St Joseph’s
Kindergarten Phase 1 Presentation
Focus on Reading
3-6
Comprehension Teaching Strategies
In Kindergarten over the past year and a half I have been working to introduce
a few of the teaching strategies to the children through using Revisit, Reflect,
Retell teaching ideas. The strategies I have introduced to Kindergarten are:
Making Connections – when reading books we discuss if we have had similar
things happen to us.
Visualising – after reading a story children visualise pictures or parts of the
book to draw or paint .
Questioning - questioning is done on a daily basis in all KLAs. Ideas such as
‘The Story Star’ are used in guided reading and also with homework home
readers. This idea is also implemented in other KLAs.
Predicting – we regularly predict what will happen in a story this is used as a
whole class and also during guided reading. Predicting is also used in other
KLAs such as HSIE, Science and RE.
Summarising - we regularly summarise what has happened in a story.
Children also summarise what a partner has told them in ‘Thinking Partners’
Teaching Ideas
Kindergarten has trialed a few teaching ideas from ‘Revisit,
Reflect, Retell’, some of these ideas have worked and others
have not. I have had to modify most ideas to cater for the age of
my students.
• Sketch to Stretch – is primarily used in English for reading
groups and big books. The children have someone read half the
book to them, they then draw a picture of what they think is going
to happen in the rest of the story. The group then discusses what
they think will happen, they continue reading the rest of the book
and then discuss at the end whether their ideas had occurred in
the book.
• Alphaboxes – I attempted to use this last year and it was too
difficult for the children. If I was to modify it again I would only
use set letters (a-f, g-m, n-t, u-z). So as we read through a book
we would be looking for words that begin with the letters a-f.
•The Story Star – we ingrate ‘The Story Star’ in all our reading
sessions and also with the children's home readers. The Story
Star has been fantastic for getting the children talking about their
book. The set questions cover the Who, What, Where, When,
How and Why?
Teaching Ideas
•Storytelling with Props – we have used
‘Storytelling with props’ predominantly in English
when reading a big book. The children create their
own puppets and then act out a section of the
story. The children really enjoy being given the
opportunity to act out a story. The more we talk
about and discuss book the more confident the
children are becoming. The props give the
children the extra confidence to participate
actively.
• My Partner Said… - we use ‘My partner said’ in
conjunction with ‘Sketch to Stretch’. I have
integrated this idea into HSIE and Science this
term for our themed topics of Seasons and
Materials. My Partner Said has provide the shy
students in my class to opportunity to speak up in
class, they are not worried they are going to say
they wrong thing because they are giving
someone else's opinion.
Poggy Frog and the Cows
Modified Posters
Sketch to Stretch
Teacher or helper reads to children a
section of the book. When we reach
the middle of the book we stop reading.
After reading a selection, students draw
sketches that illustrate key ideas and
details. Students present their drawings to
explain how they made connects with the
information in the book.
Children turn to a partner and discuss
what they think will happen in the rest
of the book.
We continue reading the story. We discuss
what the story was about and what we
enjoyed.
Modified Posters
My Partner Said...
( Knee to Knee)
Thinking together –
children share ideas
and opinions about
what they have heard in
the story.
Reporting - Children report
to the group about what
their partner said.
Children start with “My
Partner Said...”
Implementing Phase 2
Phase 2 has been implemented in our classroom in the following
ways in Term 2 and they will continue to be implemented as the
year progresses.
•Literature circles - are used every morning as part of reading
groups. The circles include;
- Writing centre
- Listening centre
- Reading centre
- Phonics centre
- FOR centre (Sketch to Stretch)
•Student Dictionary – We have created a student/classroom
dictionary to write definitions of words we come across in our
reading or themed units.