This article examines the reading comprehension strategy known as making connections. It involves linking what is being read (the text) to what is already known (schema, or background knowledge). The author provides links to four online resources that will help readers use the strategy in K-5 science and literacy classrooms. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which integrates science and literacy instruction.

The reading strategy known as making connections can greatly enhance students' understanding of any text. This article offers resources that teachers can use to instruct K-5 students in using the strategy. The free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle integrates science and literacy instruction. Each issue contains lessons and activities that combine literacy and science experiences.

This article discusses the reading instruction strategy of predicting and shows how it applies to science learning in the elementary school grades. It appears in the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which provides a first introduction to the Seven Essential Principles of Climate Literacy.

Students create mental images while reading using a three-pronged approach: developing schemata and visual awareness; Watch-Read-Watch-Read (W-R-W-R), using video clips; and a strategy similar to the think-aloud approach.

Use this comprehensive lesson as part of a comprehensive literacy, STEM, or social studies unit in which children will be using informational texts. In the "Dream Tube" animated story from the PBS Kids series Molly of Denali, Molly and her friends need answers about agate stones.

The importance of paying attention to what you are reading, and employing reading strategies when something doesn't make sense, are demonstrated in the 11-minute animated story "Party Moose" from the PBS Kids series Molly of Denali.

This lesson provides music and drama activities to help students improve their comprehension skills.

Students name unnamed chapters in a novel they are reading. They discuss possible chapter names, considering accuracy, word choice, and connotation, before settling on a choice.

An article describing what lower-literacy is and the characteristics and differences between them and higher-literacy users. There is also a section on improving usability for lower-literacy users especially pertaining to the internet.

This article describes the importance of teaching students the strategy of note taking and includes a template for use with elementary students.

This blog focuses on a teacher's need to fill in the gaps for reading strategies and the priority to improve comprehension and overall reading development. She explains the strategies to meet the above goals.

A great activity for students to learn high frequency words and how to make sentences.

Students move from modeled to independent comprehension of fiction stories by using texts by Jan Brett and interactive tools that demonstrate their comprehension.

Working in small groups, students compose found and parallel poems based on a descriptive passage they have chosen from a piece of literature they are reading.

Engage middle school students in a meaningful study of the lives of students from across the globe through the use of contemporary nonfiction and fiction. Students create personal autobiographies, sequence story events, and prepare well-crafted summaries while learning to use higher-level comprehension strategies such as Question-Answer Relationships and the Bio-Cube. Additionally, students conduct a critical study of the NCSS Notable Tradebook Nasreen̍s Secret School: A True Story From Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter, comparing and contrasting their own lives to Nasreen̍s and expanding their geographical knowledge of the Middle East.

Students learn content area vocabulary and increase reading comprehension using the Vocabulary, Language, Prediction (VLP) approach.

Students read Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, demonstrate comprehension of the story by involving themselves in discussions, and analyze the characters in preparation for a class "press conference."

Brush up on your reading comprehension skills when you check out this website. It looks at a particuar strategey called QAR. QAR stands for "Question-Answer Relationships." This particular strategy helps students learn to answer reading comprehension questions.

This activity teaches children six question words: who, what, when, where, why and how.

There are 30 questions in this activity. Practice your reading skills with one or two short stories at a time. Read the story, then choose the answer that best answers the question.