Reading for Meaning

Reading for Meaning
From Tom Snyder Productions
Product Overview


Reading for Meaning is a software program for Grades 3-8 that
improves reading comprehension through the use of authentic
literature, lessons, and graphic organizers. The program provides
students with a concrete process for comprehending text,
organizing their ideas, and writing open-ended responses.

Instructional Content

Reading for Meaning focuses on five core topics found in reading comprehension
curricula:

Main idea
Inference
Sequence
Compare and contrast
Cause and effect

Teachers and on-screen hosts explicitly teach and model these skills. Students have
many opportunities to practice strategies during group discussions and by completing
software-generated worksheets and graphic organizers. They build the concrete skills
needed to move from reading text to writing about text.

Reading for Meaning’s learning objectives correlate to the IRA/NCTE Standards for
the English Language Arts. Students learn to approach comprehension systematically
and use this understanding to support their writing. By participating in the Reading for
Meaning program, they:

Become skilled using multiple comprehension skills within a wide array of literary
genres, including excerpts from novels, poems, articles, biographies, and more.

Read, analyze, discuss, and write about texts that reflect a range of genres,
cultures, and time periods

Develop critical thinking skills as they listen to and read the text, share their
reflections in small groups, and respond to open-ended questions

Organize the results of their group discussions using the graphic organizer tool

Relate the use of each skill to everyday life and generalize its use to new reading
situations

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Reading for Meaning:
Product Overview

Instructional Design

Teachers can use Reading for Meaning, which is designed for students in Grades 3-8,
in a variety of settings:

Whole class with teacher-directed instruction and modeling
Small groups, in which students work together to practice skills
Individual student learning on the computer

Each Reading for Meaning topic contains seven whole-class lessons—an introductory
modeling lesson and six literature lessons. Using a classroom computer, teachers can
use the modeling lessons to teach comprehension skills and guide students through a
structured four-step process. Students:

Watch a short animation (KidCam) that introduces a reading comprehension skill
Think about the skill in relation to the topic and organize their ideas using a
graphic organizer
Write a response to a comprehension question
Complete a self-check exercise with a simple three-point rubric

Literature lessons give individual students or small groups of students an opportunity to
practice the skill introduced in the modeling lesson. They read short, multi-genre
literature excerpts, think about and discuss the text, complete a graphic organizer, write
answers to three open-ended comprehension questions, and complete a three-point
self-check exercise. Teachers have the option of teaching any of the literature lessons
to the whole class, thereby reinforcing the skill and offering students opportunities for
discussion.

Reading for Meaning contains a Lesson Plan Library that provides instruction to be
used with teacher-provided literature commonly taught in Grades 3-8. In addition,
students can use the software’s graphic organizer tool with any piece of literature they
are reading.

Assessments

After watching a KidCam episode and completing a three-part writing exercise that tests
their comprehension, students check their answers using a three-point rubric provided
onscreen. They also self-check and rate their answers from the literature lesson
worksheets. Reading for Meaning provides teachers with sample answers for student
worksheets that are part of the Lesson Plan Library.

Motivation and Engagement

The KidCam animated episodes contain onscreen, conversational hosts that engage
students while they learn. The hosts introduce and model comprehension skills in a way
that children can readily understand. This provides them with an excellent foundation for
skills building, success, and increased confidence. Reading for Meaning’s literature
selections provide students with high-interest topics in a variety of genres, including
news article, fiction excerpt, poetry, myth, and biography.

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Reading for Meaning:
Product Overview

Intervention Strategies

Reading for Meaning provides all students with the tools they need to become strong
readers, ones who interact with the text, synthesize meaning from it, and demonstrate
their understanding through written responses. To accommodate students who have
varying abilities, the program’s 30 literature lessons are divided into three levels of
difficulty. Reading for Meaning encourages teachers to review the reading material
and comprehension questions in advance to determine which lessons are most
appropriate for their students. In addition, the program provides teachers with rough
placement guidelines:

Level 1: recommended for Grades 3 and 4
Level 2: recommended for Grades 5 and 6
Level 3: recommended for Grades 7 and 8

Classmates support each other during group discussions as they share their reflections
about the reading passages. The software provides a tool, the Random Picker, to help
teachers choose individual students and small-groups of students for meaningful
discussions.

Home-School Connection

Students in the Reading for Meaning program learn critical thinking and comprehension
skills that they can use with any reading materials, including those they choose to read
at home. In addition, students can take their completed worksheets and graphic
organizers home and use them as springboards for family discussions.

Professional Development

Reading for Meaning provides teachers with instructional strategies to teach main idea,
inference, sequence, cause/effect, and compare/contrast comprehension skills. The
software can generate reproducible worksheets and graphic organizer templates to
maximize student learning. Worksheets contain reading, thinking, group-discussion, and
writing activities.

Tom Snyder Productions offers a full-day training to teach educators how to effectively
integrate Reading for Meaning into the curriculum. The workshop provides a step-by-
step walkthrough and examples of how teachers have used the software with their
students. This customizable training can include large- and small-group discussions,
hands-on activities, modeling of lessons, and time for reflection.

In addition to software implementation training, Tom Snyder Productions offers a variety
of customizable on-site workshops that provide teachers with strategies for successful
application of technology in the classroom. These include:

Weaving Technology into Your Reading Curriculum
Critical Thinking, Cooperative Learning, and Technology
Using Technology to Meet State Standards
Integrating Technology into Your Curriculum Area

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