Text Talks: A Strategic Book Club Routine for Building Vocabulary and Comprehension Skills
In collaboration with the practicing professionals at our partnering schools, Project ELITE2 developed and refined an instructional model that educators use to enhance core language and literacy instruction for students in grades 3-5. As part of this instructional system, teachers strategically set reading groups of 4-5 students, select culturally relevant texts that are appropriate for their reading and language proficiency levels, and then divide the text into chunks. Before students read independently, teachers deliver a focused mini-lesson that includes previewing the text as well as explicitly teaching academic vocabulary concepts and reading comprehension processes. While students read independently, they practice word-learning strategies and record the meaning of new words. Students compose a written summary of the reading and respond to prompts in their journals to prepare for their group discussions. Next, students engage in structured, text-based discussion to advance their comprehension of the text and practice academic language.
Download the tools here!
- Text Talks Teacher Flip Book Tool for 3-5 Teachers
- Text Talks Student Workbook in English
- Text Talks Student Workbook in Spanish
- Text Talks Bookmark in English
- Text Talks Bookmark in Spanish
- Checklist for Successful Collaborative Discussions (English)
- Checklist for Successful Collaborative Discussions (Spanish)
15 English Lesson Plan Sets:
- Abby Takes a Stand
- Because of Winn-Dixie
- Esperanza Rising
- Magic Tree House the Knight at Dawn
- My Name is Maria Isabel
- My Name is Yoon
- One Crazy Summer
- Ruby and the Booker Boys
- Thank You, Mr. Falker
- The Boxcar Children
- The Hundred Dresses
- The Mystery of the U.F.O.
- The Name Jar
- The One and Only Ivan
- Wonder
