00:10:59] Good teaching strategies work for everybody. And really the favorite is visuals. , Showing pictures. I like to have the students sketch,

[00:11:08] Not worry about their, their art artistic ability, but sketch something to put it in their brain in a visual format so that hopefully when they come across the word, that sketch comes into their mind.

[00:11:21] Ellie: Mm-hmm. A good like memory trigger.

[00:11:24] Tina: Exactly

[00:11:25] trying to make, the complex and the abstract words, especially more concrete. I also model a lot of thinking aloud when I read. Often with especially a fifth grade, sixth grade novel, I will read part of it to them because sometimes they are so challenging and I always pause, come across challenging vocabulary and figurative language.

[00:11:46] I like to pause and I model, how do I use context clues. What questions am I asking myself? You know, what strategies am I using in my own reading for me to understand this? So I find it's not just about teaching vocabulary, it's teaching that whole process of understanding unfamiliar words as I'm going.

[00:12:09] Brittany: That's fabulous and so helpful. Thank you very much.

[00:12:13] Ellie: Yeah, we used to, in addition to modeling that out loud, then students, we would talk to the text, and this was something that they could do independently and they weren't necessarily speaking out loud, but they would use Post-Its or Notebook paper to ask those same kind of questions that we might have modeled for them about words that are unfamiliar or maybe what they thought the words meant based on the context and that kind of thing.

[00:12:38] So that was very helpful for students, especially once it became an established habit. Just like model that

[00:12:43] Tina: yeah,

[00:12:44] what a great habit to take on to high school.

[00:12:47] Ellie: yeah, yeah. And you know, of course they didn't always like doing it, but it was an assignment and then they had to share it maybe in their reading groups or something like that.

[00:12:56] It reinforced the fact that they needed to get it done and then it became a great habit for them.

[00:13:00] Yeah.

[00:13:01] Tina: great.

[00:13:02] Ellie: So let's move on to the strategy that you call monitoring and clarifying what does that mean in the classroom context, and how do you use that?

[00:13:13] Tina: So if you've ever finished reading a page and thought, I have no idea what I just read,

[00:13:17] You experience what happens when you're not monitoring your

[00:13:20] comprehension. So monitoring is the act of really just being mentally present as you read, constantly checking in with yourself to see if the text is making sense to you. It's not an easy skill, but it's really important, for true understanding. Clarifying kind of goes hand in hand with that. It's what happens when you realize something isn't making sense and you stop to slow down, reread it, rethink it, maybe put that post-it note in and ask a question. I often ask my students, do you really understand what the paragraph was saying?

[00:13:54] And could you explain it to somebody younger?

[00:13:58] Especially, I find the fifth graders, the upper elementary, middle school, it, you know. I'm all that. So yes, I'll explain it to you. But that's the level of comprehension and even mastery that I'm aiming for. I try to reinforce with my students, especially. At that level, it's not how fast you read because they all wanna race through everything. It's about what you learned. How did you feel? What did you take away from that reading? So monitoring and clarifying, I believe, are lifelong skills. They're more important than ever now because we are bombarded with information, bombarded with distractions. And I think as teachers, my job is to help students not just learn the facts, but learn how to learn, learn how to discern information. And I think these two strategies are a huge part of that.

[00:14:51] Ellie: Absolutely.

[00:14:53] Brittany: Totally many times reading those college textbooks on ancient Rome or geographic geology, I'd find myself rereading a paragraph multiple times because I just wasn't monitoring my comprehension. My mind was elsewhere. As the text gets harder, the monitoring does too. So, Tina, towards the end of your strategies list, you mentioned one pagers, and I've been intrigued by those lately.

[00:15:23] Can you explain what a one pager is for our listeners who may be unfamiliar with them and how they're typically used?

