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 5

Story / Focus Skill / Focus Strategy
The Hot and Cold Summer / Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots / Make and Confirm Predictions
Sees Behind Trees / Narrative Elements / Create Mental Images
Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family / Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots / Self Question
Dear Mrs. Parks / Make Judgments / Use Text Structure and Format
Elena / Narrative Elements / Read Ahead
We’ll Never Forget You, Roberto Clemente / Draw Conclusions / Adjust Reading Rate
Folk Tales from Asia / Summarize and Paraphrase / Use Context to Confirm Meaning
Iditarod Dream / Draw Conclusions / Read Ahead
Woodsong / Summarize and Paraphrase / Reread to Clarify
Island of the Blue Dolphins / Narrative Elements / Summarize
Everglades / Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots / Create Mental Images
Summer of Fire / Graphic Aids / Use Text Structure and Format
Oceans / Text Structure: Main Idea and Details / Adjust Reading Rate
Seeing Earth from Space / Graphic Aids / Reread to Clarify
The Case of the Flying-Saucer People / Text Structure: Main Idea and Details / Use Decoding/Phonics
Hattie’s Birthday Box / Word Relationships / Self-Question
William Shakespeare & the Globe / Fact and Opinion / Adjust Reading Rate
The world of William Joyce Scrapbook / Word Relationships / Use Text Structure and Format
Satchmo’s Blues / Fact and Opinion / Read Ahead
Evelyn Cisneros: Prima Ballerina / Text Structure: Main Idea and Details / Summarize
Off and Running / Text Structure: Compare and Contrast / Use Context to Confirm Meaning
Little by Little / Author’s Purpose and Perspective / Self-Question
Dear Mr. Henshaw / Text Structure: Compare and Contrast / Make and Confirm Predictions
Frindle / Author’s Purpose and Perspective / Use Decoding/Phonics
The Fun They Had / Draw Conclusions / Summarize
Across the Wide Dark Sea / Connotation/Denotation / Create Mental Images
Name This American / Cause and Effect / Make and Confirm Predictions
What’s the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? / Connotation/Denotation / Reread to Clarify
Lewis and Clark / Cause and Effect / Use Decoding/Phonics
Black Frontiers / Summarize and Paraphrase / Use Context to Confirm Meaning

1