The book 7 Keys to Comprehension by Susan Zimmermann and Chryse Hutchins is a powerful read that I would recommend for both teachers and parents that want to encourage reading for enjoyment and understanding. This book is simply written and well organized making it an easy read for teachers and parents. The book outlines the 7 key strategies that good readers use in order to create meaning. The seven key strategies are:
1.Sensory Images (creating mental images)
2. Background Knowledge
3. Questioning
4. Drawing Inferences
5. Determining Importance
6. Synthesizing
7. Fix-Up Strategies

What I really like about this book is that each chapter is designated to one of the key strategies, making it easy to look up and refer back to. Inside each chapter the authors discuss each strategy and why it is important to reading success. The authors also provide examples of how to help children at varying levels (preschool, emerging, and advanced) with each strategy. As a teacher, one of my favorite things about each individual chapter is that a list of picture books and more advance books is given to use when working on the specific strategy. I also like that at the end of each chapter, tips are provided to highlight the main idea of the chapter and simple ideas to implement the strategy are detailed.

When I was teaching first and second grade, this book was always on my bookshelf because it was so easy to pick up and refer back to when I had students that were struggling. Since each chapter included a "crafting session" that gave examples on how to launch the strategy and and follow up questions to use afterwards, this book became a helpful guide for myself when creating lessons focused on the key elements of comprehension. This was also a book that I had shared with my coworkers and parents because the strategies are used in every grade on some level and are not geared specifically for classroom use, but also for parents to use at home while reading with their children. Many times parents would ask me how they could help their child with reading and I would often lend them this book or give them strategies from this book to use at home.

In lower elementary so much time is spent on decoding skills and learning to read the words, but a huge part of reading is comprehension and although students may appear to be good readers, they may still be struggling to make meaning from the text. 7 Keys to Comprehension does a fantastic job of providing simple to use strategies that build on all aspects of reading.

Zimmerman, S., & Hutchins, C. (2003). 7 keys to comprehension: How to help your kids read it and get it. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.

http://www.amazon.com/Keys-Comprehension-Help-Your-Kids/dp/0761515496

Terri, when I taught 2nd grade I did readers theatre with my class and they really did enjoy it. It is a great way to encourage good reading and work on what good readers do.