Context Clues in Info Texts (Part 2) – Conferring with Students
Posted on February 4, 2025Share This Content
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BUT. DESPITE. WHEREAS. ALTHOUGH. IN CONTRAST. INSTEAD. HOWEVER. YET. WHILE. NEVERTHELESS. NOTWITHSTANDING. Our students may gloss over these words as they read, not realizing how powerful they are. Words like these signal a causal relationship that is in opposition to what a reader might have expected. These words are a BIG DEAL. Technically they’re called …Read more
If I know a reader understands what has been explicitly stated in a section of an informational text, then I check for inferential or interpretive understanding. This includes asking questions like: “Why do you think the author included these key details?” “What do you think the author’s main idea in this section is?” Sample Conference …Read more
If I’ve leaned in to listen to a transitional stage reader and they do not have any word solving issues (and their fluency is adequate), I start with one of these two questions to check comprehension: What did you just learn in this part? (for non-narrative) What just happened in this part? (for narrative) These …Read more
When I lean in for a reading conference with a student reading an informational source, I always start with “Tell me what you learned in this section. In the case of narrative nonfiction, I ask, “What just happened in this section of the text?” When I do this, I’m checking for within or “right there” …Read more
In the third entry of this series, I describe three reading conferences I had with students focused on making sense of context clues and share some tips.