THOUGHTFUL CLASSROOM PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SUITES

A Professional Learning Suite

Improving Reading Comprehension

Tools and strategies that make it easy to build students’ reading comprehension skills and deepen their understanding of classroom content

Featuring Dr. Harvey Silver, today’s leading expert on instructional tools and strategies

Reading Comprehension = The Key to Deep Learning

Reading for understanding is the key to deep learning at all grade levels and in every content area. But what does it take to read for understanding? Research shows that strong readers use a battery of strategies before, during, and after reading to make sense of texts. They preview and predict in advance. They monitor their comprehension along the way. And, they reflect on their thinking after reading.

This online professional learning suite will show you how to develop in all students the before-reading, during-reading, and after-reading strategies that the most proficient readers use to understand complex texts.

What tools and strategies will I find in this suite?

$

Before Reading Tools

  • Power Previewing: Teaches students to actively skim and preview texts before reading
  • Mind’s Eye: Taps into the power of visualization to increase motivation and facilitate pre-reading comprehension
$

During Reading Tools

  • Single-Sentence Summaries: Encourages active reading and meaning-making by teaching students to stop and summarize regularly
  • Scavenger Hunt: Engages students in a fun and active search for key text features
$

After Reading Tools

  • Reading Stances: Uses different lenses or “stances” to help students explore, analyze, and connect personally with texts
  • 4-2-1 Summarize: Makes the processes of finding main ideas and summarizing texts engaging and collaborative
$

A Comprehensive Reading Strategy

  • Reading for Meaning: A comprehensive strategy for designing lessons that build students’ before-, during-, and after-reading skills, with a focus on collecting textual evidence
$

PLUS:

  • Practical resources to help teachers and PLCs plan, reflect, and analyze student work.

Click above for an advance organizer of the tools and strategies in this suite.

Your Path to Improvement Starts Here

Check Out a Sample TOOL Tutorial

Testimonial: Mary Belcher: Suites 2
“These on-demand suites empower both instructional leaders and teachers to use tools and strategies to improve instruction, engage students in deeper learning, and customize each teacher’s own professional growth path.”

Mary Belcher

Instructional Lead and Learning Acceleration Specialist,

Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) • Hazard, KY

Testimonial: Mike McQueen

“The Thoughtful Classroom Online Suites naturally and easily expanded my ability to deliver tailored and targeted professional development for my teachers. These suites have been a driving force in my school’s improvement process.”

Mike McQueen

Principal,

C.W. Davis Middle School • Flowery Branch, GA

Testimonial: Sharon Paver-Nepote

“The Thoughtful Classroom Online Suites naturally and easily expanded my ability to deliver tailored and targeted professional development for my teachers. These suites have been a driving force in my school’s improvement process.”

Dr. Sharon Paver-Nepote

Principal,

Wagoner Elementary School • Sauk Village, IL

Testimonial: Mary Belcher: Suites

“Together, the Four Cornerstones and Instructional Designer’s Toolbox suites provide the professional learning foundation that has made it possible for us to build a large-scale PD initiative focused on deeper learning.”

Mary Belcher

Instructional Lead and Learning Acceleration Specialist,

Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) • Hazard, KY

Check out all of the

Thoughtful Classroom Professional Learning Suites

TOOLS and Strategies for Active, In-depth Learning
NEW! Helping Students Connect Personally with Learning

Tools and strategies for getting students more personally invested in classroom learning

TOOLS and Strategies for Active, In-depth Learning
Promoting Classroom Inquiry

Turn everyday lessons into inquiry-based learning experiences—no matter what content or grade level you teach.

 

TOOLS and Strategies for Active, In-depth Learning
Improving Reading Comprehension

Equip students with the reading tools and skills they need to make meaning of challenging texts and understand new content deeply.

TOOLS and Strategies for Active, In-depth Learning
Unlocking the Power of Comparative Thinking

Capitalize on the untapped power of comparison: Use it to design better lessons, enhance classroom discussions, nurture creativity, and improve students’ decision making.

TOOLS and Strategies for Active, In-depth Learning
Moving From Note Taking to Note Making

Help your students become active note makers who can process new learning, manage and summarize information, and use their notes to achieve various learning goals.

Using Feedback to Advance Student Learning

Create a “feedback culture” in your classroom that inspires improvement, leads to deeper learning, and helps all students develop a growth mindset.

The Five Episodes of Effective Instruction

Make the work of instructional design easier and more effective by addressing five universal goals, or episodes, that define all successful learning sequences.

The Four Cornerstones of Effective Classrooms

Learn the essential elements that characterize all effective classrooms—and use them to promote better student behavior and higher levels of thinking and learning.