Check For Understanding

This week during our reading block we worked on the strategy Check For Understanding.  To start off I modeled how this strategy looks by stopping and talking out loud about what I remembered from the section I had just read.  When we check for understanding we stop at the end of a sentence, paragraph, page, or chapter (depending on how long we can go before our understanding breaks down)  and we retell the events of that section.  The next day I modeled how I could write down bits of information on a post it note to help jog my memory when I check for understanding.  The class practiced this all together with our read aloud book Fourth Grade Nothing.  Currently, the 4th graders are practicing this strategy with their independent books.  They stop at a sentence, paragraph, page, or chapter to make sure they understand what they have read and they jot down a few notes on a post it, which can be stored in their 5 subject notebook.