Comprehension Toolkit

Discipline: Professional Resources, Literacy

Copyright: 2005

Grade(s): 3 - 6

Delivery Method: Print

Province: National

Imprint: Heinemann

Author(s): Stephanie Harvey, Anne Goudvis

Comprehension Toolkit: Language and Lessons for Active Literacy for 3-6

"Active literacy is the means to deeper understanding and diverse, flexible thinking, and is the hallmark of our approach to teaching and learning. Reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating are the cornerstones of active literacy. The Toolkit captures the language of thinking we use to explicitly teach kids to comprehend the wide variety of informational text they encounter. Through the Toolkit lessons, we demonstrate how the kids adopt and adapt our teaching language as their learning language." —Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis

In The Comprehension Toolkit, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis have created an intensive curricular resource designed to help students understand, respond to, and learn from nonfiction text. By actively engaging students in reading, talking, and writing about information and ideas, The Comprehension Toolkit provides a foundation for developing independent readers and learners across the curriculum and throughout the school year. Framed around the Gradual Release of Responsibility approach, it provides scaffolded comprehension strategy instruction. First through modeling and guided practice, then releasing responsibility to students through collaborative practice, independent practice, and application, the Toolkit’s lessons teach students to use comprehension strategies flexibly in a variety of texts, topics, and subject areas. Components include:

  • Professional Support - A series of resources introduce, support, and extend the Toolkit’s core lessons.
  • The Teacher’s Guide - outlines the thinking behind the Toolkit and describes its components, instructional design, and assessment options.
  • The Resources CD-ROM - provides an array of print and video resources including a photographic overview of an Active Literacy Classroom, downloadable research articles, templates, assessment masters, and full-colour lesson text.
  • Extend and Investigate - helps you extend the Toolkit’s comprehension strategies across the curriculum and throughout the year. It provides strategies for content area reading and research, textbook reading, test reading, and a variety of practical bibliographies.
  • 6 Strategy Clusters - The 26 strategy lessons in The Comprehension Toolkit are organized into six Strategy Cluster books.
  • Informational Texts - A series of short, engaging, real-world informational texts provide an effective context for using and practicing the Toolkit’s comprehension strategies.
  • The Source Book of Short Texts provides two kinds of nonfiction text:
  • Lesson Text - 24 articles from children’s magazines
  • Nonfiction Short Texts - 43 short informational articles specially written for the Toolkit.