• Making Meaning
     
     
    All elementary students in the School District of Clayton use a valuable reading comprehension curriculum called Making Meaning. 

    The Making Meaning® program is a classroom-tested K–8 reading comprehension curriculum that combines the latest comprehension research with support for students’ social and ethical development.

    Click the link below for more information about this wonderful comprehension program!
    http://www.devstu.org/making_meaning/videos/index.shtml

    Third Grade Making Meaning Units

    Visualizing

    What it is

    Good readers form visual and other sensory images during reading to better understand, remember, and enjoy texts.
    How it’s used in the program

    Students visualize to make sense of figurative language and deepen their understanding of poems and stories.
     
    Making Inferences

    What it is

    Good readers use prior knowledge and information in a text to create meanings not explicitly stated, moving from the literal to a deeper understanding of texts.
    How it’s used in the program

    Students make inferences to think more deeply about both narrative and expository texts.
     
     
    Wondering/Questioning

    What it is

    Good readers ask questions about a text to focus their reading, clarify meaning, and delve deeper into the text.
    How it’s used in the program

    Students generate questions before, during, and after reading to make sense of text, and they analyze their questions to deepen their understanding of the reading.


    Understanding Text Structure

    What it is

    Good readers use their knowledge of narrative and expository text structure to improve their comprehension.
    How it’s used in the program

    Students use story elements (e.g., setting, characters, plot) to help them understand stories, and identify and use features (e.g., headings, subheadings) and relationships (cause and effect, compare and contrast) to help them comprehend expository texts.

    Determining Important Ideas

    What it is

    Determining the important ideas in texts helps readers identify information that is essential to know and remember.
    How it’s used in the program

    Students identify information that is essential to know and remember.