Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades

If you have ever wondered how to teach comprehension strategies to primary-age children, read on.

First, imagine a primary-grade classroom where all the children are engaged and motivated; where the buzz of excited, emerging readers fills the air; where simultaneously words are sounded out and connections are made between the books of their choice and the experiences of their lives. Then, open these pages.

Welcome to Debbie Miller's real classroom where real students are learning to love to read, to write, and are together creating a collaborative and caring environment. In this book, Debbie focuses on how best to teach children strategies for comprehending text. She leads the reader through the course of a year showing how her students learn to become thoughtful, independent, and strategic readers. Through explicit instruction, modeling, classroom discussion, and, most important, by gradually releasing responsibility to her students, Debbie provides a model for creating a climate and culture of thinking and learning.

Here you will learn:techniques for modeling thinking;specific examples of modeled strategy lessons for inferring, asking questions, making connections, determining importance in text, creating mental images, and synthesizing information;how to help children make their thinking visible through oral, written, artistic, and dramatic responses to literature;how to successfully develop book clubs as a way for children to share their thinking.

Reading with Meaning shows you how to bring your imagined classroom to life. You will emerge with new tools for teaching comprehension strategies and a firm appreciation that a rigorous classroom can also be nurturing and joyful.

Debbie Miller taught and learned from children in The Denver Public Schools for thirty years. Author of Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades, 2nd edition (Stenhouse, 2012) and Teaching with Intention: Defining Beliefs, Aligning Practice, Taking Action K-5 (Stenhouse, 2008), Debbie now presents workshops across the country and internationally, and works extensively with schools and districts on long-range planning and development of literacy programs.

She worked for many years with the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC), a nonprofit group committed to providing ongoing support and leadership for schools in the Denver area and nationally. Debbie has also been an adjunct professor at The University of Denver and Regis University.