Sunday, April 13, 2014

"Story Autopsy"


"Story Autopsy" is one of the strategies I use when reinforcing reading comprehension and critical thinking. The students are encouraged to discuss and brain-storm possible answers to the questions.

Strategy:
1. Let the students pick one story from the book.
2. Then paste the "what, where, when, and how" question on the wall.
3. Provide them 1 index card for each question.
4. Then tell them that you will first read the story to them and they will write the answers to the questions on the index card. Then tell them to flip it over. And let them read the story themselves and answer the same questions after they read the story. Then discuss and compare their first answer (from listening) and their second answer (from reading the story themselves). This will reinforce listening and reading comprehension.
5. Let them discuss the story by going over the details on their index cards.
6. List down all the "important words" words that they are not familiar with and discuss by showing and telling them examples relating to the word.

This strategy will not only encourage critical thinking and reading comprehension skills but also encourage speaking through discussion as well as introduce different kinds of stories, important people and events.