[00:15:32] Tina: So I fell in love with one pagers in my fifth grade classroom. Where I taught, we had 35 to 36

[00:15:38] students of all levels. And I just found them to be a little piece of teacher heaven. Um, so basically a one pager, it's a single sheet of paper. You could use construction paper, regular paper, whatever works. It can be divided into sections. You can use a template. I used to love to have the kids fold 'em, and then we'd practice with our rulers to draw the lines, you know, small motor skills. And then within each section, students are to visually and creatively demonstrate their understanding of a book we're reading, a concept

[00:16:12] we're studying, nonfiction text skills, historical events. I use them a lot in social studies.

[00:16:20] Um, and I encourage them to use \ a combination of words, pictures, symbols, quotes. What I love most about them is they're so flexible. Uh, they can be used with or without prompts. You know, you can give them just the blank page, go for it. Or you can give them a rubric. This is what I'm looking for.

[00:16:40] They can be completed individually. I've done them with groups. And really I can adapt 'em to just about anything, any subject. Most often I use 'em in language arts and social studies, but I've used 'em as exit tickets, math notes, alternatives to book reports, reviews, informal assessments, just to kind of get a gauge of where my students are. Because they're so open-ended, they're so easy to differentiate.

[00:17:07] Students can respond at their own level, makes them especially helpful for supporting my ELL kids, uh, my students with special needs. While at the same time my advanced learners or even my artistic students

[00:17:22] can absolutely go off the rails showing me what they

[00:17:26] know. Every student really can access the content in a way that works for them. What I love is they're never the same.

[00:17:34] I think they're engaging.

[00:17:36] My kids especially love the book reports because it was so different. They're very student center. They're very versatile. What more could you ask for?

[00:17:44] Ellie: Yeah, that sounds fantastic. It looks like you have a ready to use example of a one pager in your free reading comprehension strategies toolkit. Can you tell us a little bit about this fantastic resource in case our listeners would like to grab it?

[00:17:58] Tina: Sure. So this free resource, it has over 80 pages of support for teaching reading strategies across all subjects. It includes 32 student friendly strategy pages that are designed both for fiction and nonfiction texts. Each strategy is clearly explained on the page, hopefully to help students internalize it, to remember it, and to be independent.

[00:18:23] To meet the different classroom styles

[00:18:25] each strategy page comes in two versions. One has a fun little border, and the other one is a very clean and simple design so teachers can choose what works for them. And then I also included some bonus items. I have a reading response choice board for fiction texts, a reading response choice board for nonfiction texts, and infographic creation directions.

[00:18:47] So if somebody wanted to take a piece of construction paper or even a poster. And create an infographic they can use that as a culminating activity to a novel, a unit, uh, anything. And then I have all the reading strategies redone as posters that you can hang up or give to students to put in their notebooks to remind them of all the different ways they need to engage with the text.

[00:19:10] So my hopes that this reading strategy toolkit will make it easier for teachers, whether you teach ELA, math, everything, but to help the students build those strong and long lasting skills.

[00:19:24] Ellie: Awesome. That is fantastic. Thanks for making that available. If you're excited to try out some of Tina's strategies in your own classroom, check out the show notes to grab the reading comprehension strategies toolkit and join her email community.

[00:19:38] Brittany: Tina, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing such practical, easy to implement strategies. Your insight into how reading comprehension can be both accessible and engaging for students is something our listeners will definitely take with them. Where else can our listeners find you?

[00:20:00] Tina: Well, most of the time I have a, I'm, uh, hanging out on my blog at teachwithtina.com, or I'm on Instagram, which is teach dot with dot Tina.

[00:20:10] Ellie: We will have those links in the show notes as well. If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love it. If you'd leave a rating or a review, follow the show or share this episode with a teacher friend. Every little bit. Helps us keep bringing practical tools and teacher tested tips to your earbuds each week.

[00:20:27] Brittany: Thanks again for joining us, Tina, and thanks to all of you for tuning in. Until next time, keep building your teaching toolbox.

[00:20:36] Tina: Bye. Thank you.