Instructional Playbook

Clarifying Bookmark

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Overview Develop students’ capacity to monitor and resolve their own reading comprehension challenges. Instructional Purpose As students work with grade-level text, they will frequently encounter text that is challenging or unclear. Clarifying Bookmarks build awareness of what happens during these challenges (metacognition) and provides support (i.e., formulaic expressions) that helps students resolve their challenge. Materials/Set-Up Grade-level text (short passage or chunked text) Choose and print a Clarifying Bookmark for each student (or pair) Display sentence stems for reference Instructional Steps 1.Explain that strong readers notice when meaning breaks down and take action to repair it. Clarifying Bookmarks support this process by helping students name the challenge and use language to work through it. 2.Briefly model with a short paragraph 3.Place students in pairs 4.Assign or have students choose Partner A and Partner B 5.Ensure each pair has access to the text and a Clarifying Bookmark 6.Explain the Protocol 7.Partner A reads the first paragraph aloud and selects a strategy from “What you can do” and uses a sentence starter to reflect on meaning 8.Partner B listens and responds using a sentence starter from “What you can say” 9.Partners switch roles and repeat 10.Students continue alternating roles for each paragraph 11.Encourage partners to pause, think, and use the bookmark intentionally (not rush through reading) 12.Circulate to listen for use of language, clarity of thinking, and engagement 13.Prompt as needed (e.g., “What strategy are you using?” “Can you clarify your thinking?”) 14.Reinforce use of academic language and complete responses 15.Bring the group back together and ask: What did you notice when meaning broke down? Which strategies helped you most? How did your partner support your thinking? Access by Language Proficiency Level Entering (1) Emerging (2) Developing (3) Expanding (4)

Have Level 1 students work in a group of 3 to build confidence using English. Student can listen at first or choral read with one of the group members. Provide visuals with vocabulary, word banks and translated bookmarks if needed.

Pair with a supportive peer. Provide word banks. If needed, allow oral responses in the home language.

Encourage complete sentences and offer feedback to expand or clarify ideas. Pair with a peer at a slightly higher level for language modeling.

Challenge students to combine sentence starters or go beyond the bookmark. Ask them to rephrase or summarize a partner’s response. Invite them to model for peers or facilitate small group discussions.