Reading is all about understanding. How do we know our kids are getting it—and what do we do when they don’t get it?

Authors Juli Kendall and Outey Khuon believe that small group comprehension lessons have a key role to play in advancing students' understanding of texts. Making Sense: Small-Group Comprehension Lessons for English Language Learners, they provide answers to many common questions asked by teachers of ELL. It is an easy-to-use, practical resource for ELD, ESL, and ESOL teachers. The book's five main sections are geared to the stages of language proficiency, and lessons span kindergarten through grade 8. The authors outline 52 lessons that teach students how to make connections, visualize, infer, and determine importance. Each lesson follows a four-part teaching framework:

Start Up/Connection

Helping students build background and use prior knowledge to connect to the lesson

Give Information

Explicitly telling students what they are going to learn and why they are learning it

Active Involvement

Students practice what they are learning while the teacher monitors and adjusts instruction accordingly

Off-You-Go!

Opportunities for students to practice what they learned with peers or independently.

Making Sense will appeal to experienced teachers seeking to expand their repertoire of lessons, as well as new teachers just beginning the adventure of teaching comprehension to English language learners.