1. Unit 2: Reading Fiction Strategically
Everything in RED font needs to be copied into your Reader’s Notebook!!
Put the date at the top of a new sheet!

2. Our Goals This Unit
Overarching Question: Here’s what we need to understand by the end of the unit
How do good readers approach fiction?
Why do we read fiction? How does it impact our lives?

3. Our Goals This Unit (continued)
Essential Questions
How do readers monitor their understanding?
What do readers know about how stories are structured?
How do readers accumulate story details to understand theme and author's purpose?

4. How do readers monitor their understanding?
Session 1:
How do readers monitor their understanding?
Inspirational Quote:
“To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
-Edmund Burke

5. Readers use strategies to monitor and fix their understanding. They
Teaching Point #1:
Readers use strategies to monitor and fix their understanding. They
notice when the text is not making sense.
stop and ask questions.
re-read to clarify confusions.
predict what will happen next.

6. A few thoughts on reading…
When readers are not comprehending, several things may be happening:
they may be just reading the words on the page
getting distracted and thinking of other things,
not making any sense of and/or not visualizing what they are reading.

7. One more thought…
Good readers are able to clarify when they summarize, re-read, identify important details, and connect the details.

8. Active Engagement
Turn your attention to “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
Under the document camera, I will model annotating with a pen. I will read the story, making my thinking evident and marking on a text that you can see.

9. Active Engagement (cont)
I will read only the first part of the story and…
Underline details that seem to be important to the story.
Bracket the first part of the story where the character’s problem is revealed and label with a summary of what happens in that part
Put a star in the margin where I stopped to question, clarify, or predict, and then write the question, the clarification, or prediction.
While I’m doing the above actions, please copy down what I’m doing on your story!

10. Independent Practice (on handout)
Now, on your own, continue reading the story with a pen and marking your copies with the same behaviors. These should be written in your Reader’s Notebook already:
Read the story, making your thinking evident and marking on your text
Bracket any part of the story where the character’s problem is revealed and label with a summary of what happens in that part
Put a star in the margin where you stopped to question, clarify, or predict. Write the question, the clarification, or prediction.
I will come around and give you credit for an annotated story in approximately 20 minutes.