Stellar Teacher Podcast with Sara Marye

This week’s reading skill that we will be focusing on is identifying the theme of a story. I’ve come to realize that there are many ways that “theme” can be interpreted. Since everyone has different backgrounds, teaching the abstract concept of theme can be increasingly more difficult especially as you get into higher grades. I hope these strategies I share are helpful and that you’ll join me next week for the last episode of the reading comprehension mini-series!

Today’s episode is the second of this month’s Reading Comprehension Skill Series and will be focused on main idea. More specifically, finding the main idea in nonfiction texts. I remember when I used to teach my students by using an elaborate lesson and telling them they needed to do the same. What I realized was that after all the time I spent, I wasn’t showing my students how to find the main idea themselves.

There are so many reasons I decided to focus on reading comprehension this month, the number one being that these are difficult skills to teach. One of those higher level, more abstract concepts that I get asked about most is making inferences. Although it may seem like there’s a simple equation to mastering this skill, there are so many factors that can influence your student’s success. After you hear my experience teaching inferences, head over to my Instagram and share what you’ve found to be effective!

This episode will be the third and last episode in the mini-lesson mini series, although I’ll definitely be talking about them again soon! At this point you have probably thought about what you are doing during your mini-lessons and have hopefully tried some of my tips and tricks. You may want to try one more after I tell you about the mini lessons you should be teaching that aren’t related to comprehension.