Building Reading Skills Through Collaboration

Mrs. Sullivan and Mrs. Studdert’s second grade students strengthened their reading comprehension skills during a close read of Picture Day Perfection, focusing on identifying internal and external character traits.

Using a QTEL Double Entry Journal, students worked in expert groups to read assigned pages and record evidence of either internal traits, which describe character’s thoughts, feeling, and personality, or external traits which describe a character’s physical appearance. After completing their assigned readings, students partnered with their shoulder partners to share their findings and use their classmates’ expertise to complete their journals. Through this collaborative learning experience, students practiced close reading, gathering evidence from text, and deepening their understanding of how authors develop characters.