3B Blog News from Mrs. Kerian: Visiting Author....Maribeth Boelts

Monday, April 27, 2015

Visiting Author....Maribeth Boelts

Howard Winn students had the privilege of listening to a real life author speak to them and share information about being a writer. Author Maribeth Boelts lives in Cedar Falls area and has written many children's books. She took time out of her busy schedule to visit Crestwood Elementary and Lime Springs Elementary and meet with the students sharing advice on writing as well as answering questions from the students.

Some key points that she mentioned to the students were:
* Writers should write what stirs their emotions
* Writers should write about what they know, feel, and imagine
* Writers should collect ideas to write about and keep in a notebook

For our teacher read aloud, we started one of her books titled The PS Brothers. It is about 2 boys trying to raise money to buy a puppy. They start a "poop scooping" business in hopes to raise enough money to buy a puppy that would help protect them against bullies. So far, the students are loving it!

Thank you Maribeth Boelts for taking time to visit our school. We loved learning from you and hearing your stories!

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Reading Comprehension Strategies

Inferencing: Experienced readers make inferences as they read. Readers use what they already know and think about what they have read to construct meaning. The reader should ask themselves, "What I already know in my brain" and "What did I just read or see?" to make an inferences that is not stated by the author of person.

Determining Important Information: Determining important information is a strategy that helps us pick out the most important ideas we read. The first line of a paragraph may say the main idea of the page, but a reader should read through the details to decide what is the important information. The reader should ask themselves, "What is the author trying to teach me?"

Summarize: A summary is a paragraph or a statement in your own words that gives the most important ideas from what you have read. Readers determine important information, make inferences, and visualize when summarizing. We use the graphic organizer of "Somebody....Wanted....But....So.....Then....". "Somebody" is the character. "Wanted" would be the what the character wanted. "But" would be the problem. "So" would be how the problem was solved, and "Then" would be the resolution or end.

Predicting:When a reader predicts, they use information from the text along with their own knowledge and experiences to make thoughtful or informed guesses about what will happen in the text. When your child is reading at home, encourage them to stop and share predictions he/she may have as they are reading.

Identifying Text Structure: Recognizing how a piece of writing is organized can help readers understand what is happening. There can be different ways a text is structured.

* Sequential - in order

* Cause and Effect

* Question / Answer

* Steps in a Process

When reading at home, discuss how the text is organized and structure.

Ask and Answer Questions: Experienced readers ask questions about the text in order to understand what they are reading. Asking questions helps readers visualize, monitor comprehension and determine important information. Answers to these questions may be found in the text, or put together from the reader's own experience. At home, parents can encourage students to stop and ask questions while they read and recognize when answers are within the text or needed to be answered by own experience.

Paraphrasing: When readers paraphrase, they tell main ideas using their own words. This helps them check their understanding of what they have read. At home, parents can encourage their student to read a selection, flip the book over, and tell them main ideas from their reading in their own words. Flip the book back over and read another section or page before flipping it over again and paraphrasing his/her reading.

3B Blog News from Mrs. Kerian

Monday, April 27, 2015

Visiting Author....Maribeth Boelts

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