Weaving Through Words: Using the Arts to Teach Reading Comprehension Strategies

This book shows teachers how to help their learners take an active role in becoming strategic thinkers and readers and how to develop meaningful lessons to aid students in their comprehension of text. The book delineates an arts-integrated curriculum that helps teachers teach reading comprehension strategies. It is an in-depth look at the effects of using multiple art forms as a methodology for teaching comprehension to elementary students. Each chapter not only presents and defines the specific comprehension strategies--developing sensory images, building and activating schema, questioning, determining importance, inferring, synthesis--but also provides information to help teachers recreate the lessons in their classroom. Chapters in the book are: (1) Integrating Reading Comprehension and the Arts; (2) Developing Sensory Images; (3) Building and Activating Schema; (4) Questioning; (5) Determining Importance; (6) Inferring; (7) Synthesis; (8) Case Studies of Students with Learning Difficulties; and (9) Assessment of Students' Reading Comprehension. Interspersed throughout the book are student samples that offer insight into the depth of the lessons and of students' learning. Appendixes offer an arts matrix to help teachers implement lessons; directions for art projects and drama techniques; blackline masters; and suggested resources. Cites 76 works of literature and 10 works of art and music. (Contains 26 figures and 30 references.) (NKA).