• Reading Incentives and Suggestions

    Reading

    Our class reading incentive plan: Every nine-weeks students will set an individual reading goal. Students will be taught how to monitor and meet their goal. I try to send a copy of their record in every week's Thursday folder so you can also help them monitor it. Each student that receives their point goal, as well as has an overall average of 80 percent or above on the books they read and test upon, will be allowed to participate in a celebration at the end of the nine week's period. You will be hearing about these celebrations throughout the year.

    Here are some suggestions on how to help your child be successful in reading:
     
    Read with your child often. Take turns reading a page or chapter from their chapter book. Ask each other questions about what was just read to help with comprehension. Encourage them to test on the book just as soon as they are done.

    Model the joy of reading for your child by choosing something you are interested in to read.  What is your child interested in? What do they wonder about? Getting books they are enthused about will motivate them to read and develop a love for reading.

    Have your child show you how to use their Reading Card. They should be doing this every couple of pages. Note, we start the reading card around October.

    Encourage them to read one chapter book at a time so they don't get mixed up in stories.  Keep in mind, I am reading aloud to them in class from a different class story and you may be reading aloud to them from an additional story at home, so this would already add up to 3 books at a time. Not to mention the class literature we will be using to develop reading skills. It is okay for them to read lots of picture books while they are reading chapter books. They don't seem to get the plots mixed up here. I just don't want them reading more than one chapter book on their own at a time.

    Many times students can be forgetful bringing their chapter book to and from school so they start a new one, therefore, don't finish the one they may have been half way through. Please help them get started on their new system of bringing their chapter book to and from school each day.

    Check their individual reading range on their goal sheet (BEAR Binder). Please help me monitor that they are reading independently in their level. If you are reading a book to them and discussing it as you go, the book can be above their level.

    If your child gets stuck on words, have them read the other words in the sentence and use their phonics tricks to figure out the word. This can help with the word meaning and pronunciation. Sometimes, they will need to use the whole sentences before and after the word.

    Ask your child about their book often. When they tell you about it, they are using a higher level of thinking which develops their comprehension even further.

    Ask them to predict what they think will happen next. This keeps them involved. 
     
          The following is taken from my Frequently-Asked-Question's Page
     
    What is reading fluency and why must my child master it? Reading fluency is the ability to read text accurately and quickly. Fluent readers read silently and aloud effortlessly and with expression. They don't read slowly, word by word. Because fluent readers don't concentrate so much on the decoding of words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections between the text and their background knowledge. Students in 3rd grade are moving more into reading to learn instead of learning to read as in 1st and 2nd grade. 
     
    How can I help my child bring up his Accelerated Reading average so he can meet his nine-week's reading goal?
    A. Check the book levels they are reading. I will be monitoring this too but sometimes they slip in a book above their level and test on it. If students are reading books above their level, they will not be successful on the book tests. The whole idea behind setting them an individual reading range is so they can have success in books that are not too hard for them, as well as, not too easy for them.
     
    B.  Read the tab, "Reading Suggestions" in this web site and try them. If your child is still having a hard time remembering what she is reading, she can do a written story map. That is where they write down the main idea's of each chapter AS THEY GO. This should not be a major chore. They should just write a few sentences each time they read a new chapter. Before they take an AR test, they can read their story map. Even if these are not related to the AR questions, students get the story parts in the forefront of their mind before they test. I have found this helps with AR averages.
     
    C. Help me remind them to read at the lower end of their assigned reading range until their average increases. 
     
    D. Help me encourage them to stay away from non-fiction (true) books until they bring up their average.
     
    E. Have your child check out a picture book and test on it.  It must be in his or her reading level though. Most of the time, I want students to have a chapter book but occasionally they can read a picture book. There are many great picture books out there!