Reading
Expository Genre: A non-fiction text that provides factual information about a topic using a clear (non-narrative) organizational structure with a major topic and supporting information. The purpose of an expository text is to communicate information about a topic using facts and details.
Students are using various strategies to understand the expository texts they read such as previewing text features, making connections to increase interest, asking questions to help us learn what the author intends, and determining the meaning of unknown words
Fiction Genre Study
Students are working to identify the theme or message of a work of fiction. Theme must be inferred and is a lesson for the real-world.
Ask how a character changes throughout a story; pay attention to the actions, thoughts, and words of the character.
Discuss what characters learn in books, tv shows, and movies. Then talk about how the lesson applies to your child or people in general
We are using literal (stated in the text) and inferential (reading between the lines) to see how character actions influence future events.
Discuss what character traits a character has based on his or her actions, thoughts, and words.
Ask your child to predict what might happen later due to what the character just did.
Talk about what happened before the current event that caused the character to act a certain way now in the story.
Students will create mental images to help them analyze characters and how they change.
Ask what words helped them create mental images as they read.
Discuss why the author choose certain words or phrases.
Talk about who is telling the story; is a character telling the story (first person) or an unknown narrator (third person).
Students will use meta cognitive (thinking about their own thinking) skills to discuss how characters change throughout a book. They will use coding marks to make thinking visible and will also work to summarize the big events in a book that impact character changes and interactions.
To help your child you could:
Ask about the coding marks they use as they read.
Talk about how characters in books, movies, and TV shows interact with each other and how that changes the characters.
Discuss how the major events impact characters in books, movies, and TV shows.
Conversation Starters:
Tell me about something you liked in a book today.
Tell me something that was difficult or you did not like during reading today.
Describe how you get ready for your independent reading time.
How did you challenge yourself in reading today?
How were you successful as a reader today?
Here are some websites to explore as a family to help your child in reading:
· http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/
Click here to find out about online resources available to FISD students
o book wizard: find books at your child’s current reading level
· http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/
· http://reading.ecb.org/student/index.html?login=
o Practice Comprehension Strategies
o Comprehension Questions Organized by Genre
STAAR_Reading_Formatted_Question_Stems.pdf