Reading

Below are some some great comprehension questions you can use to help your child after they read their book. Choose a couple of different questions each day to really get them to think and understand what they are reading! Reading for understanding is the goal!

Here are some great questions for FICTION texts:

*What did the story remind you of?

*How are the characters like those in other stories you’ve read?

*Describe the setting of the story.

*How much time passes in the story?

*Who is the main character? How do you know?

*Did any characters change? How? Why?

*What was the most important part of the story?

*What was the problem or conflict?

*How was the problem solved?

*What was the big idea or lesson in the story?

Here are several more...

· Start at the beginning and tell me what happened in this story.

· What was your favorite part of the story and why?

· What is the author trying to tell you in this story?

Here are some great questions for NONFICTION texts:

Before Reading:

*What do you already know about this topic?

*What are the ways the author presents information on this topic?

*How is the information organized?

*Read the table of contents-what will you find out about?

During and After the Reading:

*Did you learn any new words? What were they?

*Were there any pictures and captions?

*What are the bold or colorful headings or words?

*What new things did you learn?

*What amazing facts did you learn?

*Were there charts or maps or graphs? What did they tell you?

Happy Reading!!

Guided Reading

As we begin Guided Reading instruction this year, we wanted to share the components all students will be doing with their book during Guided Reading groups. Please remember, your child will keep their book until all these components are taught before they will receive a new book.

Components:

-Introduce book and new vocabulary

-Read the text

-Word Work

-Writing

-Comprehension activities

-Fluency

So just how important is having your child read every day ? William Nagy in Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Reading Comprehnsion (1988) wrote this:

When students engage in 25 minutes of focused reading a day, they learn an estimated 750-1500 new words a year through this practice alone. Literate high school graduates need to conceptually understand at least 60,000 words. The average student enters school with about 5000 words. Thus they need to learn abut 4000 words a year or 70 words a week.

Reading each and every day is very important! In first grade we ask that your child read 10 minutes a night, but as you can see, that short amount of time is immensely important and beneficial. Thank you all for your hard work and support at home!

These are reading behaviors to notice and support at home in your reading time with your child.

-Uses pictures to predict, check, and confirm their comprehension and word recognition

-Controls 1-1 matching (reading word to word), and left-right directionality across several lines of print

-Begins to track print with eyes

-Uses pictures and words to predict meaning

-Checks illustrations with print

-Uses known words as anchors

-Rereads to solve problems, such as figuring out new words

-Demonstrates awareness of punctuation (some phrasing)

Recognizes known words quickly and uses them to figure out the meaning of new words

-Searches for understanding while reading