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Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading
Inferring, questioning, determining importance. It's not easy to explain these abstract reading strategies to elementary readers, yet knowing how they work and how to use them is an important first step to connecting with texts. Fortunately Tanny McGregor has developed visual, tangible, everyday lessons that make abstract thinking concrete and that can help every child in your classroom make more effective use of reading comprehension strategies. Comprehension Connections is a guide to developing children's ability to fully understand texts by making the comprehension process achievable, accessible, and incremental. McGregor's approach sequences stages of learning for each strategy that take students from a fun object lesson to a nuanced and lasting understanding. Her lessons build bridges between the concrete and the abstract by incorporating writing, discussion, song, art, and movement into a web of creative connections that reinforce each strategy on a variety of levels. All the while Comprehension Connections offers an inside look at the dynamic of McGregor's teaching, showing you how her ideas look in action, and including the language she uses and that she encourages her students to use as they build their facility Many students struggle to understand what it is they are supposed to do as they learn to read strategically. Help them make connections to the ideas behind reading and watch as your readers go deeper into texts than ever before.
144 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 2007
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591 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
August 19, 2017
After 15 years of teaching reading comprehension, most books on the topic are at most 20% new ideas. My appreciation reading text comes down to how well the new ideas are articulated and how painless the review is. McGregor's book scores well on both counts.
The new
*McGregor uses loads of art, music, famous quotes, and picture books to symbolize comprehension skills. Granted, multisensory learning is nothing new, but her detailed lists are well organized and highly useful.
*The diagram of concentric connections- working from text to self, to text to text, to text to world- was a stronger visual than the pyramid diagram most books use.
The review
*McGregor's metaphor of a spider web for comprehension is strong, and I wish she'd spent more time on it. The concept of interconnecting neurons is important for any book about teaching.
*Her organization is somewhat questionable. For example, one chapter is devoted to the skill of inferring, but serves as an umbrella for predicting, analyzing theme, and studying characters. These are separate skills requiring separate treatment. The same applies to the "synthesis" chapter.
*I'm glad to see the emphasis on visualizing. I wish that she had talked about the need to self-check/adjust your visualizing as you find additional details in the text.
*The chapter on determining main ideas doesn't even scratch the surface. This is the most frequent issue that my students have, and it needs a more strategic approach than the one described here.
*Glad to see the emphasis on metacognition.
*McGregor depicts reading as a combination of the reader's mind with the text. That's a controversial belief. Many would have it that the reader's job is not to use their own knowledge and experience, but rather to comprehend the author's use of clues to establish meaning. This distinction is meaningful in the classroom, because a student might say, "I'm a guy and I don't get this girl book. I'm done," at which point the teacher can either say, "Your mind did not intersect with this, let's put the book away," or "Let's look closer to find out how the author establishes meaning. What can we learn about reading from this text?" Your thoughts on reader's experience vs. author's intent will inform your instruction.
Recommended as a beginning text on reading comprehension, especially in the lower to middle grades.
The new
*McGregor uses loads of art, music, famous quotes, and picture books to symbolize comprehension skills. Granted, multisensory learning is nothing new, but her detailed lists are well organized and highly useful.
*The diagram of concentric connections- working from text to self, to text to text, to text to world- was a stronger visual than the pyramid diagram most books use.
The review
*McGregor's metaphor of a spider web for comprehension is strong, and I wish she'd spent more time on it. The concept of interconnecting neurons is important for any book about teaching.
*Her organization is somewhat questionable. For example, one chapter is devoted to the skill of inferring, but serves as an umbrella for predicting, analyzing theme, and studying characters. These are separate skills requiring separate treatment. The same applies to the "synthesis" chapter.
*I'm glad to see the emphasis on visualizing. I wish that she had talked about the need to self-check/adjust your visualizing as you find additional details in the text.
*The chapter on determining main ideas doesn't even scratch the surface. This is the most frequent issue that my students have, and it needs a more strategic approach than the one described here.
*Glad to see the emphasis on metacognition.
