Well, friends, here we are. Some of you might be teaching virtually, and some might be in your classroom with strict social distancing guidelines. We have so many problems and hurdles to overcome, but I’m here to help you find a solution for one of them: Your reading comprehension stations.
Can I Still Have A Reading Comprehension Station?
You bet you can! It just looks different. In class: your students need to sit apart from each other, or depending on your guidelines, near each other with masks on. We will also get creative about handling of materials, since we want to limit the amount of shared resources. Here are some suggestions to make this work in the classroom or virtually learning from home.
Book Substitutions
I don’t know about your guidelines, but if a child touches a book, then that book needs to be put in to “book quarantine” for 72 hours before another child touches it. Let that nightmare sink in. I love my classroom library and I will miss it, but this lady isn’t messing with a book quarantine. So I’m going to come up with digital substitutes. It’s not ideal at all, but it’s better than nothing.
So here are some substitutions. I’m going to assign books through the app, Epic to my students. This is a great way to differentiate for the different reading comprehension levels. Plus, you can do this in the classroom or at home.
Take it one step further and have them respond to the book they read on your platform of choice. Mine is seesaw. (Check out 7 Seesaw Tips Here!) Often, I would assign the book, and then have them draw and tell about what they thought on Seesaw. You can also do this on Classkick or ClassDojo.
Poke around on Youtube. There are thousands of videos of read-alouds available. Plus, you can get extra fancy and use Edpuzzle to stop the video and ask your students reading comprehension questions. Putting a link through Edpuzzle takes away the unwanted ads, too which, is a bonus. Here’s a tutorial if you’re interested in Edpuzzle.
If you just want to use a video for reading comprehension, then you can filter it through Safeshare and post a QR code for your kiddos. They scan the code, and VOILA! The video plays. It’s a process, but you can get a quick tutorial with my 9 Steps To Creating A Digital Classroom Guide. (It’s free! You should check it out!)
Need More Digital Reading Comprehension Ideas?
Need more? My theory of digital reading products is either make, collaborate or sell. Make the things you know how to, collaborate with your colleagues and share your talents and resources, or buy the things you need. Look for quality all year materials by the same one or two sellers so the products are relatively the same. It’s less training for your students.
