Comprehension Matters Webinar Series (4 Sessions)

Kickoff Session: How and Why We Teach Comprehension | August 12, 4:30–5:30 PM MDT/6:30–7:30 PM EDT

Revitalizing Think Alouds: Showing Kids How to Think, Not What to Think | September 16, 4:30–5:30 PM MDT/6:30–7:30 PM EDT

Reimagining How to Squeeze More Meaning Making Into Our Day | September 29, 4:30–5:30 PM MDT/6:30–7:30 PM EDT

Rethinking Comprehension Across the Curriculum | October 20, 4:30–5:30 PM MDT/6:30–7:30 PM EDT

Feeling stuck between mandates and meaningful teaching?

How do we help students love reading and make meaning from text while still meeting instructional mandates? Decoding is essential—but it’s not the end goal. If students can read the words but don’t understand, what have we taught? Join us to explore how to bring comprehension, thinking, and engagement back to literacy instruction.

This interactive webinar series is designed for K–12 educators who want practical strategies to strengthen comprehension, engagement, and meaning-making across content areas.

What's Included:

• A free kickoff webinar open to all educators
• Three live webinars with nationally recognized literacy experts
• Access to all session recordings
• Optional 30-minute office hours immediately following each webinar for additional discussion and Q&A

Session Descriptions:

Kickoff to Series: How and Why We Teach Comprehension

We know that explicit teaching of comprehension strategies can make a huge difference for readers at all levels and in this webinar series, we’ll explore practical ways to work comprehension instruction into our all-too-short literacy blocks and content area reading. We’ll talk about and teaching techniques you can deploy immediately if use of a curriculum resource is mandated for your school. Participants will engage in discourse with the five webinar leaders at our first session in August (It’s free!) and in three follow up sessions in September and October.

Why did we choose to offer this webinar series?

Cris Tovani’s first book title says it all, “I Read It, But I Don’t Get It”. For decades educators believed that some students will “get it” and others just won’t and there wasn’t a lot we could do about it. Many of us remember the endless “comprehension” questions we answered as students and asked as teachers. Readers either got it or didn’t and the answer to those questions proved it. In her seminal research published as,, “Assessing Comprehension is not Teaching It”, (Durkin, 1979), Dolores Durkin showed how those endless comprehension questions did not often lead to improved comprehension; at best they were useful for a rough assessment.

In today’s literacy landscape, we have a new set of challenges. Curricular resources are prescribed and teachers told to implement them “with fidelity” which leaves little time for explicit comprehension instruction, reading aloud, independent reading, and conferring to differentiate for students. These approaches can yank the joy out of learning to read and write. Sadly, the result is far fewer students choosing to read for pleasure, many completing their K - 12 education without reading a whole book, and lowering comprehension assessment scores throughout the country. (NAEP, 2024)

The overriding goal for the series is to equip teachers, instructional coaches, and other school leaders with comprehension instruction ideas they can implement immediately, no matter what programs they may be using.

Revitalizing Think Alouds: Showing Kids How to Think, Not What to Think

“When you read, all the good stuff is invisible.” Ariel 9th grader

Ariel is right. Meaning is often invisible unless we metaphorically unzip our heads and share with students how we think and feel when we read, especially when text is difficult. Thinking aloud is one of our most potent teaching tools across the content areas and it doesn’t have to consume a lot of time! If we agree that asking comprehension questions is assessment rather than instruction, the logical next question is what does explicit comprehension instruction look like in the classroom.

In this session, we’ll provide examples of thinking aloud and engage participants in a discussion about how they might tailor thinking aloud to fit within their curriculum. (By the way, thinking aloud is a highly effective way to help students prepare for tests! Thinking aloud has an out-sized impact given that it takes relatively little time.)

Reimagining How to Squeeze More Meaning Making Into Our Day

When it’s all said and done, showing students how to make sense of reading and writing is the ultimate goal of literacy instruction. And deep down, we all know that in order for students to become thoughtful and proficient readers and writers, they need time to practice. For many of us, the question becomes WHEN?

In this session, Cris and Debbie will address the WHEN in a variety of intentional and thoughtful ways. We recognize teachers have required mandates, content coverage, and jam-packed days, yet we strongly believe that when we look closely at our school day (primary and intermediate teachers), or our class periods, (middle and high school teachers) we can intentionally plan for more time for students to read, write, and make meaning every day.

Using a planning wheel, Cris and Debbie will show how they plan first for what kids will read, write, and talk about, and next, they’ll share how they consider what kids will need from them in order to be successful.

Rethinking Comprehension Across the Curriculum

The real world is rich, fascinating and compelling. Our kids live in the real world--so let’s make sure our instruction across all curricular areas reflects this. In classrooms that teach comprehension across the curriculum, students ask questions, synthesize information and discuss perspectives as they explore and generate new ideas every day..

Content literacy practices need to be thinking and learning intensive. (Harvard College, 2007). Reading to learn and comprehending content aren’t passive activities. Kids are actively responding to what they read by talking, writing, investigating and creating. To build intrigue, knowledge and understanding, students read, learn about and interact with the mysteries, questions, discoveries, events, issues and drama that are the real stuff of science, social studies, history and other content subjects.

Content instruction too often takes a back seat on the curricular bandwagon. And sometimes those time-worn content subjects are mostly about answering questions at the end of the passage or chapter, or cramming information for Friday’s quiz. Instead, let’s be sure that kids understand the difference between information and knowledge. If we don’t think about information, it’s merely information in, information out. Kids construct meaning by thinking as they read, listen, write and view, turning information into knowledge. This session will highlight practices in content instruction that teach kids to be aware of their thinking, think strategically, and, most importantly, recognize the power of their own thinking and ideas.