Reading Skills

 

Reading is the foundation of all that your child will learn in school, not just this year, but in all the grades to come. Because reading is so important, I try to instill a love for reading by making reading fun and exciting. Students will read a variety of high interest reading materials that tie in with the reading textbook as well as materials that relate to what we are studying in Science and Social Studies.

My goals are to expose your child to a wide variety of literature, to develop comprehension strategies, and to teach children how to read material that becomes increasingly harder.

Students need strong reading skills in order to learn in all other school subjects, such as science, history, writing, and even math. The third grade reading Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) requires students to read stories that are about 350 words long and correctly answer questions about what they have read. It also requires them to be able to use charts, graphs, maps, and other materials to gather information to correctly answer questions.

Guided Reading

We are using the MacMillan/McGraw Hill Reading textbook. Teacher-directed Guided Reading lessons focus on comprehension. Your child will learn about characters, setting, and plot. Your child will also learn how to organize and compare information learned from informational text.

During Guided Reading, comprehension strategies are explicitly taught in teacher-directed lessons, and are applied as students read the selections in the reading textbook. During the reading of every selection, strategic reading is modeled by the teacher and applied by the students.

Self-Selected Reading

We spend at least 30 minutes every day in Self-Selected Reading. During this time, students read by themselves and to themselves. They choose books appropriate to their reading level that they want to read from a wide variety of book available in the classroom, a book from home, or a book from the library. The purpose of Self-Selected Reading is to build fluency in reading, to allow students to read and enjoy text that is appropriate to their own reading level, and to build confidence in students as readers. Time spent reading materials at the "just right" level is important for reading growth.

Once each week, I will have an individual conference with your child during our Self-Selected Reading time. The major purpose of the reading conference is to encourage and support your child's independent reading. During this conference, I will listen to your child read, and assess and monitor comprehension.

Accelerated Reader

Every student participates in the Accelerated Reader program. Through this program, children read a variety of books on their reading level, which is established by taking the STAR Reading test during the first two weeks of school. Look for a copy of the test results to come home in your child's folder.

After reading the book carefully, the student takes a comprehension quiz on the computer. The quiz is scored and immediate feedback is given to your child. Points are accumulated for each correct answer and prizes are awarded for different levels of points. Of course, the greatest prize for your child is improved comprehension!

Reading Homework

Research has shown the importance of reading at home daily. Each student is expected to read at home for at least 20 minutes a night during the week. Your child can read independently, with you, or you may choose to read parts of the book to your child. The important part is to just READ!

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read quickly, smoothly, and accurately. Fluent reading has been shown to increase comprehension. Fluent reading frees students to focus their mental energy on comprehension. The less mental energy used in trying to sound out the words, the more mental energy available to understand what is being read. Fluency is important to comprehension because the meaning of a written passage comes from understanding phrases, not individual words. Fluent reading is also expressive reading. Because reading with expression requires comprehension, children who try to read expressively must also try to comprehend.

Each week, students will be given a short passage of about 100 words to practice reading. On Monday, they will be timed to determine the number of words they can read correctly in one minute. The same passage will be practiced repeatedly during the week. On Friday, students will be timed for one minute on the same passage to measure improvement. Emphasis is placed on reading with correct phrasing and expression--not flying through the passage like an auctioneer! In third grade, students should read about 80 to 100 correct words per minute on a third grade passage.

Grades

The report card grade is a combination of oral reading, comprehension and vocabulary quizzes, unit tests, book reports, and special projects.At the end of each weekly story, there will be a graded Selection Assessment with 10 multiple choice questions and a Comprehension Assessment with 10 written response questions at the end of each story from the reading book. Reading tests are usually given every Friday.

About every 5 weeks, we will have a Reading Unit Test consisting of 25 multiple choice questions. In addition, the Mid-Year test is given at the end of the first reading book, usually at the end of the first semester.