Skills vs. Strategies

What is the difference between skills and strategies in the Trophies lesson plan? This chart outlines those differences.

Skill / Strategy
These are automatic procedures that do not require thought, interpretation, or choice. / A strategy is a conscious plan under the control of the reader, who must make decisions about what strategies to use and when to use them.
Skills are product-oriented, observable behaviors such as answers to questions, answers on tests, skills lists, and taxonomies. / Strategies are process-oriented, cognitive operations the reader engages in, generally thought to be unobservable.
Skills instruction stresses repeated practice in applying skills until they become habitual responses to particular tasks. / Strategy instruction stresses the reasoning process readers go through as they interact with and comprehend text: how the strategies one uses change when one reads different texts or reads for different purposes.
Strategy instruction teachers what to do with a skill, how and why to use it, and why it is important.
Strategy instruction focuses on ways to help students understand what they read.

Focus Skills and Focus Strategies

Focus Skill

Reading skills are taught in Trophies because they build reading comprehension. Specific skills are taught before, during, and after reading the selection. Each skill is introduces, reviewed, and maintained. Students have the opportunity to practice and apply the skills to become skillful readers. A Focus Skill is introduced and developed in each selection found in Trophies. These Focus Skills are identified on the 5-day planner with objectives for each selection. The Focus Skill can be easily traced because of the Skill Trace box found in the margins of the lesson plans in the Teacher’s Edition. The box includes the skill, the page numbers where it is introduced, reteach activity pages, review pages, activity pages to maintain the skill, and a test page for tested skills.

Focus Strategy

A reading strategy is developed in each selection found in Trophies. A list of these strategies is located in the front of the Teacher’s Edition and Pupil Edition (grades 2-6). There are 10 reading Focus Strategies (Strategies Good Readers Use) taught in Trophies. Each strategy is a plan that helps students monitor their own reading. As students become better readers, they are better able to comprehend the selections because of application of the Focus Strategy. Reading strategies are not developed automatically. Before student read stories and articles independently, teachers model strategic reading and thinking behaviors. These modeled strategies teach students to construct meaning when reading. A good repertoire of strategies builds flexibility in how student read. They can learn a variety of approaches to reading no matter what the text.

Focus Skills and Focus Strategy Lessons

Grade 1

Story / Focus Skill / Focus Strategy
The Hat / Sequence / Use Decoding/Phonics
Sam and the Bag / Predict Outcomes / Reread Aloud
Ants / Details / Use Decoding/Phonics
Jack and Rick / Sequence / Make and Confirm Predictions
Todd’s Box / Draw conclusions / Make Inferences
All That Corn / Sequence / Self-Correct
Dan’s Pet / Setting / Create Mental Images
Boots for Beth / Cause/Effect / Sequence Events/Summarize
Space Pup / Cause/Effect / Reread
Where Do Frogs Come From? / Details / Look for Word Bits and Parts
Try Your Best / Character / Self-Correct
Fun with Fish / Details / Reread Aloud
I Am a Butterfly / Predict Outcomes / Look for Word Bits and Parts
Did You See Chip? / Setting / Make Inferences
Tomás Rivera / Character / Sequence Events/Summarize
On the Way to the Pond / Setting / Read Ahead
Friends Forever / Fact/Fiction / Reread
The Fox and the Stork / Character / Make and Confirm Predictions
A Bed Full of Cats / Alphabetize / Make and Confirm Predictions
Me on the Map / Classify/Categorize / Sequence Events/Summarize
At Home Around the World / Classify/Categorize / Look for Word Bits and Parts
Tell Me a Story / Alphabetize / Create Mental Images
My Robot / Fantasy/Reality / Reread Aloud
On the Job with Dr. Martha Smith / Classify/Categorize / Read Ahead
Little Bear’s Friend / Alphabetize / Create Mental Images
Busy Buzzy Bee / Cause/Effect / Reread
The Story of a Blue Bird / Plot / Look for Word Bits and Parts
Frog and Toad All Year / Cause/Effect / Reread
Fishing Bears / Main Idea / Self-Correct
How to Be a Nature Detective / Main Idea / Read Ahead
The Puddle / Plot / Make Inferences
Poppleton Everyday / Predict Outcomes / Use Decoding/Phonics
Sleep Is for Everyone / Main Idea / Make Inferences
Baboon / Plot / Sequence Events/Summarize

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