Transitional C-Checking for Understanding

Whether you're beginning with the Emergent, Transitional, or the regular C.A.F.E. menu, Checking for Understanding is an important strategy and it should be one of the first mini-lessons that you present.  It is the "meat" of the Comprehension category and it should be revisited often, especially in the early grades to ensure that students master it.  Often, students at the K-2 level are so busy decoding the words that the quest for perfect phonemic awareness gets in the way of true understanding and after all, what is reading if you can't grasp the meaning of what the author is telling you?

Almost any fiction or non-fiction material can be used to help present the concept. I suggest using a wide variety of genre while discussing this strategy.  A list of my favorite suggestions are below:

• Listen Buddy, By Helen Lester
• The Life Cycle of an Apple Tree, By Linda Tagliaferro

Before tackling what Checking for Understanding looks and sounds like with kindergarten students, I begin by presenting the concepts of the specific story elements.   What IS a "character?"  What IS a "setting?"  "Where IS the beginning? Middle? Ending of the story?" "Where IS a story's problem?" "What IS a story's solution?" These things are addressed in the Emergent Menu, which, if you teach kindergarten is where I would suggest starting out.  At this level, everything is done in baby-steps!

Mini-Lessons to Promote Concept:

1. Model Checking for Understanding by doing various think-alouds.  Use language such as:

• "When I read that page, I thought..."
• "I understand that the author is telling me is..." 
• "I read about [person] and [person] on this page."

     2.  Read Listen Buddy to the class.  Have a student pass an object to a neighbor at the beginning  
          of each page (I used a plastic spoon because it was handy.  In a perfect world, I would have        
          used the wood that I had bought months ago cut into little checkmarks and painted in a red 
          sparkle-paint for each student, but in teaching-not everything goes as planned).  After I read  
          each page, the student holding the spoon has to Check for Understanding using a prompt you
          have demonstrated or another one that they come up with.  When that student finishes, he or 
          she would pass the spoon to a different student.  This can also be done with the students divided
          in partner groups after they have had practice in a whole group setting.

     3. Make a T-Chart.  On one side of the chart have students help you list what the author said 
         (verbatim).  On the other side of the chart, have students Check for Understanding tell you in
         their own words what they understood from the information of he page.