Leaving Tracks of My Thinking

My 2nd graders have been so busy practicing their reading strategies, and I am so proud of them.  It is so exciting to see them THINK while they are reading.  This year we have been utilizing The Comprehension Toolkit by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, and the results are truly amazing.

Recently as we worked on leaving tracks of our thinking, we focused on making text-to-text connections.  My team and I also wanted to challenge our budding readers to compare and contrast two different genres of text, so we read a fiction story on one day and then a poem on the next day.  For this reading experience, the key to picking out the poem was to choose one that had story elements.  It worked out perfectly and we were able to reinforce the elements of a poem at the same time.  Score!

On each day, we filled out this page where we did some parts together, some parts in pairs and the rest individually:

Then on the third day, we used each page above (previously filled out) to complete the page below as we compared (similarities) and contrasted (differences).  Again, we did one similarity and difference for each together as a whole class, one in pairs and then they tackled one on their own.  It completely stretched their thinking and they LOVED it!  I forced them to think of similarities and differences that were somehow related.  That's what made it challenging and a lot of fun.

In the rounded rectangles in the "Story" area is where I asked them to draw and color a picture of their favorite part of that story/poem.  In the shaded "My Connection" area is where they made a self-to-text connection for that story/poem.

I was blown away by some of the ideas my kiddos generated and I can't wait to do this again!!