Check for Understanding Strategy Cards

The district that I teach in has a reading program that we have adopted and use as a resource to support our literacy approach. With most series, it has great ideas and stories and not so great lessons and stories. Each unit introduces a reading comprehension strategy and then provides various stories and activities for students and teachers to use for modeled, guided, shared and independent practice. I made these little strategy cards for my paired groups to use whenever they are asked to read a selection from the text.

I have two sets of the red cards, one is a basic card that I have my students use at the beginning of the year. The second set of red cards in the basket have a few more questions to guide their discussions. The yellow cards hiding in the back of the basket are geared towards expository text. Just having these cards handy reminds my kids to stop and monitor their own understanding as they read. You can set a page limit, for example you could have your kids stop after every page or after three paragraphs to discuss the questions on the strategy cards. I think it depends on your focus and your kiddos.

I didn't have it in my mind to post about these cards today, but then I saw my kids in action and realized that they still use the cards and they work! My higher groups tend to hold the cards but rarely refer to them, even though their conversations were thorough. This tells me that at some point they were using these cards to develop their understanding. My typical groups had their cards handy and really used them as a resource. I was so proud and their level of understanding impressed me as well. They are getting to the point where they can provide details from the text to support their answers.

FYI...we are currently working on determining importance and reading biographies about notable people in history. Last year, I worried that my class wasn't getting the whole picture of what type of person their notable was. This year, after having my kids use these cards to work their way through their biographies, I feel as though they already have a deeper understanding of their notables life and accomplishments.
Woo-hoo for resources that work and are easy to implement!

Here is a copy of the cards that I created. The first is the higher level set I use for fiction, the middle is the nonfiction set, and the third is the basic set I used in the Fall. I cut them out and pasted them back to back with a piece of construction paper in between. They were a bit thick for the laminator though, so perhaps cute scrapbook paper would create a better seal around the edges.