*McGregor depicts reading as a combination of the reader's mind with the text. That's a controversial belief. Many would have it that the reader's job is not to use their own knowledge and experience, but rather to comprehend the author's use of clues to establish meaning. This distinction is meaningful in the classroom, because a student might say, "I'm a guy and I don't get this girl book. I'm done," at which point the teacher can either say, "Your mind did not intersect with this, let's put the book away," or "Let's look closer to find out how the author establishes meaning. What can we learn about reading from this text?" Your thoughts on reader's experience vs. author's intent will inform your instruction.
Recommended as a beginning text on reading comprehension, especially in the lower to middle grades.
July 4, 2010
This is probably my all time favorite teacher book ever! Tanny does an outstanding job of creating metaphorical thinking. I love her launching sequence, and I will use these lessons for years to come. The "Thinking Stems" posters are a staple in my classroom, and I can't wait for her next book on genres to be published!
March 26, 2018
Some good ideas offered
August 7, 2019
Definitely one that I will come back to again and again. I like the idea of making abstract thinking concrete.
August 3, 2011
I highly recommend this book to all of my reading-teacher friends! It is a quick read (I read it in 2 hours at the pool yesterday) and is a great, FRESH companion to all the comprehension classics - Debbie Miller, Chris Tovani, Ellin Keene, Steph Harvey, etc. If you loved Strategies that Work or Reading with Meaning, I guarantee you will LOVE how McGregor uses concrete items to teach comprehension strategies. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is I thought the book could have been more developed before it went to press.
December 25, 2015
Tanny offers great advice for teaching abstract concepts using concrete materials. Not only are her ideas straightforward and easy to try, she also recommends many artists and wordless picture books as springboards. what will surely become a classic teacher text.
September 17, 2012
My favorite reading strategy book! Easy to read and implement plus it actually works with kids of any age! Is a prefect companion to teachers moving into Common Core's deeper reading.
August 8, 2015
I can't wait to try out all of these great ideas!
February 22, 2024
I appreciated the versatility of this book and the ideas McGregor presents. As a Speech Language pathologist, this gave me new ideas to target things like reading comprehension, inferencing, visualization, etc.
Biggest takeaway: questioning section — allowing students to be able to come up with their own questions before, during, and after a book. What could show better comprehension of WH-questions than allowing students to come up with their own questions instead of just firing off questions at them for a whole lesson.
“Allowing my students to be intensely curious beings that they are has transformed me from a question asking machine to a learning companion for my students”.
Biggest takeaway: questioning section — allowing students to be able to come up with their own questions before, during, and after a book. What could show better comprehension of WH-questions than allowing students to come up with their own questions instead of just firing off questions at them for a whole lesson.
“Allowing my students to be intensely curious beings that they are has transformed me from a question asking machine to a learning companion for my students”.
October 21, 2019
This book changed my teaching, changed the way I think about thinking, changed the way I approach the abstract. I first read this book 10 years ago - as an elementary teacher - and it's impact on me was powerful. I just reread it through the eyes of a middle school science teacher and am already brewing with ideas of how to change the lessons I teach about informational text and science reading.
August 15, 2020
The content of this book was very interesting and written to where readers can finish quickly. The content is derived from elementary classrooms, but I can see how the ideas can be translated to a high school classroom. I now want to go through all the standards and try to create concrete lessons in order to help my students grasp the more difficult abstract ideas.
July 19, 2017
Great concrete ways to introduce the strategies and get students familiar and confident with them before having them jump into text and use them!!!
September 10, 2017
Excellent!
August 13, 2019
Practical approaches to helping students process what they read.
October 19, 2019
good quick read with tangible ideas to implement right away
June 16, 2021
Incredibly useful book on launching the reading strategies with the use of concrete and sensory exercises! Highly recommend!
July 22, 2021
Great professional development book for English teachers. The chapters are short and offer great visual strategies to help readers of all abilities.
February 18, 2022
Amazing. It makes me want to be back in a classroom again.
July 1, 2023
Sat down and read this in two gulps.
So I have been assigned for the second year running to teach reading along with my certificated area, social studies. Last year I prepped by reading numerous books and settled on the approach in “The Book Whisperer, loving reading and the idea of book clubs. Anyhow, I did not do a good job of teaching reading by my own analysis, although nobody was looking so it was all on me.
