Professional Development to Reach Student Teaching Goals Notes

7 Simple Steps to Teaching Reading Comprehension to Mastery (Webinar)

I chose this webinar not only because I am hoping to strengthen my skills in teaching

guided reading, but also because in the last few weeks in the classroom, we began taking the

approach of specifically teaching comprehension skills. Our students were growing in terms of

being able to read the words in their books, but many were not comprehending the plot or

themes in the book. This was something we specifically noticed after we completed reading

assessments for the end of the second trimester. Most students scored high in fluency but low

in comprehension.

I learned how to develop mini-lessons to teach comprehension skills. We use mini-

lessons before beginning the Daily 5 rotation for reading groups as well as during writing time.

These mini-lessons are whole group lessons, and then more direct instruction is provided in

small groups. I learned the presenter, Jen Bengel’s seven steps to developing great mini-lessons

for reading comprehension:

1. Identifying the Need: What have students already mastered? What do they need more

support in?
Professional Development to Reach Student Teaching Goals Notes

2. Narrow the Focus: Mini-lessons are intended to be focused on one specific skill.

Bengel’s example was that students needed support in summarizing, but the concept

summarizing is much too broad. She determined she’d teach determining the main

points after reading.

3. Create the Mini-Lesson: State the purpose of the lesson for students, and identify

what specific skills are being taught. (*Provided by Bengel is an additional lesson plan

format that is practical for teachers to write and use in their classroom.)

4. Model the Skill: (the “I DO” step) How will you intentionally model the skill for

students? How will you do it intentionally BUT naturally? Maybe you’ll use a book or

mentor text (a book you’ve already read to the class, typically used repetitively for a

period of time as part of a unit). Do the process of the skill you’re teaching out loud to

model it.

5. Invitation to Learn: (the “WE DO” step) This is a whole group activity or discussion.

Maybe you’re asking questions about what you modeled, or maybe you’ve set up an

experience for them to work together to try. You also probably question the purpose to

check for understanding of its importance.

6. Thinking Deeper: (the “YOU DO” step) Could be a turn-and-talk in partners, could be

a small independent/partner/small group activity. This helps you identify who to pull

into a small group for differentiated instruction during workshop time.

7. Try it Out: Transition from mini-lesson to workshop time. Now, students will use the

skills independently during work time. You will probably also carry this into teacher-

directed small groups. They may have a worksheet or note-taking form, or another

discrete task to practice the skill - it would depend on the specific skill you taught in

your mini-lesson. (i.e., we have “Teacher Table” as a job during guided reading, so this

skill would carry into that small group instruction).

This follows more of a workshop model (like we do during writing) than the Daily 5 model we

use for reading, but the strategy of a mini-lesson that carries over into reading groups is still

applicable. In my classroom, I would love to combine these two models: I like the “jobs”

required by Daily 5, but rather than always just reading to self/someone, I would ask
Professional Development to Reach Student Teaching Goals Notes

individuals/partners to do something related to a mini-lesson often. For example, Bengel uses

the skill of identifying main points to summarize text. During Read to Someone, instead of

only reading to each other, maybe students will quiz each other on the main points in the text

their partner read to them.

Bengel showed examples of assessment following the discussion on the 7 steps. She

explained her process of observation/checklist assessment as well as more formal assessment,

and how related this back to steps 1 and 2 on how she plans her mini-lessons. If students need

additional mini-lessons, she plans these for the immediate following days, or if students have

mastered more than she originally thought, she adjusts her plans accordingly.

Following completion of this webinar, I was granted access to each of the mini-lesson

planning note-taking forms Bengel modeled the use of during her webinar as well as the

assessment forms she uses, as well as a sample week of mini-lessons. I also received a

Certificate of Participation for completing the webinar.