monitor & clarify

Reading
In reading we have been practicing comprehension strategies. The past two weeks we've modeled and practiced together and indpendently Monitor and Clarify.  We've used this strategy with both fiction and nonfiction text.

About the Strategy
MONITOR & CLARIFY
You monitor, or check, your reading to be sure you understand. If something doesn't make sense, use fix-up strtegies to clarify, or make clear, what you are reading.
When something doesn't make sense, try these fix-up strategies.

• Reread the text.
• Stop and ask yourself question to make the meaning clear.
• Look at the photos, labels, and captions for clues.
• Read on and then go back.
• Ask someone for help.

Look for opportunities for your child to use this strategy while reading bedtime stories or as you listen to them read to you!

SLANT

We worked with Ms. Zaccaria, speech pathologist, today as she introduced SLANT to our classroom. This is a strategy or reminder to show kids to practice good listening skills. Ask your child what each letter stands for in SLANT this weekend.

Ms. Z will be pushing in to our classroom for weekly lessons. The result is increased learning along with outstanding classroom behavior. This strategy uses acronyms to learn and remember new or difficult concepts. An acronym is a series of letters that go together, but the individual letters stand for a word, idea, or concept. The one word SLANT instantly gets the reaction from a student that the teacher is looking for.

In the SLANT strategy, the S stands for “Sit up straight”, the L stands for “Listen”, the A stands for “Asking questions to clarify”, the N stands for “Nod to show understanding”, the T stands for “Track the talker”.

The beauty of this strategy is that when the students aren’t paying attention, or listening, instead of constantly saying pay attention, or sit up, or stop talking out, you can just say “SLANT” or “Everyone needs to SLANT” and they will immediately know what we mean. Others who come into our room will be truly amazed to see this strategy in action. When your students are “slanting” they are truly primed and ready for fully engaging in the learning process.

S - Sit up straight
L - Look at and listen to the speaker
A - Ask questions to clarify understanding or directions
N - Nod to show you are understanding
T - Track the speaker