Using Graphic Organizers to Teach
Reading Comprehension

Dear Educator,

Welcome back to a new school year-I hope it's your best ever. Those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area may be familiar with our traditional back-to-school Sidewalk Sale. This year, we're doing something different: moving our sale online for the weekend of September 15th and 16th. I wish I could meet you all in person and offer you doughnuts and coffee, but I'm excited about the opportunity to give all our continental U.S. customers these special once-a-year savings throughout the store. Watch your e-mailbox for the start of the sale, and tell your friends!

Best wishes,

Rosalind Iiams, Editor
editor@primaryconcepts.com

According to the National Institute for Literacy, "Research over 30 years has shown that instruction in comprehension can help students understand what they read, remember what they read, and communicate with others about what they read." Graphic organizers are an invaluable addition to your young students' comprehension toolbox. As the Corporation for Intellectual Technology's "Writing Site" puts it, "Used in conjunction with reading and writing, graphic organizers enhance the ability to remember concepts, comprehend interrelationships among ideas, and understand abstract thinking. The visual nature of these tools provides a framework for students to organize and arrange information. As a student provides a written or drawn response to a story, these insights will deepen and widen their understanding and give students a structure with which to organize their own texts."

Informational and Narrative Texts. When they are reading informational texts, students can use graphic organizers to become more aware of the structure of the texts, remember concepts, and summarize what they have read. When children read narrative texts (stories), graphic organizers can help them comprehend and discuss the different elements of the stories: characters, plot, setting, etc. Organizers help early readers recall details, visualize, retell the story, make inferences, and understand the story's language. Check out the links below for a huge selection of downloadable organizers, as well as more tips on using graphic organizers with your young students.

These graphic organizers and lessons focus on characters in narrative and informational texts. Using these organizers, children will gain practice in important reading comprehension skills such as recalling details, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, and organizing information.

(Source: Primary Concepts "Graphic Organizers: Building Comprehension Skills")

September specials, online only!
Graphic Organizers: Building Comprehension Skills (3820)	Graphic Organizer Resource Special (3822)
Regularly $35.00; Special $29.95	Regularly $39.95; Special $34.00

Do you have a favorite graphic organizer activity? Send it to us, and we'll share it with our readers next month.

First grade teacher Julie Schwerzler sent in this engaging, inexpensive writing activity in response to July's newsletter:

One of my students' favorite writing activities is "Sticker Stories." The students put some stickers (usually 2-6) on their paper and draw a background. They write their story underneath the picture or on a separate piece of paper. I change the stickers according to the season or theme we are learning about. We read some of the stories aloud and I photocopy them before sending them home. Then I make a class book with the photocopied picture and the words typed in underneath. I put the book in our classroom library, and it is always a favorite of theirs to read--even many of the struggling readers and writers.

In our October newsletter: What does RtI mean for you, and how do you implement it? We'll offer background, links, and helpful resources.

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.

—Clay P. Bedford