There are two things that need to happen for children to become readers:
Develop curiosity and interest in topics and stories
Develop skill sets to successfully read words.
Our studies and expectations aim to help children grow in these areas throughout their third grade year.
Our Literacy instructional block includes word study, grammar, reading comprehension, topical writing.
At Home
To support your child at home, help them to find the space and time to read every day. They will have access to library books from school to bring home to enjoy each week. Every student should read for at least 20 minutes every day.
Find Children's Choice (link) books lists from the International Literacy Association.
9 Components of Effective Reading Instruction (link) This article linked to above briefly explains the skill areas students will be working with this year in the area of Literacy.
Our course of study centers around these major themes:
Choosing 'just right' books
Building stamina for reading
Understand Characters in fiction text
Determine main idea and details in nonfiction text
Theme
Understand author's purpose
Recognize and interpret Figurative language
Study vocabulary, sound patterns for decoding and spelling
Home Extensions:
Read a novel out loud, discuss character actions and words. Discuss words that describe the character's personality.
Talk about what you are reading - how you are enjoying a story or finding information in text that is interesting or helpful to you.
Purchase a madlibs game to continue to practice Parts of Speech. These are fun to do as a family!
Have your child keep a journal to write brief descriptions of events in their day - these can be jumping off points for personal narrative writing.