In the past I struggled to effectively involve my whole class authentically in retelling, inferring, and identifying author’s message because the ranges of reading levels and English proficiency were so vast that it was hard to find a text we could all connect with.  Picture books came to the rescue of course and have been (and remain) a great go-to resource.  However, I am forever grateful to my former colleague @kacey_molloy for introducing me to The Literacy Shed.  Thank you!  Through the site I have been able to find tons of animated shorts that help me teach many a reading comprehension strategy without actually ever reading a single word.  All the animated shorts are wordless (no language barrier), suitable for a range of skills like retelling, predicting, inferring, identifying the main message, etc., and short (usually less than 3 minutes).

Here is one of my faves for author’s message …

This is also very popular in my class (especially when linked to the theme of playground issues) …

Or this for a concise verbal retelling …

Give it a try, and once you start playing around with animated shorts as a tool to help  all the readers in your classroom –  you too will be hooked!