Our first unit of study in reading is metacognition. We want the children to turn their reading focus from "figuring out the words" to figuring out the author's message. We have used strategies like "Stop and say something" (The students stop after every two-page spread to think about what the story was about.) and trying to figure out the author's "big idea". The big idea is a hidden "life lesson" the author is trying to share with his or her reader. As readers we have to be good detectives, using the clues the author has given us and our own life experiences to figure out the big idea.