My own dear daughter is now in second grade and is a reader! Yippie! But like most kids her age, as she moves from level to level, the books get longer and there is more of a story to hang on to over many pages. So now I want to help her as much as I can and I know just the way to do it. But how you ask???? Well, that is the same question that I hear over and over again, year after year. Well my friends, this is when I begin to introduce the tried-and true-method of summary post-its to kids with my cute little chart!
First I model for the kids this nifty little strategy that I use in my own chapter book for them. I tell them that I STOP! and THINK to myself and say " What is this chapter MOSTLY about?' I make a really dramatic to do and show them how I would write the post-it using a few phrases. The I have my kids reread their last chapter in front of me and try it out.
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| This is an actual chart that I have used many times over the years with kids moving to J-K-L level readers. |
Recently, I used this technique with a 2nd grade reader who is new to Level K. She is reading the Iris & Walter series, one that I highly recommend. First she read this one...
Since this was her first attempt at using this strategy, I wanted her to just get the gist of what was going on in each chapter. She got to choose the post-it ( a fancy one, of course) and then write in her pen. Here are her notes from the book.
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| Chapter 1 |
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| Chapter 2 |
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| Chapter 3 |
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| Chapter 4 |
She did get the overall gist of the story and was able to tell me all about Iris and Baby Rose in her retell when done reading. She did want to know if she could write more, however, I wanted to her spend her time reading, not rewriting the whole book.
As we tried this strategy again, on another day, her post-it responses were better. Take a look for yourself.
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| Chapter 1 |
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| Chapter 2 |
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| Chapter 3 |
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| Chapter 4 |
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So here you have it! My little reader grew in her post-it work over a few days! Yeah, keep at it kiddo! She got better at putting down what happened in the story in simple phrases. She even made the connection about Iris being homesick, just like Benny. Clearly this reader is ready to keep trying this on her own. Soon we can move on to more challenging tasks that will help her get ready for Level J books. She can now talk about her book with her partner using her post-its and even pick one and writing long about it.
