ABSTRACT
Knowing students deeply through conferring and running records, listening in, small-group work, observation, and their demonstrations of understanding is key to their and our success. When students self-reflect, track, and share their learning, long-term retention and motivation increase. Asking children to recall the words or point out the picture keeps their connection text based and gives the rest of us a point of reference as we listen and learn from their thinking. Teaching children key features of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and showing them how to recognize what to expect when they encounter particular types of texts, authors, and the like, helps them know what to expect and how best to go about reading and making sense of the texts they encounter.