Turning to my wife - an elementary school GT teacher - she gave me this book. It is exact what I think I need to pull off a passable job as a reading teacher, at least for the first ten weeks. It has enough concrete lessons and structure for me to get the education part of teaching reading done. It lets me access reading as an instructor has the lessons detailed to a perfect degree of specificity without being pedantic or restricting.
So this is how I will assay reading this coming year. Suitable for the novice or career teacher.
So I have been assigned for the second year running to teach reading along with my certificated area, social studies. Last year I prepped by reading numerous books and settled on the approach in “The Book Whisperer, loving reading and the idea of book clubs. Anyhow, I did not do a good job of teaching reading by my own analysis, although nobody was looking so it was all on me.
Turning to my wife - an elementary school GT teacher - she gave me this book. It is exact what I think I need to pull off a passable job as a reading teacher, at least for the first ten weeks. It has enough concrete lessons and structure for me to get the education part of teaching reading done. It lets me access reading as an instructor has the lessons detailed to a perfect degree of specificity without being pedantic or restricting.
So this is how I will assay reading this coming year. Suitable for the novice or career teacher.
June 8, 2025
This book was a concise and practical way to look at organizing comprehension thinking and teaching in the elementary classroom. I am excited to use some of these ideas to support reading success!
June 10, 2010
This is a great book for classroom and reading teachers. I've always said that the most learning occurs when students are having fun. This book provides concrete and creative ways to teaching six thinking skills: schema, inferring, questioning, determining importance, visualizing and synthesizing. Not only will it be fun for kids, but fun for teachers to teach! It is especially great for districts implementing the Literacy by Design reading series. The six thinking skills in this book are the exact same ones in Literacy by Design.
August 12, 2012
Wow! This may be the single best book on how to launch reading strategies that I've ever read. Relating the strategies to something concrete makes so much sense. This book made me realize the importance of slowing down my teaching and taking the time to launch each strategy without the burden of text. I hope Tanny McGregor writes more books because I would definitely read another one. Wow!
February 22, 2013
This is a great quick read about how to tangibly teach reading strategies. It focuses a lot on metacognition (and teaching kids how to understand their thinking) and schema (background knowledge). While some of the strategies for teaching such things are a bit elementary for 5th and 6th graders, the ideas can easily be modified to the next level for middle grade learners. I'm excited to talk about this one with some colleagues!
March 23, 2013
S´han publicat molts llibres sobre estratègies de comprensió. Com millorar i avaluar la comprensió dels alumnes quan és un procés tan invisible?. De tots els que he llegit, aquest és el que més m´ha agradat per ensenyar a pensar estratègicament als alumnes de primària emprant tots els canals comunicatius (Visual, Auditiu, Cinestèsic, de manera creativa, visual i artística).
December 11, 2012
Loved this book and its wonderful ideas. Wish I could keep it since I borrowed it and now have to give it back. Definitely a great read for comprehension strategies for students who need more concrete thinking.
January 6, 2013
This is by far one of my favorite teaching resources. This concrete method of teaching abstract comprehension skills is fabulous. My students love the lesson and are always engaged. Every teacher in grades 3-6 should have this book.
April 19, 2013
Good book with great ideas on how to teach reading comprehension skills. I liked the examples of text to use with concepts (i.e. inferencing) as well as examples of art, music, and realia that really help bring abstracts concepts to life. I'd recommend it!
December 10, 2013
Quick easy read filled with easy to implement ideas to deepen students' comprehension. Lessons used so far this year have been clear and effective. Adds art, music, and concrete visuals as well as anchor charts. Love it!
August 29, 2013
Awesome book of mini-lessons for key comprehension skills--metacognition, visualizing, schema/connections, making inferences, etc. Loved teaching some of the lessons in here to my kids! Each lesson links to concrete experiences and items--great way to break it down for the kids.
September 12, 2013
I can't wait to try some of these ideas with my English Language Learners. The author offers some awesome suggestions for making the important abstract work of reading comprehension more concrete for students.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews