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Skills Resources

Below, choose the Tribal Council you belong to...

This list explains the skill lessons I teach to my Tribal Councils::
[If you're a teacher, this link can get you going.]
[NOTE:: I hold two meetings a week. The list below also shows [approximately] how many meetings I am dedicating to each skill. This is my ideal schedule for 36 weeks, though we're not meeting for the first few weeks or last few weeks of school.]

One meeting:: Rules for Reading Workshop [See one list a teacher developed with her students here.]

Two meetings:: After you read a selection, what do you write about in your reading response journal? What makes a response useful?

One meeting:: What are some strong examples of reading response journal entries?

Two meetings:: Why are Post-Its helpful when you read?

Six meetings:: Question-Answer Relationships

Four meetings:: Making predictions

Two meetings:: Seeing what you are reading in your mind

Four meetings:: Fix-It Strategies [See one list a teacher developed with her students here.]

One meeting:: How the way you read out loud can make you an expert reader

Six meetings:: What is main idea? When you discover the main idea, what are some supporting details I can take from the passage?

Four meetings:: Context Clues and Million Dollar Words

One meeting:: Antonyms and Synonyms

One meeting:: Prefixes and Suffixes

Four meetings:: Ways to think about characters; character traits and characterization; motives

Two meetings:: How settings can affect the book

Two meetings:: Narrators and their points of view

Two meetings:: Author's Purpose- persuasion, entertaining, and informing

Two meetings:: Facts and Opinions

Two meetings:: Comparing and contrasting different books by the same author

Two meetings:: Comparing and contrasting characters, settings, and events within a book

One meeting:: Comparing and contrasting a character as he/she changes from the beginning of the book to the end

One meeting:: How you would handle a situation a character encounters in a story in comparison to the character

Two meetings:: Text-to-Self vs. Text-to-Text connections

One meeting:: How an author uses a lead at the beginning of the story to draw in a reader's attention [writing link]

Two meetings:: Cause and effect comprehension strategies

Two meetings:: Sequencing

Four meetings:: Figurative language [similes, metaphors, and idioms]

Two meetings:: Flashbacks and foreshadowing

Four meetings:: [FCAT] Short and extended response questions- tips to get your mind going for each question

Two meetings:: Questions to have in your mind as you read non-fiction

Meetings on how to use graphic organizers::

Venn Diagrams

Spider Charts

LINKS:: I use, mention, or get ideas from some of these websites in tribal council meetings-

Arrow Book Club Literature Circles

FCAT Test Question Vocabulary- This mentions words commonly used in FCAT reading questions.

I use ideas from this website to explain the concept of journaling.

The City of Ember Literature Guide- This goes with the incredible book, The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau. I use some of these questions to guide the tribal council groups.

LitLibrary- This has great book guides for some of my favorites I read like Walk Two Moons and Julie of the Wolves.

Sharon Creech Teaching Guide- This teaching guide is all about incorporating literature circles and discussion groups with Sharon Creech's books. My absolute favorite book is Walk Two Moons.